In retrospect, the 90s seem like a glorious age for the Game Boy! The Spice Girls are back! The Parenting Catch-22! The last generation without a cell phone!—especially when it comes to ’90s fashion. Scrunchies, acid-wash jeans, tube tops, and capri pants, as well as crimped hair, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and punk music, ruled supreme. It was a great period, made even more glorious by the A-listers and supermodels who blithely wore their ’90s best on the red carpet and out and about, confident that they would never have to look back on these legendary looks with anything but pride.
The ’90s were an exciting time for fashion on and off the red carpet, with everything from biker-chic leather jackets to slick slip dresses. Celebrities such as Naomi Campbell, Winona Ryder, Halle Berry, and Gwyneth Paltrow helped to define the culture by elevating casual aesthetics. Throughout the decade leading up to Y2K, there were plenty of sultry and daring silhouettes. Who can forget Princess Diana’s sultry off-the-shoulder gown, dubbed “the revenge dress,” or Mariah Carey’s slit-skirted gown? Punchy designs, from preppy plaids to wild animal prints, defined the decade alongside eye-catching cuts. In commemoration of this tumultuous period in fashion history, we took a trip down memory lane and compiled a list of 35 memorable ’90s celebrity styles that have influenced fashion to this day.
Unfortunately, some of these looks…hit a little differently in the year of our Lord 2022. On the other side, these outfits demonstrate how heavily the 1990s affected some of today’s most popular styles. So, instead of wondering how 1990 can be as far away from the present day as 2050 (! ), sit back and enjoy these styles, which represent the very best (if “best” is the proper term) of ’90s fashion.
