90’S Inspired Trends Have Never Looked So Good

The Nineties! 

The TV show, Friends! Britpop! Ace Ventura: Pet Detective! 

What a time to be alive, what a time Gen Z will never really understand.

The 90’s was a decade that gave us a host of fun, loud, brightly coloured pop culture. Most of which has since been cancelled by us much more forward-thinking 2020 utopians.

But the clothing fashions and trends of the 90’s are back in a big way.

Bart Simpson, The Spice Girls and The Fresh Prince were the icons de jour. Cheesy? Maybe, but flavorsome.

The culture of the day shook off the Cold War paranoia of the 1980’s, believing the future was optimistic and exciting. Yet it still cast an ironic sidelong glance and picked what it wanted from the styles of the past.

The twenty-first century is seeing every 90’s trend from Ugg boots to crop tops make a comeback. Let’s dig into what’s vibing now:

• Come as you are

Remember those carefree days when you didn’t have to curate every molecule of your existence through an omnipresent internet? Grunge and slacker culture does!

Grunge was the 90’s musical movement that thrived on its lack of definition. Other than not wanting to sell out to ‘The Man’, of course.

Bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam inspired a generation of youth to eschew the stylised shoulder pads of the 1980’. Instead, it was cooler to present themselves with an ‘I don’t care’ aesthetic. 

The uniform of the day was checked shirts, ripped jeans and bed hair.

Iconoclastic sportswear is another mainstay of slacker culture that has made a return in 2025.

This style was exemplified in Kevin Smith’s slacker culture films like Clerks and Mallrats.  Ice hockey style tees with a double layer were the activewear that you could sport with cool ironic detachment.

• There’s a hole in my bucket hat

While America was celebrating the art of slacking, across the pond, the UK was looking back. The Britpop movement gave a firm nod to the heyday of the swinging 1960’s. 

Indie bands like Blur and Oasis were raiding their parent’s wardrobes for zoot suits and mod loafers.

Emerging from the short-lived ‘Baggy’ scene led by The Stone Roses and their seminal debut album, Oasis built their look. Parkas and Beatle boots became fashionable again.

One item that was particularly omnipresent, and very 90’s, was The Bucket Hat.

Previously these were only worn by septuagenarian (70-year-old) crab fishermen off the shores of Alaska. In the 90’s you couldn’t walk down a street in London, Birmingham or Manchester without seeing hundreds of bucket-hatted Britpop fans.

This item of simple headwear has seen a huge resurgence in popularity in the 2020’s. Almost every fashion brand is getting in on the action.

LIDL bucket hat anyone? It’s made from recycled plastic bags don’tcherknow. Greta Thunberg would approve.

• Heroes in a half-shell suit

Pairing nicely with those bucket hats, was that very 90’s leisurewear, the shell suit. In the 90’s they came in an array of bright colours, often at the same time, and rarely matching.

You want a mint green and lilac one? Cowabunga dude!

With the advent of the slow fashion movement, these polyester ensembles are coming out of mothballs and back into our wardrobes. The shell suit with its rough’n’tumble meets chillout’n’relax attitude is exactly on zeitgeist for our contemporary attitudes.

Peace, we’re outie

It makes sense that the twenty-first century would take these trends of the past forward. Our new more environmentally conscious outlook makes it not only prudent but in style.

Picking through the trash strata of popular culture, digging for treasure is the order of the day. And these styles will keep coming back with new twists on them.

Why not see what Dad has in the wardrobe?

Hindsight is 2020. In this case it’s 2025. Don’t have a cow man. See you on the flippity-flip.