50 Fun Facts About 90s Fashion

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

Jennifer Aniston's stylist Chris McMillan cut it to grow out her bangs and repair damaged hair; she first wore it in 'The One With the Evil Orthodontist'.

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

Fashion writers were already burying the look by 1993, but the loose, androgynous style kept skaters warm for the rest of the decade.

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

Jermaine Dupri discovered the pair at an Atlanta mall in 1990, and their 1992 single 'Jump' spent eight weeks at No. 1.

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.

The widest JNCO jeans had leg openings greater than how many inches?

Some pairs were so large that younger children had to sit down to put them on.

Hypercolor T-shirts changed color in response to what?

The thermochromic pigment came from a Japanese chemical firm, and a hot wash or a tumble dryer could ruin the effect for good.

How much did Generra sell in Hypercolor garments between February and May 1991?

The company could not keep up with demand, then went bankrupt in 1992 as the fad faded.

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

Daymond John mortgaged his home for $100,000 to start it in 1992, and half the house became the factory.

Which company answered a New York Times classified ad in 1995 and became FUBU's investor?

The founders had taken $300,000 of orders at a Las Vegas trade show with no idea how to fill them, so John's mother suggested advertising for an investor.

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

Storm Management founder Sarah Doukas spotted her in 1988, and Corinne Day's 'dirty realism' shots for The Face made her name.

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

The look, all pale skin and dark circles, was partly a reaction against the healthy glow of the 1980s supermodels.

Which designer's 1993 grunge collection for Perry Ellis won some rave reviews and got him fired?

Suzy Menkes declared 'Grunge is ghastly', the collection flopped commercially, and its creator later ran Louis Vuitton for 16 years.

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 low-cut 'bumster' trousers, shown in 1993, kicked off the low-rise revival?

He was made chief designer at Givenchy in 1996 and later sold 51 percent of his own label to the Gucci Group.

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

He replaced Gianfranco Ferré and went on to design the Dior Saddle bag and Nicole Kidman's chartreuse 1997 Oscars gown.

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

She found the black Gucci minidress she'd been given 'boring', so her sister stitched a Union Jack tea towel onto the front.

What was stitched onto the back of the Union Jack dress to distance it from the National Front?

The dress later sold at Sotheby's for £41,320 to the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, a record for pop-star clothing at the time.

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

She wore it to the Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere with Hugh Grant after several fashion houses refused to lend an unknown anything.

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

Diana had owned the £900 off-the-shoulder black gown for three years but had thought it too daring to wear.

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

He was one of the first designers to tie fashion to the music world, counting Elton John, Madonna and Tupac Shakur among his friends.

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 the first fragrance widely popular in the US while openly marketed as what?

It made more than $5 million in its first 10 days and about $90 million a year in the mid-90s.

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

He was still Marky Mark of the Funky Bunch at the time, having first shown off his physique in the 'Good Vibrations' video.

Which November 1989 sneaker line was the first with an internal inflation mechanism to tighten around the ankle?

Dee Brown famously inflated his pair before a title-winning dunk at the 1991 NBA Slam Dunk Contest.

LA Gear's hit 1992 kids' line lit up with every step. What was it called?

They sold more than 5 million pairs a year and were even used to locate stranded children during blizzards.

Robert Greenberg stepped down as CEO of LA Gear in 1992 and founded which shoe company the same year?

Its early products were utility boots popular with the grunge crowd; it is now the world's third-largest footwear brand.

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

Its neon yellow first colorway highlighted the air units, and it became so coveted in Japan that muggers took to 'Air Max hunting'.

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

Founded in New Haven by David Beckerman, it began by making uniforms for high school teams before licensing MLB logos in 1976.

Which garishly striped workout pants were dreamed up by wrestlers Michael Hegstrand and Joseph Laurinaitis, better known as the Road Warriors?

The name came from a nonsense playground phrase Laurinaitis heard growing up in St. Paul, and the company sold $100 million worth in 1991 alone.

What word fills '___ pants', the colloquial name for MC Hammer's baggy trousers?

Bobby Brown later claimed he started wearing the 'diaper pants' first, though his were less saggy.

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.

Which Australian knitwear brand did Biggie name-check in 'Big Poppa', staying in it 'down to the socks'?

Founded as Cuggi in Melbourne in 1969, the label was renamed in 1987 to sound more like an indigenous Australian name.

The 1989 label Cross Colours launched the career of which future hip-hop fashion designer?

Cross Colours was founded by Carl Jones on the premise of 'clothes without prejudices' but leaned too hard on the retailer Merry-Go-Round and was hit by its bankruptcy.

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

The New York Times reported the phenomenon in 1993, noting that rugged brands like Carhartt and North Face were suddenly urban style.

Doc Martens' original 1460 boot gets its name from what?

Klaus Märtens designed the air-cushioned sole after injuring his ankle skiing in 1945, and the 1460 and 1461 still make over half the company's revenue.

Which model made the yellow plaid schoolgirl suit iconic in the 1995 film Clueless?

Costume designer Mona May called it a Catholic schoolgirl uniform 'taken to another level, and turned designer'.

Cher's white 'Calvin Klein' slip dress in Clueless was actually designed by which then-emerging designer?

Calvin Klein got the on-screen credit simply because audiences would recognise the name.

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

Grunge fashion peaked in late 1993 and early 1994, right when the Claire Danes drama aired its only season.

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

The style traces back to the mid-80s band Pagan Babies, in which she and Babes in Toyland's Kat Bjelland lived together and shared clothes.

Gap's cheaper spin-off chain opened its first stores in March 1994. Where did its name come from?

CEO Mickey Drexler had rejected the proposed names Monorail and Forklift; the stores were deliberately laid out like grocery stores, carts included.

Which teen-girl catalog, launched in 1993 by two Yale graduates, led marketing to young American females?

Alloy bought it in 2003 for $50 million; the name survives today only as a sub-brand of Dolls Kill.

Which magazine's accessories editor left in 1991 to launch her own handbag line, later a late-90s status symbol?

Kate Spade co-founded her label with her husband Andy in 1993 and their nylon boxy bags became a late-90s status symbol.

Which fabric-covered elastic hair tie's inventor, Rommy Revson, named it after her pet toy poodle?

She patented it in 1987 after learning to sew on a $50 machine, inspired by the waistband of her sweatpants.

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

Wisconsin teacher Stuart Anders invented them in 1983 as 'Slap Wraps'; cheap knockoffs with thinner steel could cut the wearer.

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

Around the same time Bill Gates was credited with kickstarting business casual, and The Matrix later made black leather trenchcoats fashionable.

Whose 1992 Super Bowl Pepsi commercial became one of the decade's most famous ads?

She also hosted MTV's House of Style from 1989 to 1995 and remade the ad with Pepsi in 2016.

Which late-90s men's hairstyle involved bleaching only the ends of short gelled spikes?

Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, Mark McGrath and Guy Fieri all wore the look.

Which retailer opened its first store in a Montclair, California mall in 1989 and became the home of 90s band T-shirts?

Founder Orv Madden was a former executive at The Children's Place; by 2007 about 40 percent of its revenue came from licensed band tees.

Which French denim duo, seen in the 'Jump' video, industrialised stonewashing?

They had also dressed Jennifer Beals in Flashdance, and by the 1990s the brand turned over $900 million a year.

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

His finances were tangled with the pump-and-dump brokerage Stratton Oakmont, and he served prison time for securities fraud in the 2000s.