Sometimes, we look back on fashion trends and miss them. Sometimes, we look back and wonder what on earth we were thinking when we not only walked out in public wearing that, but were 100% convinced we looked cool.
From double denim in the early 2000s to platform shoes in the 1990s, we’ve fallen for some really weird fashion trends touted as ‘cool’. Take a trip down memory lane with us…
Take the underwear and put it on the outside!
There’s a reason underwear is called underwear. Subverting its intended purpose was hardly an earthshattering leap of creative thought, but it happened all the same. It was Madonna who made underwear as outerwear famous in the nineties with her cone-shaped corset designed by Jean Paul Gaultier (thankfully, this garment never met the high street). Lindsay Lohan was also once seen on the catwalk with a black corset top layered over a white shirt — paired with a bootcut jean of course. In 2018, we’ve seen the Kardashians bring the trend back with a ‘mini corset’ worn around the waist to show off curves over a loose shirt dress. Other celebrity influencers have also taken on the trend, although they’re not as big as some of the trends we’ve seen.
A slightly-less weird fashion trend came in the form of denim overalls. A low-maintenance look made famous by the Fresh Prince and other nineties celebs. If you wanted to look uber cool, you’d wear it with one strap undone.
Keep it short
The nineties and noughties were the Age of Cropped Pants. For a jean — pedal pushers were definitely in and they were either denim or a pale pastel shade. This denim trend was rocked by fashionistas at the time including the Spice Girls and Christina Aguilera. It seems this one is coming back around too, with many celebrities sporting their designer cropped jeans – Jennifer Lawrence wore them with heels and a sheer top for Dior’s SS17 Paris show and Selena Gomez has been spotted in a pair, teamed with patent loafers and a casual white shirt.
We also loved cropped combat trousers. British girl band, All Saints, was a fan of this fad and rocked cargo pants, crop tops (having your midriff on show in the 90s was compulsory too, apparently) and trainers with the tongue out of the trouser leg.
Another icon of this time were two-piece tracksuits. It was Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and Paris Hilton who started this trend off. Britney even had her bridal party dressed in two-piece tracksuits ahead of her wedding to Kevin Federline. Then, they became slightly over-worn by more Z-list celebs and fell off the radar…
An apology letter to our feet…
Dear feet. We’re sorry. We’re sorry for pottering about on platform shoes and trainers, trying not to twist our ankles. Platformed trainers were a big trend, again started by every girl’s fashion icons — the Spice Girls. Whether they were white tennis shoes, lace-up boots or sandals, they had to have a huge platform to allow you to stomp around. We’ve seen this trend return with Rihanna’s range of Puma platformed trainers and (for something more alternative) Gucci’s rainbow platform metallic sneakers that are currently on sale.
Dear feet. We’re also sorry for jelly shoes. Those deceptive, soft, jelly shoes that turned out to be tiny torture devices in the sun, bringing nothing but blisters. It is thought that they were invented due to a leather shortage during World War II, leading to a French shoemaker creating shoes from plastic. This is one of the trends that has come and gone throughout the years, with a surge of the shoes in 2002 and another rise to popularity in 2009.
Of course, fashion trends have a way of coming back as ‘vintage’ trends; maybe we’ll be pairing our high waisted jeans with matching denim jackets again before long. And, there’s bound to be many more fads to come that we’ll cringe at before buying into.