A Tribute to the 90’s; The Grunge Era

Boot legs, spaghetti straps, crop tops and the Spice Girls – wow – good times.

The 90’s had me wearing a peculiar combination of attire, in grade 7 it ranged from Chinese inspired fashion to surf wear, and grade 8, the last year before the new Millennium, saw me in anything with a label, and anything before that; I cannot be held accountable for!

Amidst falling in crush, and falling out, sharing secrets and discoveries with best friends and growing up, a lot was happening in the world around me and although I was aware of the main events and happenings, I don’t think I grasped all of what was happening around me, the changes, the dark undertones, and the light, and so now as I reminisce I see things in a new way, with a clearer vision and I see that I, unbeknownst to me, actually did take it all in, I remember it all.

We were introduced to Kate Moss and so began the “heroin chic” look. I remember leaning down on my elbows in the house of the boy I liked when I was 12 and having to listen to him wax on about his undying love for her whilst staring up at the famous CKbe ad on his wall, which he had torn from a magazine and stuck there with prestick.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the very same thing is happening to a girl of 12 right this second because Kate still holds the title of “cool” and she will always be timelessly stunning.

And who could forget Elizabeth Hurley’s uber revealing Versace dress, held together by large safety pins? I recall seeing that dress everywhere, I think it was around the time when her then boyfriend, actor Hugh Grant, got caught in his car with a prostitute named Divine Brown. Needless to say; their pictures were in all the rags. The highly sought after “Rachel cut”; Jennifer Aniston’s short, layered hair style, with light streaks in the front, I remember seeing it on the cover of People Magazine and every week on Friends.

I remember watching Beverly Hills 90210, and having to search for the audio on Radio 2000. At this point T.V shows were a family affair and all the good shows were watched together; The Highlander, which inspired my mother to demand that my father grow his hair and wear a pony tail just like the one Duncan Macleod adorned, Tropical heat and the hilarious Mind Your Language.

World news in the 90’s was both exciting and terrifying: Nelson Mandela became president, the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup in Ellis Park on June 24 1995, a sheep was cloned, abortion became legal as cigarette advertisements became illegal, Rwanda experienced a horrific 100 days in 1994 during the Genocide and two high school students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, walked into their school on April 20 1999 and shot 12 of their classmates and a teacher, wounding many more and killing themselves after their plan to blow up the school had failed.

We lost talented and inspiring individuals to drugs and depression, and fame. Fashion’s muse Princess Diana and her lover Dodi Al Fayed’s tragic death in Paris, 1997, shocked the world and made our mothers cry profusely, River Phoenix’s death on a sidewalk outside The Viper Room saddened the world much like Heath Ledger’s death did last year, causing us to shake our heads and say: what a waste. Grunge god Kurt Cobain was found dead with a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head and, to this day, die-hard fans still blame his demise on his wife and chic rocker Courtney Love. Jeff Buckley, who’s first and only studio album, Grace, still induces goose bumps and melancholy in the listener, drowned in the Wolf River in Memphis, Tennessee in May 1997, his body was found on June 4.

We listened to Roxette and Hanson, Alanis, and Mariah Carey, back when she still sang, really sang, and had naturally curly hair and style. We cried our eyes out when Mufasa met his end, thanks to his evil brother Scar, and later watched as Jack and Rose fought for their love and failed on the doomed ship of 1912 which was reintroduced to us by James Cameron. A modern day Romeo and Juliet blew our minds, Jim Carrey made us laugh till we cried, and The Silence of the Lambs sent shivers down our spines while Jurassic Park set excitement and awe in the hearts of boys all over the world. We got hooked to songs like the Macarena and Barbie Girl, which I still can’t quite fathom when good music from bands like Bush and Smashing Pumpkins were available to us.

I grew up in the 90’s; I went through all the fads, from Jelly Bean shoes to Hello Kitty. All that surrounded me inspired me, shaped me into this person who sits here and laments on a time, nostalgic for the greatness and newness of the past; an apparent oxymoron. A dark and hopeful time simultaneously.
Perhaps what I adore most about this era is my familiarity with it, the joy I experienced in the centre of it. The years in which you grew up and experienced many things for the first time will always hold a sacred place in your soul, moments in time become and remain a part of your make-up, and nostalgia often seeps into our lives today, bringing with it a knowing smile or a regretful tear.
I look on times long past and thank my lucky stars I was born when I was and grew up when and where I did, I wouldn’t change a second of it.