My Favorite Runway Looks From The ‘90s
PC: @firstVIEW, Gucci
I often talk about ‘90s this, ‘90s that, and how many of our favorite looks now are just cut, hemmed, and upcycled versions of popular styles from three decades ago. But then I thought: how much of ‘90s fashion do I actually know? Did I sit front row at a Versace show in 1995? No. I was just getting pushed out into the world at that time. And while I do feel highly influenced by the trends that trickled into the early 2000s, which originated in the ‘90s, I wanted to dive into the archives and see what was actually going down the runway during one of fashion’s most pivotal times.
Thanks to the help of Vogue Runway and firstVIEW, I was able to see the collections that defined ‘90s fashion. I spent hours clicking through photos and saving my favorite ‘90s runway looks before I finally understood what made this decade so crucial to the fashion scene today. Brands everywhere still draw inspiration from Calvin Klein’s iconic Spring/Summer 1995 runway, and Tom Ford’s first and second collections at Gucci hold such a chokehold on designers everywhere that we still witness near-identical looks at fashion weeks as recent as the one that just passed.
But I was also pleased to find that I actually like today’s fashion more than the styles back then. If ’90s runway was the bread and butter, fashion today has added the jam, the avocado with the pepper flakes, the ricotta cheese under the cooked blackberries. It took me some time to collect my favorites because many of them were quite simple—the ones below stood out as breathtaking, literally hand-to-chest “wow” ensembles.
To be fair, I’m biased toward the simple, minimalist designs—you can obviously find bright, maximalist looks by Versace, Vivienne Westwood, and Chanel. But to me, 90s quiet luxury serves as the crucial foundation that we base everything off of now, and that’s what this story will focus on.
This is the era of the original “sleek and sexy.” It showcased the “modern woman,” the working woman, the blazers, the pantsuits, and the pencil skirts! Styles that continue to dominate runway now.
The ‘90s also solidified black as fashion’s it-color. But I did notice that some of the hues we love now, like red and butter yellow, made frequent appearances on models even back then. There were designers I wanted to love (as they are staples in my closet now), but failed to find any great pieces from the ‘90s. Then there were the obvious stand-outs, like the Prada’s Spring/Summer 1995 collection. And designers I truthfully don’t like now, and apparently wouldn't have liked then (my lips are sealed on which those are).
Below, a full curation of my absolute favorite ‘90s runway looks that I would wear today in a heartbeat.
