47 Fun Facts About 90s Fashion

Which sitcom character inspired one of the most-requested haircuts of the mid-1990s?

Rachel Green's layered cut became a worldwide craze, yet Jennifer Aniston later called it "the ugliest haircut I've ever seen".

In which US city did the grunge subculture emerge in the mid-1980s?

Seattle's grunge look grew out of cheap thrift-store flannel, until the fashion industry began selling flannel shirts back at premium prices.

Which teenage rap duo's signature look was wearing their clothes backwards?

Kris Kross paired the backwards look with "Jump", the 1992 debut single that brought the Atlanta duo national fame.

What does the jeans brand name JNCO stand for?

Founded in Los Angeles in 1985, JNCO peaked at $186.9 million in sales before halving in 1999.

Which item did Daymond John sew at home, the product that started FUBU?

Tie-top hats were John's start: his mother taught him to sew, and he made $800 in one day selling homemade ones on a Queens street corner.

Hypercolor T-shirts changed color in response to what?

Heat triggered the shirts' color-changing dye, so an iron, bleach or a steaming-hot dryer could wreck the effect for good.

Hypercolor's color-changing dye was developed by a chemical company from which country?

Japan's Matsui Shikiso made the dye, and Generra sold more than $50 million of Hypercolor clothing in 1991 before going bankrupt a year later.

What does the hip-hop apparel brand FUBU stand for?

For Us, By Us got its start in Queens, where Daymond John and his mother took out a second mortgage on their home to fund the business.

Which company answered a New York Times classified ad and became FUBU's investor?

Samsung's textile arm answered the ad John's mother placed, and its backing let FUBU fill the orders it had taken at a Las Vegas trade show.

Which model, discovered at JFK Airport at 14, became the face of "heroin chic"?

Kate Moss's waifish Calvin Klein ads helped popularize the look, and President Bill Clinton publicly condemned heroin chic in 1997.

Which late-1970s supermodel is remembered as the originator of the heroin chic look?

Gia Carangi's heroin addiction had ended her modeling career by 1983, and she died of AIDS-related illness in 1986, aged 26.

Which designer's 1993 grunge collection for Perry Ellis got him fired?

Marc Jacobs was dismissed after the collection flopped commercially, yet in 1997 Louis Vuitton named him its creative director.

Which fashion house did Tom Ford rescue from near bankruptcy after joining in 1990?

Creative director Dawn Mello admitted that when she hired him 'no one would dream of wearing' the brand; his decade there was later called its golden era.

Which British designer's 1993 'bumster' trousers are credited with starting the low-rise revival?

Alexander McQueen's bumsters, cut low enough to bare the top of the buttocks, were the early designs that first made his name.

In October 1996, LVMH moved which Gibraltar-born designer from Givenchy to Christian Dior?

John Galliano ran Dior until 2011, when the house fired him after a video showed him saying "I love Hitler" to two women in Paris.

Which Spice Girl wore the Union Jack dress at the 1997 Brit Awards?

Geri Halliwell later revisited the look, designing a Union Jack-motif clothing range for the retailer Next in 2012.

What was stitched onto the back of the Spice Girls' famous Union Jack dress?

A CND peace sign went on the back so that the flag on the front wouldn't be linked with the far-right National Front.

Elizabeth Hurley's famous 1994 black dress was held together by what?

Oversized gold safety pins held the dress credited with propelling a little-known Elizabeth Hurley into the global spotlight at the Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere.

Who designed Princess Diana's 1994 'revenge dress', worn the night Prince Charles admitted adultery on TV?

Christina Stambolian's gown had hung in Diana's wardrobe for three years because she feared it was too daring, until the night of Charles's TV admission.

Which Italian designer was murdered outside his Miami Beach mansion in July 1997?

Gianni Versace was shot outside his Miami Beach home by Andrew Cunanan, a spree killer who had already murdered other men across the United States.

Which model starred in the 1994 'Hello Boys' Wonderbra billboard campaign?

Urban myth blamed the posters for car crashes, and the ad was later voted number 10 in a 'Poster of the Century' contest.

CK One, launched in 1994, was openly marketed as what kind of fragrance?

Unisex CK One matched Calvin Klein's stated aim for his fragrances: to appeal to a wide range of people, gay, straight, young and old.

Which rapper-turned-actor's 1992 Calvin Klein underwear ads made him a 90s poster boy?

Mark Wahlberg had praised Shabba Ranks, who said gay people should be crucified, and GLAAD protested to Calvin Klein about using him.

Which brand launched the Pump, a sneaker with inflatable chambers for a custom fit, in November 1989?

Reebok's Pump was on show when Dee Brown pumped up his pair before dunking at the 1991 NBA Slam Dunk Contest.

What was LA Gear's hit 1992 kids' line of sneakers that lit up with every step?

LA Lights used mercury switches to trigger their lights, and Minnesota went on to ban sales of the shoes.

Robert Greenberg left LA Gear's top job in 1992 and founded which shoe company that year?

Skechers first sold boots to the grunge crowd, and in 2012 it agreed to pay $40 million to settle charges that its Shape-ups toning shoe ads were deceptive.

Which sneaker did designer Sergio Lozano base on human anatomy, with a spine, ribs and tendons?

The Nike Air Max 95 became so coveted that it set off a rash of muggings for the shoes, dubbed 'Air Max hunting'.

Which sportswear brand's licensed jackets became a status symbol of the early 90s?

Starter's success didn't last: the company filed for bankruptcy in 1999, and Nike bought the brand in 2004.

Which garishly striped baggy workout pants did the Road Warriors wrestling team help popularize?

Zubaz were developed as roomy workout pants for bodybuilders and weightlifters whose massive thighs didn't fit ordinary gym wear.

MC Hammer's baggy trousers are considered a style of which pants?

Harem pants are the style behind MC Hammer's trousers, and in 2016 he said he prefers to call them Hammer pants, not parachute pants.

Which rapper's Tommy Hilfiger sweatshirt, worn on SNL, sold out in New York the next day?

Hilfiger leaned into hip-hop, putting Puffy and Coolio on his runways and his logo on the hammer loop of carpenter jeans.

The 1989 label Cross Colours helped introduce which future hip-hop fashion designer?

Karl Kani was born Carl Williams, and his brand name came from asking himself, "Can I do it?"

Which brand's 'Yellow Boot' became a New York hip-hop staple in the early 90s?

Timberland executive Jeffrey Swartz asked in 1993 how the hip-hop craze could be "sustainable", though he denied any plan to distance the brand from urban buyers.

Which boot brand's classic 1460 model is named after its launch date, 1 April 1960?

Dr. Martens began with Klaus Märtens, a German army doctor who redesigned his boots after a skiing injury in 1945.

Which actress wore the yellow plaid schoolgirl suit in the 1995 film Clueless?

Alicia Silverstone got the role after director Amy Heckerling spotted her in Aerosmith's "Cryin'" music video.

Which teen drama is cited as a prominent example of grunge fashion on television?

My So-Called Life ran for a single season before ABC canceled it in May 1995, despite fans campaigning online to save it.

Which grunge frontwoman's babydoll dresses and smeared red lipstick defined the 'kinderwhore' look?

Courtney Love shared an apartment, and the look, with Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland, who is often credited as the style's co-creator.

Which clothing chain took its name from words Gap CEO Mickey Drexler saw in Paris?

Old Navy began in 1993 as Gap Warehouse and was renamed in 1994 to give the cheaper chain an identity separate from Gap.

Which 1990s teen-girl catalog was launched by two Yale graduates?

Delia's was revived in 2018 by the online retailer Dolls Kill, which licensed the name for new collections.

Which magazine's accessories editor left in 1991 to launch her own handbag line?

Mademoiselle's head of accessories, Kate Spade, saw that designer handbags lacked simple, sensible shapes, so she made her own.

Which hair accessory did inventor Rommy Revson name after her pet toy poodle?

The scrunchie was Revson's alternative to plastic and metal hair ties, inspired by the elastic waistband of her sweatpants.

Which early-90s wrist fad was banned in several schools after reports of injuries?

Slap bracelets hid a thin strip of steel, and in 1990 the US Consumer Product Safety Commission warned they could cut children's wrists.

Which 1996 film inspired the late-90s 'dressy casual' menswear look of bowling shirts?

Swingers made stars of its leads, Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, and established Doug Liman as a director to watch.

Which supermodel starred in Pepsi's famous 1992 Super Bowl commercial?

Cindy Crawford's ad got a Pepsi remake in 2016, and the new version featured her again.

Which retailer opened its first store in a Montclair, California, mall in 1989 and became known for band T-shirts?

Hot Topic later branched into plus-size fashion, launching the chain Torrid in 2001.

Which French denim label, worn in the 'Jump' music video, industrialised stonewashing?

Girbaud's stonewashing began with Wrangler jeans tumbled with stones in a laundromat in Paris's Belleville district.

Which shoe designer started his company in 1990 with $1,100, selling shoes from the trunk of his car?

Steve Madden's company was taken public by the brokerage Stratton Oakmont, and in 2002 he was sentenced to 41 months in prison for securities fraud.