The Freedom of the 90s

If there ever was a fashion time period that represented the times and the period I wish I was in longer than just 96 and beyond, it would have to be the defining decade of Generation X; the 90s. There was a style for everyone to take into consideration. Whether you liked the scruff look of grunge, or the flowery glitter montage of dELiA’s or Lisa Frank, you could have it your way. But I think I’ll go for the defining style of the hip hop boom.

Being so young during it, I had no idea of just how influential hip hop was on the world of fashion, but also on the message they wanted to get across. The style was everything that defines how the current generation wants to be seen. So much talk about gender neutrality and self definition, the 90s were the cultural renaissance of the decades to come. From Tommy Hilfiger to Versace, hip hop artists from the time made them bigger than they ever were. The style was a compromise between brand name and anything you could find at places like Sears or your parents’ closet. There was no one thing, but I can pick out a part that always made me see that there is nothing in style that hasn’t been done. People just refuse to accept that what we do now, isn’t anything new.

I’m talking about the baggy jeans, oversized shirts, HBCU hoodies, Timberland boots, and the cultural revolution of the true hip hop, rap, and gangsta rap music of the day. I look at pictures of TLC, Aaliyah, 2pac, Biggie, and anyone I can find in the 90s and revel at their fashion choices. The age of 90s hip hop was supposed to be anti establishment and give a big F you to the corporate lifestyle that everyone expected. This wasn’t the Yuppie era of the 80s. This was a brand new era that refused the lifestyle the ones before had idolized so much.

I love that it wasn’t about Instagram likes or the internet culture of fashion we have now. It was about being free and doing what you wanted. Girls and boys both had the same clothes on. It was comfortable, it was stylish, and it was so refreshing. I like that you could mix it up. Wear a crop top with some baggy jeans that had basketball shorts under it. Biker shorts with a hoodie and baseball jersey. Bandeau tops and baggy sweats. It was all about freedom from the white collar brand they were supposed to be setting themselves up for. They weren’t their parents. They weren’t the generation before. They were their own and they made a wave that still seems to be standard we can’t accomplish.

Back to when style didn’t have a label. Style had a genre. That genre had people that were willing to be their own and do their own. I want that. I could go from my queen, Mariah Carey, and her knitted bikini tops and low hipped jeans from Heartbreaker to TLC and their baggy duds from Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip. There was a wide range of styles within the black music industry of the 90s. I’m not saying there aren’t today, but they just don’t bring a flame in my heart and that longing of a time I never got to spend much in like the 90s. I can’t pick one style. If I have to say it, it’s just the style of black artists of the 90s. It was cultural. It was home. That’s how it always felt looking back on just what people who looked like me could accomplish and do to define a decade(even if it still is present to this day). I don’t think there will ever be another decade like the 90s. But if we could bring back any style, I would just say the 90s.