If there was a 90s retro aesthetic similar to the current 80s neon and synthwave like the 80s never were - what would it be like?
If there was a 90s retro aesthetic similar to the current 80s neon and synthwave like the 80s never were - what would it be like?
Edit; I'm not asking what the 90s were like because I was there. I'm thinking what the pastiche of the 90s would be like should it have a revival like the 80s one that is nothing like the real 1980s by young people that presumably only have vague ideas from magazines and music and movies to go by. Like for example if it takes off from grunge but not like it was then but like it is idealised by kids today, what would it be like? What else was a 90s thing? Boy bands and indie pop mixed together on MTV? Hardcore techno and jungle/dnb with it's own analogue distribution channels by mail, flyers, mixtapes? Last generation of B-movies with practical effects shot on film before that part of the industry degraded into C-tier on digital with terrible CGI in the 00s? Mainstream pop culture, whatever that was? Television and radio, magazines and records before the internet took off? How would any or all of that be reimagined by people that didn't live it back then? I had no interest then nor do I have today for fashion magazines so if somebody knows I'd love to hear your twist on the topic.
Don't forget florescent triangles
Did you get this from the wall in the Taco Bell bathroom?
Paper plate and cup and also my old jacket and also the walls at the mall (that are totally, totally tall) lol
And transparent home computer cases from companies trying to Imitate the iMac look, with colors named after fruits. I had a transparent green external hard drive...
My dad's truck had something like that on the side, back in the 90s
I remember many a Ford Explorer with that on the side as well lol
Oh yeah, I remember. But what would the kids do with this style if they were to adopt it?
Vaporwave is that
I'm thinking that vaporwave is a niche glitch aesthetics spinoff from the dial up experience.
Doc Martens and flannel. Can you smell the grunge?
What da fuck is Eddie Vetter saying anyway?
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I've sometimes seen the style attributed to the "Memphis Group," but I don't know enough about design history to flesh that out, confirm, etc. Example photo of some of their items from the Wiki:
This is about the only correct answer to the question in this thread.
Depends on which part of the 90s. That whole “deep space nine” color palette was huge in the early 90s — lots of maroons and mustards and dark grays.
Earth tones people! Browns and grays!
It would be this.
Paper plates?
It'd be Niravana done in the style of Phil Collins while the video shows a vhs recording of people partying on a beach in board shorts and bikinis flanked by skaters in JNCO jeans with POGs glued to their skateboards with a club in the background that's called "The Edge", which is brightly adorned with a combination of "that cup design" and the pastel RGBY in geometric shapes while inside its actually got a simultaneous jungle and future aesthetic.
I can actually visualize it just by reading this. Wow.
Well, like you, I was there. Yet I know I only scratched the surface too.
A return to innocence, a return to ..Enya!
And etno techno. Uuh.
Dockers pale brown/green, wool, plaid.
Chunky soft corduroy! From Express!
The movie Hackers.
I don't rightfully know, but my heart says "The hotwheels logo"
I've got a fun option for where to start, windows media player skins
Most of this was the 2000s but what's a little bit of misdating
I’m so excited! I’m so excited! I’m so…scared!
Surfers wearing bright pastels, talking like ninja turtles, all shot on cheap video cameras.
Surf ninjas!
It's The Matrix
Not saying wrong but that movie came out in '99, so I think a retro of the 90s would be closer to mid to early 90s since there's that bleed over to the early '00 decade. Of course I'm older so maybe that part would be included, just more considered it 00s era.
Since I didn't comment otherwise I'll mention Xtreme sports, frosted hair colours, and some neon bleed over (though not cyberpunk levels) from the 80s for a 90s retro.
Hackers (1995) more likely.
Depends on a couple things. 90's then or what we think of the 90's now?
Also, first half or second half. Because basically, the internet. The internet really wasn't a thing in peoples homes for the first half of the 90's. That became a thing starting around 95, and became pretty much ubiquitous by the year 2000.
The early 90's were basically the 80s. The later half was like, grunge, pop-punk, early internet.
Not how it was or how we remember it. The nineties idealised and reimagined according to what it should be like to be considered cool and interesting today, presumably by people that are too young to have lived through the doc martens and jeans and cigarette smoke that it really was.
Hmm. I shall ideate on this to the mallwave album 19999 by the artist Windows96
One thing I've noticed about current media portrayals of the 90s is they're all wearing crop tops and high waisted jeans, which are in style now but weren't back then. Baggy jeans, sure, but the high waist was an 80s thing.
The 90s was Pop Art
I don't know everything that would end up in it, but DayGlo shit would definitely be one of them.
Hell, the image of a stereotypical zoomer already looks like they are harkening back to the 90's aesthetic.
It’s only denim.
The same way 90s kids learned to dress like earlier generations. We learned it from the movies and TV reruns. We learned to dress like 50s greasers from Grease. We got our 60s and 70s hippy fashion sense from Cheech and Chong.
Grungy Hacker chic: See movies like Hackers (duh), Strange Days, The Matrix, Fight Club, The Crow, Blade, The Fifth Element, Tank Girl, etc. Tight fits. (You can spot the squares in this aesthetic by their baggy tracksuit fits). Lots of dark and dirty retro futurism stuff. Deliberate splashes of vibrant colors if anything other than black. Lots of strange materials you wouldn't normally consider clothing. Did they literally pick that accessory out of the trash? Maybe. Eyeliner on everyone, even the boys, especially the sad boys. Big black boots.
For more normal stuff, see the fashions in Weekend at Bernies, Wayne's World, Airheads, Bill and Ted's Excellent and Bogus Journeys, Go, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Clerks, Friday, Point Break, My Cousin Vinny, White Men Can't Jump, Bad Boys, Clueless, Empire Records, etc. Lots of baggy fits. Lots of flannel, usually layered over a T-shirt. Ripped Jeans. Mostly muted subdue colors, with occasional splashes of virbancy, like a loud tie on a brown suit. Big and often long hair on the boys (and no beards). Sneakers. Tracksuits. Typing this out, these styles seem way too real and not all that exaggerated.
And then very briefly, there was a flash of retro swing revival and everyone wanted to dress like Jim Carey in The Mask.
I guess younger imitators might try to throw all these styles in a blender and see what comes out. Flannel Goths. Bubblegum Neon Hackers. Zoot Track Suits. Ripped Jeans and literally garbage. No clothes at all, just rocking boots and their cyber deck/stim-suit like a princess from Mars as written by William Gibson.
Whatever it is it involves zumba pants
Small yellow cars with black racing stripes, ear shattering sound system and massive wing spoilers....wicked!
Unplugged.
I'd like to suggest wallet chains and Discman portable cd players get added whoever is making this list.
I was thinking of what I saw in 90s cartoon ad blips but from trying look it up it's probably a subset/inspired of Memphis style which is 80s so I got nothin
