Observations about growing up in the 90s

[StealthPolarBear]

At house parties there was always that one person in the long black coat who refused to take it off.
Please add more!

Ah the memories! I wore my DM's with a long flowy dress with a tight white ribbed T-shirt underneath. With a homemade choker ( shoelace and sone beads) 😆 knee high boots with the black shirt dress with the old faithful white ribbed T-shirt. Praying I'd get let in to the clubs cos I was underage and then saying " ring my mum if you don't believe me" praying they wouldn't cos she thought I was at a sleepover at a mates 😂 £1.30 on ten embassy which I'd split with a mate or going "twos" on a cigarette with someone. Having boys who could drive as mates.. cramming about 10 people into the back of a escort van and getting stoned listening to red hot chilli peppers. Hanging about the local park cos we had no where to go. Taboo and lemonade , heather shinmer, sun in , nirvana T-shirt's .... I wish I'd kept all my old clothes and shoes ..seeing as it's all coming back.. my 17 year old daughter would have loved them!
Truly was THE best decade to grow up in

Oh god - I went from 12 to 22 in the 90s so there are many things that scream that decade to me.

The disgusting smell of henna hair dye from Body Shop (and trying to drown it it out with dewberry or white musk).

Yes, the white T-shirt and flowery dress combo - 11yo DD is now rocking a similar look.

Diamond White, various alcopops (Hooch, Bacardi Breezer, Taboo, Reef, Smirnoff Ice) - eugh so sickly, just as bad in the way back up)

Yes, the long black coat - this was particularly prevalent (along with a very particular style of sunglasses, even at night) right at the end of the decade after The Matrix had been released.

Britpop - ahhh Britpop, Jarvis Cocker jumping into stage and taking the piss out of Michael Jackson at the Brits. The Blur/Oasis divide (I was Blur).

My best friend and I listening to Martika's Kitchen on repeat and trying to emulate her style - short bob, see-through black blouses, lots of necklaces.

Blossom, daily Neighbours & Home and Away, the brilliant Round The Twist, Fresh Prince of Bell Air and then when slightly older The Big Breakfast, The Word and Eurotrash.

Britannia Music Club - so many CDs, can remember my first batch - Sade, Everything But The Girl, The Orb and Beloved).

Turning from an indie kid into a raver overnight after hearing John Peel play Papua New Guinea by Future Sound of London, moving to London and loosing the next decade in a haze of drugs and clubs.

Flowy skirts with Docs, a LOT of tie dye, black bodysuits, the Army Surplus Stores being a major supplier to my wardrobe. Then style changing to Buffalo trainers, wide trousers and tiny neon crop tops (Cyberdog in Camden Market was a particular favourite) , often accessorised with bindis and hair tied up in little knots all over my head.

@Witchofzog
Oh yes! That all brings back memories!
Our lipstick of choice (for ALL girls in my year at school) was Heather Shimmer.
It is truly unflattering.

Orange foundation (when we didn't even need foundation) but it was your mums and you felt grown up wearing 'proper' make-up that you had no idea how to apply.

90210 posters up in my bedroom, 💓 Luke Perry sigh

Rolling your socks down to make 'trainer socks'

Key rings, (masses of key rings) to jingle and jangle on your rucksack.

Practicing drawing the Stussi logo on my school note books because Robbie Williams wore their clothes 🤣

I also seem to recall Beanie Babies were 'cool' to collect. How times have changed!

Best time to grow up 💓

Yes to the box! And behind the scenes they had a few muddled up which was always amusing (must have been frustrating for those who had paid to request Whitney Houston or whatever)

Impulse O2. I buy that again tomorrow if they still sold it!

Wearing Kickers shoes or trainers without socks, especially Reebok Classic or Nike Air Max - trainer liners and invisible socks hadn't caught on yet. The less well-off wore Dunlop Greenflash. Many of us even went sockless for PE.

The Crystal Maze - best TV ever. Also Knightmare, and Incredible Games (a sort of pre-teen Crystal Maze, with similar games), hosted by a young David Walliams. "If I know them, they're going to leave those space suits all crumpled up on the floor, and who's going to have to pick them up?"

I had a pager in my first term at university, I even rejected the free mobile phone offered by Barclays for opening a student account; I decided the costs would be too high. Only one in six students had mobile phones then.

Backchat and the 'Zine on Teletext - a forerunner to teenage chat forums, with concerns that they were read and moderated by "our teachers". It said "keep your comments short and snappy"; you could phone them in (ask permission to use the phone), send them by post (I did this because I was nervous about making phone calls), fax (did teenagers really do this?), or email, which was a novelty in 1997. I wrote in to these all the time; the excitement was palpable if your comment got through the screening process, and appeared for all to see.

Also teenage angst letters replied to by Nick Fisher, who said there were lots of boys worrying about the size of their tackle, or how to "do" kissing.

Teletubbies - hotly debated by teenagers on Backchat. To some, it was "the most boring and stupid programme ever", to others it was compelling teenage viewing, often seen on the TV in the sixth form common room.

Pink Kangaroos sound properly hideous! I can't believe I used to drink them

It was actually 1995 I went to the Reading festival - on a coach all the way from the NE! The journey home was...interesting. I was 17, the summer between lower and upper 6th.

Body Shop Tangerine Beer shampoo!! It was like mousse in a pot that you scooped out. And those Vidal Sassoon shampoos that gradually died your hair. They had a spherical lid. I had redish hair for a while but desperately wanted it to he purple, and to have purple contact lenses to match!

Wella colour mousse, a different colour every month, destroyed my hair!
Ck 1 perfume spray

I loved being a teen in the 90s. Flowery dresses with DMs, embroidered waistcoats, belts with chunky silver flower buckles, bodysuits, Wonderbras, going out boozing at 14 and my parents just telling me not to drink so much that I puke when I came home, having the pub in sixth form across the road from school - teachers in the bar, sixth formers in the lounge, landlord knew we were mostly underage but as the teachers didn't mind neither did he!

My 20 year old son was amazed and actually looks at me with new respect after I was sorting through some photos from my teenage years with him last week and found some taken at a party I went to with the 1996 Man Utd team when i was 17. I remember who most of them are but there is one where I couldn't place the player and asked him if he could identify him - apparently its Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and he's a complete legend, but I didn't recognise him at all. DS knew that I had met a lot of players around that time because I worked in the players lounge at a premiership club on a match day, but didn't realise I partied with them sometimes too!

I was a teen at the beginning of the 90s and have a teen the same as as I was (then) now.
Reading through this thread has made me laugh at some of the things that my teen wears now - doc martins, combats, tiny crop tops, floral dresses with a white t underneath (with the docs), kappa sportswear, buffalo trainers and she has recently raided my old
stash of jeans for flares.
Kids these days think they’ve invented it all, I’ll show her this thread later and remind her that mama did it all first despite what she may think grin]

When we were under 18, there was always that one friend who looked older and usually got served, so we'd send him to the off licence on our behalf.

That was me! I was buying booze at 16!

But then again I got id'd at Waitrose when I was 40+, so who knows what's going on with my Dorian Grey/Benjamin Button face!

Army bags with band logos drawn on them

Ah, happy memories

@LunaFortuna

Sun and Moon earrings and going to see the Levellers. Going to Glastonbury when people could still jump the fence and taking two days to find your friends (early 90s - pre mobiles)

I'm wearing sun and moon earrings right now and my most recent trip to see the Levellers was cancelled over lockdown so we are going in September instead!

Sorry if this has been mentioned - Dolphin tattoos on the hip and those wire ones around your arm.

Bubble Bags
June Sarpong Vernon Kay
Party of 5
Smash Hits Concerts
Blind Date
East 17
More and Mizz Magazines
Frizzy / natural hair
Thin eyebrows

This brings back so many memories.

I was 15 in 1990, in love with a boy with curtains who looked like Tim Burgess from the Charlatans and who passed me over for an older -sluttier- girl with a crunchy perm and Kickers.

The 90s were GCSEs, sixth form, my first proper boyfriend, discovering alcohol, drugs and sex, uni, nightclubs, gigs, meeting DH, getting a job, learning to drink wine in pubs not vodka with orange squash, buying a suit and ending 1999 engaged..... What a decade

What were those deodorants that smelled of nature and had different coloured bubbles on the lids (pink, pale green, dark blue)? I wish I could still smell of the blue one.

YY to Sun and Moon everything. They're coming back - I bought a T shirt similar to one I had in the 90s
Bali silver jewellery
Diffuser attachments on hairdryers
Henara horse chestnut leave in conditioner really enhanced my dark brown hair, giving it lovely mahogany glints - I miss it
The Body Shop's eyeliner pen was a game changer for me after so many messy kohl liner fails!
Overplucked eyebrows
Started the 90s with pallid gothy makeup, eventually introduced some Sunshimmer bronzer
Tasselled mirrored bags or those ones that looked like woven rugs from Oxfam
So many ear piercings, got my navel pierced in 1996 - only took it out a couple of years ago
Lived in my Doc Marten boots, loved the Buffalos I wore towards the end of the decade
Going into cool record shops flicking through vinyl by bands I'd seen on the indie chart of the Chart Show on ITV pretending I knew my stuff to impress whatever bloke I was interested in at the time
The whole buzz around the 1994 World Cup especially when Ireland beat Italy - I was having a great night out and pulled and then heard the awful news about the shooting in Loughinisland (I'm from NI)
Again NI - the Troubles coming to a shaky end

I had a long burgundy satin baby doll dress that I wore with a fluffy bolero cardi over the top and burgundy mules.

Permed hair that I would back comb to make it stick out even more.

Velvet hot pants and knee high boots with a satin leopard print shirt and wonder bra underneath.

Early 90's- ski pants with the stirrups under the heel of my river island boots, denim shirt

Boys with curtains reeking of Fahrenheit.

Walking everywhere.

Best time to be a teen!

Fahrenheit still makes me feel horny when I smell it! Pavlov was on to something lol

Drinking diamond white aged 14
I had navy blue dms there were no black in stock and really wanted some
Kickers boots
Magic eye pics
White cotton trousers worn with coloured T-shirt and white waistcoat
Permed hair
Fruit of the loom
Dungarees bright colours
Shell suits
Cycling shorts
Blockbuster video

yeaaaaaaaaah kappa slappers

Palladium shoes were the bees knees. Thought I was so cool with my side ponytail and heather shimmer lipstick!

Reading ‘sugar’ and ‘bliss’ magazines. Thinking how cool they were!

Retro swearwords that I wont repeat because they were generally homophobic. I think 'dickwad' is allowable though.

The Camden Palace!