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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Did people look older in the 90s?

155 replies

pontipinemum · 06/08/2023 17:29

Not really AIBU - More so a what do you think

I'm watching a 90s movie right now and I think people that are supposed to be early 30s (my age now) look older than me. When I look at pictures of my family from the 90s they all look older, even though my mum was in her 20s most of the 90s.

Is it the style maybe? Do I associate the clothes with 'older people' because when I saw those clothes IRL I was just a small child. I think a lot of people my age still dress sort of young, trainers/ jeans/ hoodies/ casual. Where as people in their 20s/30s back then dressed more grown up.

YABU - People in the 90s did not look older
YANBU - People in the 90s did look older

OP posts:
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7
EmeraldDuck · 06/08/2023 21:14

DrinkFeckArseBrick · 06/08/2023 17:41

I look at young women now and think they look older. The contouring, fake kips, fake nails fake tan etc all somehow age them

This. I’m just watching reality tv and I feel so sad for how some of the female contestants look. It’s like there’s been a competition who can look the most like a blow up doll with bee-stung lips and two pairs of false eyelashes. It’s such an unattractive look 🙈

RattleRattle · 06/08/2023 21:15

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headstone · 06/08/2023 21:15

I always thought lady Di looked about 10 years older with her hair and dress sense.

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 06/08/2023 21:20

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Toast clothes have been like that for years! I think they will date much less than the overtanned Botox look.

Twotothreeagain · 06/08/2023 21:25

Doingtheboxerbeat · 06/08/2023 21:04

Hrtft so apologies if it's been mentioned but check out what the Golden Girls would look like with modern hair - mind blowing. I had no idea it was purely down to makeup and hair.

Amazing the difference this makes!

gogomoto · 06/08/2023 21:32

I'm still wearing similar clothing to when I was in my 20's in the 90's. Jeans and tops!

gogomoto · 06/08/2023 21:32

Got a couple of grungy dresses and docs for gigs

Iactuallylovedit · 06/08/2023 21:34

My

gogomoto · 06/08/2023 21:34

@LaurieFairyCake

Where, I've never put on dress shoes for a club, I wore docs as I do now. I'm guessing you went to different clubs to me (rock, grunge, Brit pop)

PatrickGammon · 06/08/2023 21:36

I think adults looked older in the 90s than they do now.

I was our having a few drinks they other week and a woman told me she had recently turned 40 and I was thinking she looked late 20s. She had as far as I could tell natural hair (in plaits) and make up, definitely no fillers or botox or any of that.

I'm 37 and still think I look younger too. A 37 year old in the 90s definitely would have looked older (I'm thinking the cast of Friends)

Talista · 06/08/2023 21:37

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 06/08/2023 21:20

Toast clothes have been like that for years! I think they will date much less than the overtanned Botox look.

Show quote history

The toast kind of classic arty/boho style has been around since about the 1960s, if not earlier. I don't think it's going anywhere soon!

ThePoshUns · 06/08/2023 21:47

Early 90s I was at uni wearing dungarees , DM boots and had a pixie cut. Much like now!

Justanotherlurker · 06/08/2023 21:51

It is just a case of growing older and photos being dated, I was a regular at the free party scene madchester/birth of fabric and just general free party scene. My staple was adidas with a variation of dress over jeans or dungarees.
I glammed it up on Renaissance nights in paris, dj'd in a ballgown once, but it all looks dated now.

Give it another decade and the fashion will come back around

missbunnyrabbit · 06/08/2023 21:57

I wonder if sun exposure and skin care has a lot to do with it. I imagine children and teens played out more which will have aged their skin.

Youcunnyfunt · 06/08/2023 21:57

Maybe in the 80s! But I think the fashion relaxed and wasn’t so different between age groups in the 90s for women, I don’t remember many women in their 50s or 60s wearing twin sets or pearls etc anymore!

However, MEN in the 90s… very dated and looked old before their time. It was before male grooming was really a thing. You can see even in tv shows (and I remember our teachers at school were the same!), had comb overs in their 30s when they started losing their hair, beards and moustaches at an early age, lots of men didn’t dye their hair, lots of men didn’t wear sunscreen and had very leathery skin at a younger age, etc etc

whereas for women the fashion was for straight hair, being skinny, and groomed nails, clean skin (but not heavy makeup). So a lot of us were fresh faced and very slim (so generally looked younger) from early teens right up to the 60s and 70 year olds who followed the 90s fashions.

I was so skinny at 16 that I was a 00 in Gap and often wore tshirts for 8-10 year olds!

JudgeAnderson · 06/08/2023 21:59

Maybe older adults looked older in the 90s but think of say Winona Ryder... she hardly looked older than her age!

Jamtartforme · 06/08/2023 22:00

Also obesity - carrying extra weight plumps out wrinkles

Youcunnyfunt · 06/08/2023 22:00

Heavy makeup and fillers are massively aging no matter how expertly it’s applied. Look at the Kardashians! Kylie looks like she’s in her late 30s.

Siameasy · 06/08/2023 22:08

Agree, these ridiculous duck lips, heavy eye brows, false eyelashes and fillers make 20-somethings look 40-something

bellamountain · 06/08/2023 22:11

I think it's hairstyles. I saw an article recently where they replaced the long hair styles on modern day celebs (Jennifer Anniston / Lopez etc) and gave them 80s style short cuts and perms and they looked much older. The Golden Girls were given longer hair and they instantly looked younger.

MereDintofPandiculation · 06/08/2023 22:11

Jamtartforme · 06/08/2023 22:00

Also obesity - carrying extra weight plumps out wrinkles

That's true! Grin There's an old saying that when you're an older woman you can have a good face or a good body but not both - is you can be slim with a wrinkled face, or overweight with a smooth face. Of course botox means you can have both, up to a point.

pennydrop34 · 06/08/2023 23:19

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peppermintcrisp · 06/08/2023 23:36

had daddy issues and should get a grown-up hairdo, and another friend who said I looked like I was part of a cult.

Haha that is funny. I remember a friend asking me about her long straight hairstyle and I told her she looked a bit babyish and that she should have some layers around her face, lol. She did then cut her hair into a layered look!

Pickledpigeon · 06/08/2023 23:47

BCCoach · 06/08/2023 18:50

Where on earth was this? It was the height of acid house, rave, madchester, hip hop, goth, and indie. No one under the age of 30 dressed like that in the U.K.!

Show quote history

BCCoach · Today 18:50
Bemyclementine · Today 17:56

I think its the style. Late 80s, very early 90s I remember my sister and her friends getting ready to go out, wearing pencil skirts, blouses, permed hair, heels. The men had tailored trousers and shirts, with "proper" (dress?) shoes . It'll changed in just a few years.

Where on earth was this? It was the height of acid house, rave, madchester, hip hop, goth, and indie. No one under the age of 30 dressed like that in the U.K.!

It was like that in the small northern town I grew up. I went to university early 90s and was wearing dungarees and dms , but there was still a hardcore of people still stuck in that dressing up nicely to go out. It was pre internet times so fashions took a long time to filter into the smaller towns.

Saoirse82 · 06/08/2023 23:52

No, people didn't look older in the 90s but dated clothes and hairstyles especially those of the late 80s early 90s can make people look older even if they are fresh faced.

Even the makeup was severe. Though I actually think a lot of the time women look older today with all the botox/huge lips etc. No doubt when we look back in 30 years we'll say the same thing about this era.

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