BLOG, WHAT TO WEAR
90s Fashion for Men – The Ultimate Guide
Style wasn’t predicted. When Don Draper was on TV ten years ago, chunky trainers, patterned tracksuits, dad jeans, and sweater vests were inconceivable menswear fads. Like the ’70s and ’80s, designers are reimagining the 90s, the decade fashion forgot. From Seinfeld to Britpop, colorful sportswear to boxy tailoring, 90s fashion is inspiring them.
Sportswear became popular, tie-dye made a surprise comeback, and regular-fit jeans became acceptable for date night in the nineties. Ripped jeans and thrift-store cardigans made Kurt Cobain a 90s style star. Not Mad Men.
We can’t see designers abandoning that low-effort style, which was the perfect antithesis to buttoned-up sartorialism. These men’s 90s ensembles are still stylish today. So, trust Teeanime!
SPORTSWEAR
Retro sportswear is having a resurgence right now, and the ’90s are the trend’s main source of inspiration.
To form the backbone of this lineup, retro football shirts with intrusive sponsorship for a bygone washing machine manufacturer on the front and wild slapdash patterns sit beneath billowing track tops and tracksuit trousers, smooth side stripes in tow. For inspiration, look to the labels that dominated the decade, such as Kappa, Reebok, Champion, and Fila.
To update the style, make one of these pieces the focal point of your ensemble, with the remainder of your outfit grounded in evergreen neutrals like a white tee and standby denim. It’s also advisable to save this look for weekend parties, as your employer is unlikely to be impressed with the Arsenal third shirt from the 1991-1992 season you’ve decided to wear to the major client meeting.
BRITPOP
The British reclaimed the music industry in the 1990s after falling behind our American counterparts. Bucket hats, utility shirts, parka jackets, and polo shirts typified the movement, although the music was ridiculously diverse.
The Britpop aesthetic is a distillation of pragmatism for rainy Britain, so wearing it now is more than just an homage to the past.
Your outerwear should be khaki, mustard, or navy—think relaxed and earthy. Windbreakers and parkas are Britpop essentials.
Choose straight-leg raw denim and sports performance low-top trainers for your bottom half (Nike, Adidas etc). If you want to be instantly recognizable as Britpop, wear a bucket hat and enjoy Liam Gallagher’s 25-year-old 1994 haze.
DAD STYLE
“Dorks. They appear to be a couple of jerks.” So quipped Quentin Tarantino in 1994’s Pulp Fiction, chuckling at the attire of two other characters. The 1990s were a great decade for nerds. It was all about outlandish, boldly unfashionable menswear, such as clunky sneakers, shapeless pants, cargo shorts, and loose blazers worn with mid-wash denim.
It’s now known as dad style, and it’s been made cool (for the first time, really) by designers like Balenciaga and Vetements, which recast Jerry Seinfeld and Chandler Bing as style icons. It’s difficult to discern if this anti-fashion trend retains any irony, so if you like it, go for it. Regular-fit jeans, normcore sneakers, and boxy rugby shirts are all OK, as are the cringe-inducing patterned shirts your father wore on vacation.
BAGGY TAILORING
Want one compelling reason to choose loose tailoring over more prevalent, slimmer-fit styles? Comfort. Oversized tailoring has been all the rage in recent seasons, and it’s not going anywhere. You can blame it on the general loosening of dress regulations and the disintegration of style rules.
If you want to go the baggy ’90s tailoring way, make sure you get a suit that is meant to be big. You can’t simply order a size larger than you regularly wear. It will just look wrong, and the arms will be far too long.
Baggy tailoring isn’t always appropriate for the workplace; it was great for the 9-5 in 1995, but it’s now a very careful stylistic choice. It depends on how far you go with it, but it’s normally for fashionable people who wear tailoring because they want to, not because they have to, and it often looks best dressed down with a T-shirt and trainers for a more streetwear-inspired feel.
DOUBLE DENIM
Although double denim was popular in the 1980s, the 1990s were when it really took off. Studs, rips, and graffiti were replaced with something more rough and less glam rock.
Today, ’90s double denim requires confidence and a dislike of fussiness. To capture that laid-back Americana, opt for a loose(ish) fit.
David Gandy has modeled the double denim tuck, but shape and height might complicate things for other body types.
To be safe, leave your shirt untucked, wear a white or grey T-shirt underneath, and pair your pants with simple black or white sneakers. If you’re not comfortable with matchy-match double denim, use different blue tones to lessen the look.
GRUNGE
Grunge is a checklist. Flannels? Check. Frayed jeans? Check. Dr Martens, long hair, and a carefree attitude? Triple-check.
Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, popularized the grunge style in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Grunge fashion rejected the polished, glittering excess of 1980s fashion and relied on the wearer appearing uninterested.
Grunge’s genderless dress code included loose vintage cardigans, ill-fitting trousers, and buttoned-up tea gowns (as worn by Cobain on The Face’s 1993 cover). Nowadays, grunge is easy. Flannel shirts are everywhere on the high street and can be bought a size or two larger for comfort. Weekend style: wear your open over a white tee and casual jeans.
RAVEWEAR
