Nothing screams 90s style more than the Chanel runway of 1994 by the mastermind Karl Lagerfeld. To this day, I look back on this runway and sit in awe at the design and work that was presented almost 26 years ago. The three trends that stick out amongst the 147 looks; bucket hats, slip dresses, and lingerie as outerwear, scream 90s and are back for a vengeance in 2020.
Bucket hats took the accessory market by storm popping up everywhere from department stores to the runways, "bucket hats give a decidedly '90s flair to headwear as they entered mainstream fashion and pop culture during the noughties. Since designers such as Michael Kors and Chanel began reintroducing the trend for Spring/Summer 2018, they have consistently appeared on catwalks during the following seasons" (Shaw, 2019).
The bucket hat first made its appearance back in the 60s on the iconic sitcom Gilligan's Island, fast forward a few years and the hat was adopted by the biggest rappers in the 90s and eventually trickled down into the mainstream market after it was adopted by the big players in the industry like Chanel (Kliest, 2019).
The slip dress was also a major trend of the 90s and is still seen today. Along with the slip dress, lingerie as outerwear goes hand in hand as many people wore corsets over their slip dresses combining both trends.
The slip dress has been an essential piece in many women closets for decades, "Not just for years, but for the better half of the last century (!), celebs and It girls have worn the same lingerie trend: slip dresses. From Marilyn Monroe in the '50s to Emily Ratajkowski in 2018, the slip dress trend has proven to be virtually immortal. What originally served as the inner lining to a gown is now a full-blown dress category" (Laplaca, 2018). Most recently, Kim Kardashian paid homage to Naomi Campbell recreating one of her iconic runway looks in a slip dress.
When it comes to specific lingerie such as bras and corsets, again the '94 runway showcased many examples of this new trend. While it originated back in the 90s alongside the slip dress (the slip dress in itself is considered to be lingerie) as decades have gone by the trend has become even more risky. During the Chanel runway, Lagerfeld began to push the envelope with high end bras as tops. Today, we see women in teddy bodysuits as tops and exposure of the nipple. Due to the increase in feminism and the free the nipple movement I feel like the trend began to take off again and became more extreme than when it was first introduced back in the 90s.
The 90s was truly an era of some of the greatest fashion trends, and nearly a quarter of a decade later these trends have begun to re-emerge making the '94 runway just as prevelant as it was 26 years ago.
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