Ad |Paid Collaboration. I know you won’t believe me when I tell you I was a teenager in the ’90s(!) It was the trends and fashion of the time that got me as interested in these things as I am now. With the Spice Girls going back on tour this week it got me thinking back to when I saw them live in 1996 at a free local radio (Hallam FM’s) Party in the Park. For many years I thought I’d imagined this encounter as they were never promoted on the line-up. But I found an amazing YouTube video of the whole concert that was filmed live for Sheffield’s Children’s Hospital TV. I ended up watching quite a bit and it really got me feeling super nostalgic and thinking back to all the ’90s fashion I rocked! It’s here if you want to watch- Spice Girls come in about 1hr 56. Listen to the host saying zig a zig ah – I was howling! It did make me wish I’d got tickets to go see them this time around, but with the amount of insta stories I’ve seen, I do feel like I’ve been there!
The Tour isn’t the only thing that the Spice Girls are coming back with though…I can’t escape them! As well as getting us all thinking back to which Spice Girl we were (I varied between a poor man’s Posh and Baby lols) and which song was our fave, they have also partnered again with Walkers* for this new advert. They are looking for their superfan and I caught it on the BGT final ad break and I have to say it did make me chuckle! It also got me wanting to dress like Baby Spice again and dig out all my current pastel outfits! (All eyes on this George at Asda baby blue gingham top!)
So I decided to dig out some old photos for a trip down memory lane. I know quite a lot of you loved this other nostalgic post where I shared some of them so I went alll the way back to try and find some photographic evidence of my ’90s fashion style and give you a run down of what 14-16 year old me was wearing whilst bopping along to the OG Spice Girls.
Slip Dresses
Here are some photos from that very day in 1996 where the Spice Girls told Peter Andre to put his shirt back on, and screamed Girl Power at the audience. I’d gone for a more stretchy slip dress in a weird seventies print from Topshop. Paired with a hair plait coloured with hair mascara, blue Spectacular branded nail polish and of course, a cuddly panda backpack. This was around the time the Shaun the Sheep backpack had come out. atterly Baby Spice was to be seen wearing that and making cuddly backpacks super fashionable. My friends had an Elmo one too- which would look great at a festival now I think! The Panda? Not so much.
Clueless Vibes
I never forget the year that patent pastel dolly shoes, Argyle, marabou and tartan graced the fashion pages of Just Seventeen magazine. It was all thanks to Cher and her comrades in quite frankly, one of the best movies ever made. I still want her wardrobe and one day I will find a way to get it! I attended the Smash Hits Tour (pre the awards) backstage and wore this inspired outfit. All from the Dorothy Perkins teen range at the time, a tartan mini, black patent backpack and matching dolly shoes, argyle top and baby pink denim jacket. It was the perfect outfit to be enveloped by Peter Andre in. I wasn’t even a massive fan so not sure how it happened tbh! Wow. I also sported some Jane Norman marabou in the form of this cardigan and crop top. Let’s not talk about my hair or face, please. So glad I grew into them!
Designer Bags and Tee’s
You weren’t anyone at school if you didn’t have a denim jacket/Adidas trackie jacket and a black bag with a shop name on. I’ve called it designer but they weren’t really, from Morgan de Toi to Ted Baker, no one was strutting around with Gucci or Dior, it wasn’t that kind of vibe. Challenge was to find one your friends didn’t have! I went for Warehouse at the time (would have been Kookai but my friend had that!) Here we are mid shot showing them off. Then the infamous fcuk tops came along to join the party. Here I am with my one which said SXE and underneath si ogod fro yuo. Cringe.
Crop Tops and Neon
’90s fashion wasn’t anything without neon. I don’t have my fave outfit from Topshop in a photo but it was a neon orange gingham hotpants with orange cotton crop top vest with white straps and little clips on each strap (like an old style bikini top clip). This lovely lime wrap skirt was the height of fashion too and came from Etam in Skegness (not Tammy Girl!) paired with a fruity shirt from Select. Can you believe this shirt was my passport photo top for TEN years? I don’t know what I was thinking!
The crop tops are something else. The v hem was soooo 1999 and New Look was awash with it. If a beaded hem was on it (similar to my choker here) then it was even better. Lisa from Steps wore my other one too and it formed part of my outfit for the millennium. I suppose this was the beginning of ath-leisure as was a ‘posher’ was to be ‘sporty’. You can even spot my Baby G watch in the left-hand photo, again something the Spice Girls loved to wear.
So now I’ve shared my old skool photos, tell me- what’s your fave ’90s fashion throwback? There’s so many I couldn’t find photos for: satin, bandanas, chainmail tops, diamanté everything… I could go on! I’m thinking of covering ’90s beauty trends next so share with me your faves so I can include them!
*This post is a Paid Collaboration with Walkers Crisps. The topic was chosen by me and all words are my own.
