Did people look older in the 90s?

[pontipinemum]

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

The dark eyeshadow and brown lipstick with very thin eyebrows was quite a severe look …thin eyebrows are very aging !!

I think young women look older now, especially if they’ve had Botox or fillers which make everyone look 43 even if they’re 23.

I was getting more & more outraged by this thread- claiming sisterhood with all the DM/ dungaree/cropped top/ combat/ Adidas Samba-wearing MNers- but then you made me realise I lived/ live in a big, cosmopolitan city. I remember visiting where my dad grew up (SW sea-side town) and all my cousins on a night out were like extras from an office sit-com! They looked at me & my brother in our raver gear like we were aliens! They told him he'd need 'proper shoes' to go dancing. We looked at them as if they were aliens. Funny.

But this thread has made me smile at the 90s memories: carefree madness with no camera phone evidence of the stuff we got up to; illegal raves in fields; hitting a different club in a different city every other weekend; working in crazy bars in Faliraki for the summer; dating completely inappropriate men; finding ourselves at random parties in random places; the walk home with the birds singing at 5/6am; being out Thur-Sun and hungover every Fri/ Mon at work. Ahhhhh, those were the days, the days that make me look all of my 51 years and proud that every wrinkle/ line tells a story.

@BCCoach 🤣 I think there was a big difference from 1987 -1990 and 1994 onwards. I was a teenager in the 90s, and definitely didn't wear pencil skirts, but my sister (7yrs older) def did in the late 80s/1990

@BCCoach meant to say - late 80s we were in Sheffield. Then in a small more rural location.

Nightclubs had dress codes. No jeans, no trainers etc.

I think another factor is the actual quality of photography and filmography.

Back in the 90’s it was snap a photo and then wait for the film to be used up and developed. The photos you ended up with were the end of the matter. Whereas now you can take and delete multiple shots until you’ve got the “right” one to keep.

Same with lots of tv shows etc. Can rewatch something from say, 15 years ago and even the quality of the film can make a show look so much older and dated.

DM looked younger at the end of the 90s than she did at the start of the decade (straddling her 50s into 60s). She's always kept her hair blonde and mid-length and curled which is a soft, flattering look on her, so that's never changed significantly. But at the start of the 90s, clothes were very boxy with big prints or patterns. Lots of busy florals or patterns. She was rather partial to a pastel Dash tracksuit. By the end of the decade fashion had become more varied. People like Trinny and Suzanna were talking about "dressing to your shape", there were make over shows like Style Challenge. Fashion was becoming more varied and accessible to middle-aged age groups and not purely pitched at youth.

There are more naturalistic options/ techniques for hair styling and make-up. Blocky hair dye on greying hair tends to look aging whereas well blended highlights look more natural. Skin treatments and make-up work better.

In my 40s, I still look quite young, maybe in an early 30s way. It's not "middle aged" anyway. I don't copy 20s fashions because they remind me too much of my teen years and I'll leave 1992 where it was. I'm careful about the floral dresses in fashion as some of the mid-length styles remind me too much of my 80s primary school teachers, and some of them are just overwhelmingly busy and voluminous. I know what suits my build and I work with that neither being particularly in or out of fashion but generally being fairly flattering.

I think teens and 20s can often look older now. Higher body masses can look older as traditionally people gain weight over time and into middle age. Lots of make-up can mask the natural glow of youth. People that visibly go down the treatments/ fillers route look like 40s pretending to be 20s even if they were already in their 20s. Equally, it's easier to manage the skin flare-ups of youth, and it's easier to learn good make-up technique with better quality products, so more young people look good. I'll ignore total manipulation with filters!

But the big thing is that people aren't pigeonholed into following certain styles purely based on their age, and that began to break through the 90s. Plus "middle aged" and older have been used to alternative scenes and choices since their youth, and that's expanded rather than contracting into narrow expectations of how to style yourself by age.

As I’ve said not my experience, started going clubbing in Leeds and Manchester in 86 and flitted from punk to goth to indie to house to rave. Sheffield had the Limit and the Leadmill which we occasionally went to to see bands or for club nights.

*Bemyclementine · Today 00:51

@BCCoach meant to say - late 80s we were in Sheffield. Then in a small more rural location.

Nightclubs had dress codes. No jeans, no trainers etc.*

The Limit and Leadmill had no dress code. Except maybe to look as weird as possible. In fact I’ve never been in a club that had a dress code and would have avoided at all costs.

It's just hairstyles which are now associated with older adults.

But then lots more people used to smoke and that is very ageing.

Pickledpigeon · Yesterday 23:47

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 80’s or 90’s.

l spent most of this time crafting my Mohican. And wearing crucifixes. My bf at the time had drainpipes and a leather jacket with brothel creepers. I’d have dumped him if he wore tailored trousers and dress shoes. I knew NO ONE who dressed like the above.

We are so used to camera’s with filters these days.

I wish I could share my 1983 school picture. I was 12 but had a short perm and wore a collared blouse. For some reason I had a weary expression too. I look like a thirty-something single mum holding down two jobs.

I watched this great VSauce video recently about "did people used to look older" Really interesting watch. I think people definitely dress more "youthful" for longer nowadays, and maybe look after their skin more/use spf etc, so often "look younger" than in earlier decades perhaps.

It's the style I think. I'm watching the X files at the moment and I'm constantly way off with womens ages and it's mostly due to the hairstyles and clothes. People in their 30s and wearing stuff that I'd now associate with people in their 60s. It happens less with men because they're mostly in suits which haven't changed hugely and shorter hair styles.

I'm also finding it less of an issue in Buffy, although DD thinks the teens outfits are hilarious. I did also struggle when I realised I'm now older then both Giles and Buffy's Mum!

I was in my 30s in the 1990s but have dressed much the same way my whole life (same clothes as you), and have never dressed like my mother either, at any stage of my life.

I can't say I've noticed people looking any older in the 90s, and I certainly didn't dress more "grown up" then.

Yup. I wouldn't have been seen dead in them either.

I was at college during this period and most of my peers wore rave stuff or goth, we had a few dedicated indie, rock and acid house nights at the local nightclub, but the mainstream was still wearing the ‘nice stuff’ to go out in.
I can remember coming home from university and going for a night out in my hometown and being the pretentious little twerp I was at the time, laughing at the ladies dancing round their handbags.
Pencil skirts have come in and out of fashion a few times since then, but I’ve never been able to bring myself to wear one because it always reminds me of going out clothes from that period.
Just cause it wasn’t my scene or yours doesn’t mean it didn’t exist.

In defence of the poster who is being bashed to pieces for saying that people wore pencil skirts etc to clubs in the 80s....

I was clubbing in 1985/6 in Birmingham - Powerhouse was my club of choice.

I used to either wear a black strapless lace dress or a black suit with a size 10 skirt and a size 14 jacket - rolled up at the sleeves of course...

... under it a white blouse with a little false necklace of pearls under the collar!

I remember lots of times the boys in our group unable to get if in they were wearing cords instead of trousers or they didn't have a tie on...

... remember one lad complaining that he did have a tie - it was just one of those cowboy string ones... and he had little collar tips too - to match!

It was absolutely the case that the posh clubs in the city centre were dress shoes and ties for men - and all the girls were very dressed up.

I pretty much stopped clubbing by the 90s and when I started going again the 2000s it was way more relaxed - still saw my boyfriend refused entries to Bobby Browns though because he had hiking boots on and not "dress shoes" - this was 2000!!

Just shows how different we all are .

Late 1980s if I went clubbing I wore short bodycon dresses with shoulder pads ! Stiletto shoes, big permed hair .

Mainstream clubs in Birmingham.

I think I dress a lot more casually today than I did late 80s and 1990s, certainly in terms of what I wore to work anyway .

I'm late 50s now so would have been 20s in the 80s, 20s - early 30s in the 90s.

I started clubbing in around 1995 and in my home (smallish) city, my neighbouring big city and my bigger university city there were clubs where jeans or trainers would not be allowed. In those places the lads wore shoes, trousers and a shirt, generally no tie. The girls would be in a skirt and top or a dress with heels. Girls in trousers would have been somewhat unusual.

The market towns where some of my friends lived often only had one nightclub and the dress code was often smarter than the big city clubs. You were far less likely to get away with black jeans or DMs.

Alternative clubs were a different matter and the dress wouldn't normally be smart, it would be tribal depending upon whether it was a rocker, indie, or house place. The only smart dress would be the odd guy trying to emulate Jarvis Cocker in the britpop/indie places.

Change his clothes and shave his hair though and he'd look like any current 50yr old. His face isn't unusually aged for 50.

@JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon that's true lol

Maybe its fashion and lifestyles.
I can remember my nan and great aunts around when i was young (1990s) retired at 60, had similar clothes style.. tights, skirt, cotton top, long coat and never went anywhere without a plastic rain thing on their heads. 😂

Going out (ladies night at the working mens club) clothes were always a flower print dress. black low heels.

My mum is similar age now to what they were and sometimes she wears jeans, and never has a plastic rain cover over her head.
Annoyingly she even comments on my clothes and says thats nice, ill wear that.