This is what I wore/accessorized with at various points during the '90s:
Jnco jeans
Doc Martens (I also had a generic pair of combat boots that I spray-painted in blue glitter)
Flannel shirts
Airwalk sneakers (which I eventually covered in duct tape just for the look of it)
Ball chain necklaces
My dad's old clothes from the late '70s and early '80s (men's dress pants, button-down shirts and a big brown leather peacoat-cut jacket with huge lapels)
Vintage '70s polo shirts
Vintage '70s polyester buttondowns in crazy prints (Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins used to wear these frequently, and I adored him)
Skate brand t-shirts and hoodies (Alien Workshop, Birdhouse, Hookups)
A vintage Charlie Brown metal lunchbox covered in stickers, white-out and nail polish
A Jansport backpack with band names drawn all over it in white-out and metallic marker
Band t-shirts (Smashing Pumpkins, again!)
Ringer t-shirts
T-shirts with brand logos (Wonder Bread, Reese's, etc.)
Nail polish in black, blue, green, purple or Hard Candy pastels, like robin's egg blue, or I'd just paint my nails with white-out
Black hair dye or pieces dyed with Kool-Aid or Jello (I was never brave enough to do my whole head in Manic Panic, but I knew a lot of people who did)
Rubber bracelets
Cargo pants
Suspenders worn hanging down
Homemade band shirts (plain Hanes t-shirt with band name written on it with fabric marker)
Homemade patches (drawing on a scrap of fabric that was then pinned to a hoodie or jacket)
Saddle shoes with a huge chunky sole and Doc Martens brogues
I realize this all sounds like guy's clothing, but as I remember it, many of my friends were into the grunge thing and no one dressed very feminine. This stuff is all mid-'90s, mostly.
The late '90s was a bit different -- I started dressing more like a girl, wearing lots of black sheer fabrics, long parachute skirts in techno fabrics, black chunky strappy sandals (Steve Madden was huge), slim pullover hoodie t-shirts, leopard print Sanuk flip-flops, plain cotton shirts with bell sleeves, cargo cropped pants, hoodie dresses, long wrap skirts in hippie prints, asymmetrical tops. Pants under skirts were also big then (a lot of stores sold a black skirt connected to black cropped pants), but I never wore them. That was when jeans moved from baggy to flared, and I also wore colorful socks with Birkenstocks in the winter! A lot of girls liked chunky white sneakers with stacked soles, but I always hated those.
everything was cut so awkwardly, with those two darts in the back and the front...and lots of seams..uh-uh
for a while they were only (barely) acceptable during pregnancies. save Berkeley and some parts of SF where they seem to hold on. rarely in Paris.
advanced apologies to the world.
