Wedding Dress And Other Fashions For The 1990’s and 2000’s

The wedding dress, along with women’s fashions, has gone through many changes over the years. In the decades of the 1990’s and 2000’s, we see these styles change as women change from the outlandish 1980’s to a more unisex and then towards more of woman’s world.

1990’s

With the 1980’s and its decade of flamboyancy, the decade of the 90’s brought a more simple and quieter style to women’s fashion. In fact women’s styles in the 1990’s were led by the younger generation of women. Not surprisingly when you consider the short-lived grunge fashion style of the early part of the decade.

For the first part of the decade, women’s fashions saw the gradual change from the off-the-shoulder sweatshirts and the shoulder pads to sleeker looks and less trashy. Their jackets were fitted so that the shoulder pads were minimal until they disappeared altogether. In addition, accessories became less gaudy and gave fashion a nice touch instead of overbearing it.

In addition, out went the mini skirt that were held up by suspenders and were replaced with trouser suits. Jeans and smart blazers however remained in style. As mentioned, grunge had its run with the use of oversized flannel shirts, Doc Marten shoes and baggy pants thanks in large part to the Seattle alternative music scene that brought us such bands as “Nirvana.”

As the 90’s wore on, the plain color palette that was enjoying its run was losing its hold on society and color, shapes, spirit and retro looks of the past became the fashion. Some may say that grunge wear was dead as a variety of styles were now accepted. Such styles as babydoll tops, stirrup pants, flat-pointed boots and the bootcut denim jeans were the “in thing.”  Without question, young Hollywood types had a large influence on the fashion scene.

One other fashion style that became popular in the 90’s was the Goth style. Goth is basically a very black look to their clothes, hair, fingernails and eye makeup. Goth is still in style today, however you just don’t see it as being as prevalent as before.

With the 1990’s being so independent, the fashion designer had less and less influence on the decade’s styles. However, when it came to wedding attire, one designer definitely stood out and did influence, and that was Vera Wang. Wang had a way of interpretating the ball gown in a form of a stripped down bodice; similar to a one-piece bathing suit. It was also similar to a full skirt of tulle which offered the bride of the 90’s an alternative to what they wore in the 80’s. She took the “less is more” adage almost to the point where critics referred to it as “less is bore.”

The problem that Wang endured was because of the simplicity of her designs, after awhile, all the brides looked the same as there was not much you can alter to give her a different look. Therefore, other gown designers began to keep things simple, but added a little more than Wang to offer a variety of possibilities to the different brides.

As the 90’s came to a close, wedding gowns were more about the personality, than that of tradition. The vintage gown, sheaths and mermaid-cut dresses were popular in their choices along with many colors.

2000’s

As the new millennium began, female fashions included boots or shoes with rounded or even flat toes. As for the clothing, they began to move from the 1990’s unisex fashions and wore more feminine styles. Introduced during the decade were such fashions as the Burberry, “Daisy Dukes,” denim miniskirts and jackets, flip-flops, hip hop inspired sweatpants and midriff exposing tank tops. Soft feminine pastel colors were also in, such as pink, yellow and baby blue.

The mid-2000’s brought women’s fashion even further from the coed fashion of the 90’s. Styles being worn by women at this time included knee-high boots, low-rise skinny jeans, lycra yoga wear, trench and peacoats, and the Capri pants made a comeback, exposing much of her calf. Crocs also made their way into the scene at this time, worn by both men and women alike.

Then as the latter part of the decade came to an end, fashions for females again had its changes. As quickly as they wore the above, the quicker it went and in was denim-print leggings, acid wash skinny jeans, headbands, Nike Tempo shorts. Also leather jackets and fur coats began to make a small comeback amidst protests and many other foreign styles began to take shape in America as we head into the next decade.