As I was helping my grandmother move into her new house this weekend, my aunt told me she came across some knee-high boots she had years ago that would probably fit me and were likely back in style.
The boots were already on their way to Goodwill, but it got me thinking about the circular nature of fashion and what trends our generation may pass on to the next.
Our generation borrows much of its style from the past, such as flare-leg jeans, the flowing, peasant look that is popular now and the long, tie around the waist sweaters that were a necessity last winter are reminiscent of the 1960s and ’70s.
Trends such as the three-quarter-length sleeve go back to the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Thinking about everything people wear today, fashion trends seem to reappear every 20 to 30 years. Which means by the time I am my mother’s age, young people likely will be looking back to the ’90s for fashion inspiration.
If in the off chance that 20 years from now my closet from junior high is back in style, fashion may be in serious trouble. I remember the 1990s as a plethora of fads I hope stay in the past for all eternity.
Instead of the neutral colors that fill the stores today, it was a time of bright colors and outlandish prints, likely held over from the ’80s.
It was a time when MC Hammer made genie pants – baggy by the waist and tight at the ankles – cool.
Blue jeans were not only blue. Instead of Abercrombie and Fitch or Gap, the jeans to have were Z. Cavaricci’s and Girbaud.
Then later on, for girls, Bongo became the label on everyone’s backside.
Nothing was hotter for a casual junior high dance than your favorite Bongos and body suit, the shirt that wore like a swimsuit.
It also is important to remember how we wore our jeans. Instead of cutting off the bottoms, it was all about the tight roll.
In the ’90s, Dillard’s sold Mossimo, not Target. And no one had heard of New Balance.
Before Gadzooks’ wall of humorously offensive tees, Hypercolor T-shirts were all the rage.
What could be more fashionable than everyone knowing when your body temperature changed by looking at the colors on your shirt?
I remember my metallic silver backpack purse before the small, short strapped purses women carry now.
Hairstyles for women went from the banana clips and side ponytails to headbands with prongs that held them tightly on your head to the almost-a-ponytail “dew drop” females wear today. If people did do the dew drop in the 1990s it was most likely with a scrunchie, not an Ouchless rubber band.
And while New Kids on the Block were at their heyday, so was the single skinny braid Jordan Knight wore at the back of his head near the neck.
Watch an old episode of Saved by the Bell for a trip down memory lane.
Those are styles I will laugh at in 10 years if VH1 makes “I love the 90s.”
It’s also the next decade of fashion waiting for its comeback.