Grunge fashion

The 1990s in popular culture is typically referred to as the decade of "anti-fashion". In reality, anti-fashion was only one of many trends in fashion in the 1990s; The fashion of the 1990s was also characterized by many overlapping, often contradictory trends. The most significant event in 1990s fashion was the rise of grunge fashion in 1992. There is no real guide to grunge fashion; just wear what you want and do not let anything hold you back.

The rise of the Grunge style

The grunge style which was influenced by grunge music, which achieved mainstream popularity in 1992. Grunge Fashion consisted mostly of plaid, flannel shirts, stonewashed blue jeans, and dark colors. Grunge fashion popularized Doc Martens style shoes and boots, and high top sneakers in red, indigo, forest green, and black. Grunge fashion emphasized long, straight hair. Grunge fashion was a unisex phenomenon. Although the grunge look was considered "anti-fashion", the fashion industry turned the grunge look into a distinct fashion style. The fashion industry began selling such items as plaid hooded sweatshirts, plaid sweatshirt vests, plaid long sleeved t-shirts, and plaid shorts. It was Plaid Mania. Grunge fans in the Pacific Northwest believed that the media gave excessive importance to the clothing worn by grunge musicians and fans, along with other aspects of the local culture. Clothing commonly worn by grunge fans in the Northwest in its early years was a blend of the punk aesthetic with the typical outdoorsy clothing (most notably flannel shirts) of the region. The "fashion" did not evolve out of a conscious attempt to create an appealing fashion, but due to the inexpensiveness of such clothes and the warmth that they provided for the cold climate of the region. The media, rather than focusing on the music, would give this fashion a heavy amount of exposure. In the early 1990s, the fashion industry marketed "grunge fashion" to a widespread audience, charging relatively high prices for clothing that they assumed to be popular in the grunge scene. Similarly, the media would view grunge as a whole culture, assuming it to be Generation X's attempt to create a culture similar to the hippie counterculture of the previous generation. Rather than focus on the music, much of the media focused on other superficial aspects of the musicians and fans.In England, youth who dressed in this fashion were sometimes called grungers, while the term grungies was often used in the United States.

The grunge look coincided with the revival of hippie fashion. Hippie fashion actually began to reenter the fashion world in 1990, with the return of tie-dye shirts. Most fashion critics thought the grunge and neo-hippie trends went well together.

Grunge makes a comeback

Currently stores chase after teenagers' dollars with work shirts and jeans, meant to be piled on chaotically in the manner of Kurt Cobain, the iconic lead singer and guitarist of Nirvana. But new interpretations of the style have surfaced in more rarefied quarters as well.If Cobain thought nothing of pulling a tattered baby-doll dress over jeans, combining a Pendleton shirt with a kilt, or wrapping said shirt at his hips like a skirt, designers are taking a tidier route. Marc Jacobs, who notoriously created a grunge collection for Perry Ellis a decade ago, reintroduced elements of the look in his secondary line. The collection, shown this month during Fashion Week, was built on an amalgam of rainbow-colored layers, a sprightly version of the style that was once embraced by disaffected high schoolers and the protagonists of "Wayne's World."

References

* http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/grunge-music/mainstream-popularity.html
* http://www.apparelsearch.com/definitions/Fashion/1990_Fashion_History.htm
* http://www.thefashionspot.com/forums/f49/smells-like-grunge-again-967.html
* http://en.allexperts.com/e/0/1990s_in_fashion.htm
* http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-grunge.html