Were it not for the sea of Macbooks, a student from the ‘90s who magically wound up on a university campus in 2025 might struggle to believe they were past the turn of the millennium. Instead of the self-lacing trainers and hoverboards that Back to the Future promised, Gen-Z are raiding Oxfams and vintage stores for baggy jeans and graphic t-shirts that are straight out of 1995.
But why has the fashion of the internet generation regressed instead of evolved? Why are we so desperate to recreate a style of streetwear from a decade we never even experienced?
“At least part of the reason, I think, is that we’re trying to strive for something that we don’t have anymore,” says 23-year-old Matilda Holttum – a Fashion Studies graduate and small knitwear business owner from Stamford.
“Everyone’s on social media, lives are less private, and I feel like you don’t get to pick your narrative the way you could in the ‘90s. I think there was this freedom back then to wear what you want and just not be judged for it”, she continued.
“Nowadays, there are so many different inputs about how young people should be dressing because of social media, and I think it’s given our generation a bit of an identity crisis. All of this information just leaves you wondering, ‘where do I fit in?’”
For those of us born into the digital age, the ‘90s signifies the last generation of young people who didn’t spend a significant chunk of their adolescence on the internet. Besides chatting on the landline, the social lives of ‘90s teenagers stopped the moment they were through their front door – free from the dizzying opinions of a million strangers on Twitter.
And this is exactly why the ‘90s influence comes into play. The laid back lifestyle that’s depicted in old sitcoms, or even your parent’s photo albums from their teenage years is what Gen-Z craves, and might just explain the fashion trends we’re currently seeing.
By drawing inspiration from the ‘90s, Gen-Z are staging a quiet rebellion against the disingenuous world of social media, and finding out what it means to experience life outside of a phone screen. By using the ‘90s as a blueprint for our own styles, we’ve managed to salvage a small part of this lost reality.
“How our generation dresses is a way of connecting back to that time,” says Yasmin Aldrich – a freelance designer, illustrator and creative from Cambridge.
“I think about how wholesome and relaxed things would have been before all of this technology. We’ve never really known life without it, so I think we’ve adopted a sense of nostalgia and longing for the ‘90s. I for one wish I could go back and experience it.”
Just as Yasmin reflects, the ‘90s is synonymous with that laid back, care-free attitude. The skateboarding, hip-hop and rave scenes were at an all time high, and their respective styles have since amalgamated into Gen-Z’s own casual ‘streetwear’ look, carrying with it an ethos of freedom and self-expression.
“There’s this element of fun that the ‘90s seemed to have that we’re missing,” she continued. “Now that social media has become about influencers creating this image of perfection and having the best time of their lives, it gives young people these hugely unrealistic expectations about what their own lives should look like. When you look back 30 years, it was about just living for yourself and having fun – there was no perfectionism, and the fashion reflected this. Everything was a bit more individual and carefree because your world was smaller and there was no online audience to perform to.”
For Gen-Z however, things haven’t been the same – especially after spending the better part of a global pandemic cooped up indoors. “When the lockdown was coming to an end and we could go outside again, I think a lot of young people, including myself, were desperate to start really living,” says 22-year-old Orla O’dwyer, a part time bartender from Norwhich who spends her free hours exploring the expanse of vintage and second hand stores that her city has to offer.
“I’d spent months just scrolling through TikTok everyday, watching reruns of Friends, and just generally resenting the idea that my life was slipping away from me. For some reason, a lot of the media I was drawn to at the time had a ‘90s theme that was just inexplicably cool. I kept thinking during the pandemic that as soon as I got my life back, I wanted to feel like I’m living in that time, and I guess the easiest way to do that is to start dressing in a particular way. Which I did.”
But for those who actually experienced the ‘90s – its triumphs as well as its fashion faux pas – how do they actually feel about its resurgence? Are Gen-Z just a bunch of bandwagoning posers, or is it an era of fashion that everyone wants to see make a comeback? Well, for 52-year-old Polly Davies, an original acid-house raver during the early ‘90s, the recycling of past fashion trends is just a fact of life.
“I don’t see regenerating previous fashion as a bad thing,” says Polly. “There are only a certain number of possible clothing patterns, jeans and shirt styles. It’s only a matter of time before clothing types are replicated, and I think young adults look to ‘90s styles not just for how it looks, but as a salute to the era. Nostalgia and hindsight always happen eventually, and I’m sure the same thing will happen in the decades to come, even if that’s hard to picture now.”
Despite her welcoming attitude towards Gen-Z’s take on ‘90s attire, Polly doesn’t forget to stress how much has changed in the last 30 years, not just in fashion but culturally too. “Nightclubs and raves were full of oddly dressed people,” Polly continued. “People were wearing things that nowadays would be considered cultural appropriation and offensive. I even remember a trend where girls would wear Indian headdresses and bindis which would be unacceptable now. There was also a really heavy drinking and drug taking culture, especially in the rave scene, which isn’t something that the younger generation should be aspiring to. Generally speaking though, the atmosphere that I remember was about fun and friendliness, and the ‘90s was without doubt a fantastic decade for UK fashion”
Regardless of her fond memories of the era, Polly has no qualms about calling out the trends that were rightfully left behind. But while she reflects on this, other veterans of the decade are raising a sceptical eyebrow at the alarming amount of baggy jeans, questioning the authenticity of Gen-Z’s ‘90s revival.
“My son came home from his first semester of university wearing a pair of baggy Levi’s, chunky DC’s and a Dickies top,” laughs 48-year-old Mark Townsend, who, although now a responsible father of three, spent his teenage years hanging around the London skate and party scenes.
“It was the strangest thing seeing him in the exact kind of outfit I would have worn 30 years ago,” Mark went on to say. “Kids are really nailing that certain style, and it’s a nice throwback, but it’s hard to get my head around what it’s for. It seems crazy to me that what me and my mates were wearing back in the day when we were just skating around and getting up to no good is now a trend for young people. That’s just what my youth was. I don’t think we were really trying to achieve anything in particular, but dressing like that now seems to be some sort of statement for young people.”
Mark’s opinions about the Gen-Z approach to ‘90s fashion may bring up some hard truths. Whilst he appreciates the nostalgic, blast-from-the-past feelings that it brings up for him, he doesn’t let us off scott-free for the lack of originality – and that might be a difficult pill for our generation to swallow.
For Gen-X, fashion depended on your social circle and the subcultures you were involved with, but for a generation where so much of our adolescence took place virtually, our outfit choices might seem calculated, performative and a much less organic process compared to those with a lived experience of ‘90s culture.
But, whether it’s a shallow imitation, or a genuine, heartfelt tribute to years gone by, Gen-Z have embraced ‘90s fashion with open arms nonetheless.
