Kerry Parnell: Why I won’t give ’90s fashions a second chance

Just because ‘90s fashion is back and we might have some of those styles left in our wardrobes, it doesn’t mean we have it wear them, Kerry Parnell writes.

You know you are old when your wardrobe has gone out of style and come back again.

Nineties fashion is back in full force – it’s been cool for some time with Gen Z sporting the sweatshirts, crop tops and baggy jeans of my youth – but now it’s all over the catwalk too.

From Miu Miu to Chanel, Paris Fashion Week was full of it. It was all slip dresses, bare midriffs, micro-minis, low-slung trousers and sneakers on the runway this week. Even the shoes are repeating themselves, with mules the must-have heels.

Which is great, except it means I’m ancient.

The positive thing is I don’t need to go shopping; I can, technically, rummage around at the back of my wardrobe for dusty old items that are now officially vintage, except it’s unlikely they will fit.

That in itself is a concern – according to Newcastle University’s Professor Roy Taylor’s recent comments, you’re at risk of developing type 2 diabetes if you can’t fit into the trousers you wore at 21.

Thanks very much, Joy Roy – I probably could, but it would definitely be bad for the health of everyone else if I did. And while there’s no chance I’ll be sporting underwear as outerwear this time round, for the sake of my local community, the good news is I can definitely still fit in my silly-money shoes, which turned out to be an investment, after all.

A model walks the runway during the Chanel Womenswear Spring/Summer 2022 show at Paris Fashion Week. Picture: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

Back in the day, when I was a Saturday girl working in my dad’s newsagent’s, I remember one regular, an older lady with a top-to-toe 1960s wardrobe.

I used to puzzle over her clothes – was she super-cool, or slightly crazy, bang on trend, or going to a fancy-dress party? Teenage me could never work it out.

But now, as I ponder over the return of the fashion of my youth, I’ve realised a terrible truth. In the 1990s, the 1960s were 30 years prior – a lifetime away to the young and heartless. Do the maths: the 1990s are 30 years prior to the 2020s. Reader, that lady is me.

This sobering thought has at least ensured I won’t be burning out the eyes of anyone under 25 with my “literally-still-got-it” outfits. Yes, I may still own it, but it will stay on its hanger for my daughters.

But you know the one thing I wish Gen Z could revive from the 1990s? Not the sweaters, shoes or bags, but the freedom.

Pre-mobile phones, you caught up with your mates in person, not by message. You dated in real life. And when you went out, nobody, least of all your parents, knew where you were, until you got home.

I backpacked around the world and the only way my family could communicate with me was by sending handwritten airmail letters to Poste Restante.

I queued up at post offices from India to Indonesia, to be handed bundles of tissue-paper missives from home – sometimes winning Travel Bingo when they included care packages – and I can still remember, today, the joy of finding something waiting for me.

Little did I know then, that would be the one thing about the ’90s that would turn out to be priceless.

Originally published as Kerry Parnell: Why I won’t give ’90s fashions a second chance