Return of the ‘90s trends

If you grew up in the 1990s you are officially not young. This is the era of great music and bad fashion. And it is this bad fashion that now qualifies as vintage.

That means anything from TLC to Fresh Prince of Bel Air and right down to BabyFace.

All those clothes you saw in their music videos are now being reinterpreted. The 1990s fashion has been experiencing a revival for sometime now, but that does not mean digging out your Karl Kani overalls.

Following the spring/summer 2014 collections, it’s now called neo-90s.

The most obvious 1990s trend right now has to be the denim on denim look. Long considered a faux pas, it’s a must-have now, mixing different denim textures, shades and colours against each other.

And what about those ripped, grungy jeans? In case it escaped your attention, the jeans are loose and low riding, very casual.

Or the mid-riff baring crop tops that showed off flat bellies? As for shoes, if you have Doc Martens, Timberlands or combat boots, you’re definitely in.

Overalls for some reason endure because they seem to look great on other people, just not on the people who embrace it as a trend. In the 1990s Will Smith rocked it by unclipping one half of his overall, letting the bib fall half open.

Even now, cartoonish tee shirts with pops of colour are alive. But, for the modern woman, the best way to wear them would be through flourescent colours in shades such as tangerine, lime or green.

And it is a rather matchy matchy trend too. It is not about colour blocking. Now you get to match your accessories and your shoes, so if all that mix and match was messing with your head, breathe.

You can wear all luminous outfits with black shoes and a black purse.

Along with your combat boots are printed tights. If you were sick of opaque tights or all kinds of colours and fonts – I mean textures – you haven’t seen anything yet.

To make it worse, the trend of wrapping plaid flannels around the waist with a warm-coloured coat is here. It is done with shorts, slim fit skirts, high heels and anything that can wrap itself around your waist in a knot, regardless of its weight, design or bulk. Just because it’s cool.

You’re encouraged to dress down that way, transforming something formal into a casual look by adding a jacket around the waist. The 1990s fashion, like all bad fashion, really does come back to haunt us.

But picking and choosing what works for you is the only way to survive.