Fashion fading
"Just as the Bauhaus was committed to the relentless pursuit of pure form, today's minimalists, from Jil Sander to Calvin Klein, are pursuing the same goal.
Fashion has never been so uncritical. Designers like Calvin Klein, Helmut Lang and Prada seized on the momentum of the fashion swing, moving away from the ultra-lavish and over-the-top fashion trends of the 1980s.
For minimalists in the 1990s, fashion in its purest form was the most precious. Dresses without seams, practical button-up tops, shades of black, white, navy and, if feeling lively, light tones with marzipan tones. There are very few patterns, and the look is as if fashion has never been involved.
Fashion fantasy
Designers are obsessed with nostalgia and wanderlust
As the decade approached Y2K, 90s fashion became nostalgic. Designers refer to sleeves from the 1880s, diagonal cuts from the 1930s and haute couture craftsmanship from the 1950s. In addition to the fusion of these eras, a variety of clothing inspirations from around the globe were also added to the mix.
Ethnic costumes and folk fashions from all over the world are everywhere. The exponent of this style is John Galliano, who founded his own label in 1986.
By 1995, he was designing for Givenchy, but it wasn't until 1997, when he landed at Dior, that Galliano's fashion fantasies really took off. Meanwhile, Alexander McQueen, which founded its own label in 1992, fuses fashion history with natural history to dress women through a kind of curio window.
Rifat Ozbek, who launched the acclaimed all-white collection in 1990, references Western headwear and is a model of fantasy style. So did Vivienne Westwood, celebrating all things Victorian in her Anglomania collection, which Dries Van Noten cleverly combined prints and patterns, Jean Paul Gaultier continued his charm with his "Les Tatouages" tattoo collection in spring/summer 1994.
The arrival of the digital Age
Fashion enters the online world
The advent of the web and digital photography has influenced fashion in a pleasant way. Although Fashion technology has advanced significantly in fiber technology, introducing innovations such as micro-modular fabrics and silicon-coated fibers, fashion also delights in the concept of a global information network. "With the advent of the millennium in mind, designers infused this web style with their own vision of a mix of high-tech and primitive,"
Although this look doesn't really require advanced technology, it is full of futuristic feeling. Thierry Mugler spearheaded the fashion frontier with his Fall/Winter 1995 collection, which featured a series of sexy artificial biorobots.
Rifat Ozbek has created a tribal jeweled calculator necklace that is the ultimate fashion accessory for post-apocalyptic style. Hussein Chalayan launched several collections that promoted this new aesthetic. Jil Sander has designed some stylish space-age version 2.0 aluminum foil uniforms.
On screen, 1997's "The Fifth Element" was designed by Jean Paul Gaultier and featured Milla Jovovich in flamboyant costumes, while 1999's "The Matrix" added drama to the expression of fashion in the Internet age.
Hip-hop female singers are emerging
In 1991, TLC came along and brought a whole new look. In the early '90s, TLC continued the hip-hop style of the 1980s with bright neon lights, parachute pants, and oversized jeans to which condoms were securely pinned to promote safe sex.
Considering that they are mimicking the fashion of male rappers, this look is very tomboy. As the group matured, they began to wear form-fitting clothing, such as metal sports bras with pants and sheath dresses.
In 1996, Aaliyah was chosen to be the face of Tommy Hilfiger's Tommy Jeans campaign, wearing an off-shoulder top with loose-fitting, multicolor pants that revealed the Tommy Hilfiger underwear girths.
By 1998, Destiny's Child was founded and soon set the fashion trend. In 1997, Kimora Lee Simmons launched Baby Phat to promote the hip hop lifestyle to anyone who wanted to try the image.
