"Mum, can I borrow this?"...

The fashion of the 1990s is difficult to pin point; the twenties introduced Chanel’s Little Black Dress, the sixties brought us the mini skirt, and the eighties caused an explosion of neon colours to the fashion world. By the nineties, these eccentric colours had vanished – double denim, pastels, and low-heeled shoes took over. Retro Waste has described the nineties as “a little smarter and a litter classier” [1]. Simple items such as black leggings, grunge style flannel shirts, Birkenstocks, and oversized everything dominated teen’s wardrobes. By 1994 the youths of the nineties almost looked identical to their parents (handy to share clothes I suppose!). As far as the relationship between fashion and art was concerned, there were no direct correlations other than the scarce geometric/cubism patterns on many knitted jumpers. The youths of the nineties took inspiration from celebrities, TV personalities, and music artists as opposed to any previous art styles or developing art styles.

As the eighties came to an end, art entered the era known as the Young British Artists – YBAs [2]. The label went on to become a brand and marketing tool for the YBAs, their disturbing innovative ideas blended with their entrepreneurial approach marketing their pieces dominated the nineties. The art of the nineties is not one you could associate with fashion, YBAs such as Damien Hirst had rose to fame (by creating sculptures out of dead animals) [2], and visually deceptive sculptures such as Gabriel Orozco’s La DS in 1993. It isn’t too far-fetched to state that the art of the nineties was quite the opposite of the fashion; whilst the fashion took the route of maturing and ‘calming down’ (in comparison to the eighties), the YBA art style has been recognised as “a new and excitingly distinctive phase”, possibly one of the most ‘out-there’ art styles to ever exist. Other YBAs of this decade include Cornelia Parker who crushed a range of objects with a steamroller, Tracey Emin who presented her bed (yes, her own bed), and Sarah Lucas who created sculptures out of anything from fresh food to women’s tights.

[1]: https://www.retrowaste.com/1990s/fashion-in-the-1990s/1990s-fashion-for-women-girls/

[2]: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/y/young-british-artists-ybas