Opinion
Fashion Jam: Refound vigour with fruity pastels
Jenny Egsten-Ericson
April 29th, 2018
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This article is more than 6 years old.
Just off to meet Sonny Crockett (photo: Jenny Egsten-Ericson)
When it’s still snowing outside your window in early April, it’s hard to get your mind into spring fashion mode. The only thing that says spring in such weather are all the different magazine covers trying to convince us that we do want to wear pastel colours with our pale skin.
Pastiche of 90s pastels
I’ve got two words: ‘Fashion Prozac’. That’s right. After an epically depressing year for politics (and just about everything else), designers reacted in the only way they know how: with uplifting, colourful, joyous clothes that took us off into another decade.
Although pastels are not really a groundbreaking spring fashion trend, right? This season’s twist (because every season has a new twist) is taking us back to the 1990s. It will make you feel like a gelato, and you are very welcome to help yourself to more than one scoop – just pile those ice cream hues on top of one another. My personal favourite pastel this season is a light haze of lavender or lilac, which feels fresh and so right.
To say that the ‘90s was a multi-faceted fashion decade is no exaggeration: from minimalism and logo mania to grunge; from the birth of avant-garde to the impact of star designers; and from conservative pantsuits and kitten heels to platform shoes, streetwear and very low-cut jeans.
In hindsight the ‘90s have been called both boring (minimalism) and immoral (think the heroin-chic look). But now it seems like it’s time for a second chance.
Calvin’s comeback
The decade is everywhere and those days’ most influential fashion houses – such as Helmut Lang and Calvin Klein – are enjoying a revival while Gucci, Kenzo and Prada have also found their way back to the same era.
The fixation with the fashion houses’ old logos has rocketed and the new thing everyone is talking about is ‘re-editions’, which basically means that the fashion houses recreate their bestselling and most influential styles and accessories. It’s like we are on an unstoppable carousel of nostalgia where it’s really hard to distinguish what was then and what’s now.
But it doesn’t end here. Last year eBay sold 57,000 items of the decade’s most popular bag: the bum bag … or belt bag should you want to sound more sophisticated. Decades-old streetwear brands such as Champion, Fila and Kappa are enjoying record sales on eBay at the same time as the brands are relaunching.
Gucci and Versace are following and have released retro versions of their logo sweatshirts and t-shirts, which were a must-have during the ‘90s. Most of them were of course fakes, which Gucci is very successfully playing with by spelling itself as GUCCY.
Don’t worry, dress happy
The big floral trend continues of course, because what kind of summer would it be without a sea of florals and pretty dresses.
Another very convenient trend (especially living in Denmark) is stylish rainwear. At Chanel you could see transparent plastic macs and rain hats – which begs the question when did fashion become so sensible?
The message I guess is: the outlook might be a little gloomy right now, but at least we can dress happy.
About
Jenny Egsten-Ericson
As a Swede who spent eleven years in London and New York, coming to Denmark four years ago had its ups and downs. Having worked in fashion most of her professional life, Jenny (@jennyfashjam) will be giving her opinion on our dress sense: the right choices and the bad ones.
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