1990s Men’s Style: Is it “Vintage Clothing” Already?

It’s very easy to conjure up images of men’s fashion from the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties. But the nineties? What was that all about? In a way, it was a time when men’s fashion became rather conservative and slightly masculine. There was no room for flouncy ornamentation or attention-grabbing decadence of the previous decades; the order of the day was utilitarianism, or a sense of smart casual dress that would eventually pervade the office environment and threaten the very existence of the formal shirt and tie.

Fashion-wise, the decade started, as decades do, with the last gasps of the previous one. The Madchester, baggy scene, epitomised by the Happy Mondays, Stone Roses and the Charlatans, was still alive in the UK but by 1990 it was two years old, so had had a pretty good innings by the standards of any modern popular movement. Flared trousers, paisley shirts, pony tails and tie-dye could still be worn without too much embarrassment around the turn of the 1990s, but men’s style would soon start to edge this look to the fringes. If the previous few years had seen a backlash against designer labels, the following years would see them return with a vengeance, although they themselves had noticeably toned themselves down to become more attractive, rather than the public suddenly regaining a taste for 80s extravagance.

Again, the best way to have one’s memory jogged about a fashion era (even if you are too young to remember it) is to look at the music icons of the day. In the 1990s the stand-out UK acts were almost certainly Oasis and Blur. Both were exponents of particular fashion styles. In the “Blur” corner the look was classic Indie – a pair of jeans or combats, a skinny tee shirt and some trainers or chunky shoes. Over in the “Oasis” corner the look was probably a bit smarter, influenced as it was by the Beatles and the Mod scene, but employed the buttoned shirt – never tucked in, of course – and the denim jacket to give the look a working-class feel.

The untucked shirt was a lot harder to pull off than it would appear. Many shirts are designed to be tucked in and not fall out and so they extend far below the waistline. Fashion naifs would often buy any old shirt, untuck it and end up looking like a dentist or a chef, or just someone who had been in a fight. The ideal length for the untucked shirt is the same as that for a tee – halfway between the waist and the crotch – and therefore they had to be designed for that purpose.

What the two branches had in common was that they could both be worn formally or casually. Throw on a dark jacket and you could transform either look into a passably businesslike getup. This is partly because of the tight lines that followed the male physique and partly because the business world had become a little less formal as the baby boomers were starting to take charge.

Even though we’ve had a whole decade since the end 1990s, its influence remains in men’s fashion. Maybe that’s why genuine vintage clothing from the period has kept its relevance to this day.