90s Fashion: The Era of Celebrity, Glamour and Style

The 80s was very much my era because it was when I discovered wonderful music, TV shows, films and books but when it comes to style and clothes, it was all about 90s baby. I was in my 20s during this time and I came of age by trying out different looks and discovering what suited me. BBC 4's fashion offering, Style on Trial - which is like a chronicle of the fashion decades - had it's penultimate show last night. They covered the 90s and with a panel that consisted of Mica Paris, Pearl Lowe and Ben de Lisi we were taken back to an era that embraced Britannia and celebrity. This was the decade when the country dipped into recession and we spent a good few years rebelling from the 80s and dressing down in t-shirts and jeans. It was also when grunge and acid house ruled the airwaves as well as the catwalk. I didn't like the Seattle born grunge with the matted hair, large over sized jumpers along with DMs. I just couldn't understand why anyone would want to spend all that time looking like a scruff. To me there was nothing chic about it and I was relieved when we moved onto something else.

That something else was high end glamour - ironically the complete opposite of grunge. Up there riding the crest waves was the enigmatic Gianni Versace whose glamorous and sexy dresses lead to the explosion of celebrity endorsed fashion. All the celebs loved Versace and he loved them back and decked them out in his opulent gowns - who can forget Elizabeth Hurley in that black dress held together with safety pins? Genius. This era was also about branding; marketeers reinvented themselves and logos began to symbol a lot more than a slick graphic. However the Labour government took this strategy to a new level and repositioned themselves as the cool party with an ethos that everyone wanted to be part off. Hence the birth of Cool Britannia and all that came with it. Liam Gallagher and Patsy Kensit on the cover Vanity Fair was just the tip of the iceberg. However, the epitome of the 90s was the trend in pick and mix fashion where fashionistas began to wear luxury labels with high street along with a dash of second hand.

London Fashion Week

Well this weekend it was off to South Kensington for London Fashion Week (LFW) to check out a few shows. The ones I saw were Ben De Lisi, Bora Aksu, Unconditional, Gareth Pugh, Julia Clancey and Eley Kishimoto.

Ben De Lisi: Elegant evening dresses, wearable stuff that would not look out of place on the back of his Oscar lovvies.

Bora Aksu: Little dresses with lots of flavour and with a masculine edge.

Unconditional: A combo of his and hers, in your face with original shapes.

Gareth Pugh: My initial reaction to the first outfit he sent down the runway was "What a load of rubbish." Why? Because the model was wearing a sequined black smock dress with what resembled a box over her head. There were lots of weird and wacky designs. I really wasn't sure what to expect from fashion's golden boy but I left feeling very unimpressed. The fashionistas just lapped it up and Pugh boy got the loudest applause so far. They must know something I don't.

Julia Clancey: This show was totally the opposite, well for a start it was held at the Vauxhall Scout depot which is the venue for the off schedule. Clancey presented a collection of a variety of evening dresses that was so wearable that you felt like you had seen them before. In fact I felt a sense of deja vu when I saw the Grecian themed dresses floating down the runway. Is it just me or where they so last season. Not a bad collection though, very boutique like.

Eley Kishimoto: Talk about leaving the best till last. This collection rocked!! Based on a fairground theme, the Eley Kish joint venture was charming, original with tongue in cheek humour. Their use of colour was a real breath of fresh air. I loved it.

The highlights of LFW were Bora Aksu, Eley Kishimoto, meeting up with fellow Bloggers extraordinaire, Susie Style Bubble, Roller Girl and Michele from myfashionlife, getting a free MAC makeover with lots of free MAC goodies and people watching in the swish press room where journos from Rubbish (official newspaper for LFW) and new webite osoyou.com were hard at work.

The most amusing was seeing the paps fall over themselves to get a shot of socialite and general layabout Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and on/off WAG, Elen Rives who is Frank Lampard's other half at the Ben De Lisi show. The most amusing bordering embarrassing was seeing Big Brother's Ziggy queuing up for the Unconditional show. He looked as terrible in the flesh as he did on the show.

Well that's me all fashioned out so it is back to the day job.

Picture taken from londonfashionweek.co.uk