Top 10 '90s Trends You Forgot Were Hilarious

These were the ultimate cool girl accessories. Everyone was pulling chunks of their locks back and securing them with these little winged clips. What we all collectively decided to overlook was how they inevitably gave the hair a greasy appearance. Let’s not forget the free forehead extension either! Today, butterfly hair clips are back in trend, much like many other nineties fashion items. However, rather than actually clipping hair back with it, they’re used as teeny tiny adornments. For tips on how to style them in a modern way, you can take a page out of Olivia Rodrigo or Doja Cat’s lookbook.

If the sensation of one of these snapping on your wrist hits you as soon as you hear this name, then you’re a true nineties kid. No matter how red they left your body, you couldn’t be a part of the in-crowd if you weren’t rocking with the slappies. Naturally, the phenomenon took over schools and started causing actual injuries. We wonder how its inventor, high school teacher Stuart Anders, felt about that. The final nail in the coffin for this trend was when imitation pieces penetrated the market and came with explicit content printed on the metal inside the colorful cases. There have been several attempts to bring slap bracelets back since, but it feels like we’ve all agreed to never go there again.

Some things are only cool when Zendaya does it. Case in point: the stunning heat-sensitive leather fit she sported for a Ferragamo photoshoot in 2022. As revolutionary as that look was, its predecessor came in the nineties in the form of hypercolor fashion. These pieces would react to heat and change color. However, at the hands of sweaty teens, it usually meant embarrassing patches in all the weirdest spots. Besides, they would barely last a couple of washes, after which you were stuck with just a murky tee. Sure, there was some neat science behind this trend, but the novelty could only take it so far.

Were they practical? No. Were they at least comfortable? Again, no, but when did that stop anyone from following a trend? Inflatable furniture seemed so ahead of its time when it started gaining popularity in the nineties that every other concern went right out the door. So what if you had to spend hours pumping air into your bubble chair, only for it to get deflated if you sat on it wrong? Remember those random skin abrasions you always got? They were just stamps of approval from the cool kids’ club. Eventually, at the turn of the century, the inflatable movement ran out of air. You can still get them today, though, but they mostly serve as nostalgia pieces.

Who remembers wearing these bad boys out every day and trying to play it cool when you inevitably twisted your ankle? The concept of arch support took a back seat to fashion when platform sneakers started ruling our wardrobes. Also known as flatforms, these shoes had us propped up on what basically looked like bricks attached to our feet. While they did add the inches, the medical bills also grew in size from all the sprains and fractures they caused. Although flatforms never really left fashion, at least they’re made better now, or so we hope.

Much like today, fashion in the nineties was heavily influenced by hip hop culture. So, wide-legged pants were quite the fad, after rappers like MC Hammer started sporting them. Jumping on the bandwagon, one company came out with the baggiest bottoms to rule them all – the JNCO jeans. From skaters to ravers, everyone copped a pair and dragged them around. By the end of the day, they’d mostly be dirty, muddy, and wet. Now, that’s a whole different kind of drip. We just know the laundromats hated to see them coming.

This is another hip-hop inspired style trend that had a chokehold on Millennials. Following the duo Kriss Kross and their “totally krossed out” look, fans started wearing their clothes backwards. Even worse, some wore their garments completely inside out! While the “Jump” rappers embodied their signature style with panache, others fell short with their aspirations of swagger. Instead of exuding effortless charisma, they found themselves in awkward situations with all the wrong buttons in all the wrong places. It was definitely a statement, but we’re not sure what was being stated.

Nowadays, you might see this haircut on the most stylish K-Pop idols. They serve as the perfect reminder that only when you have otherworldly good looks, can you pull off this style. However, back in the nineties, everyone wanted a piece of the bowl. They somehow had the confidence to ask for it even though it looked like someone actually put a bowl on their head to shape the hair. In a way, nineties kids had a love-hate relationship with this cut. That is probably why its resurgence makes little sense to them.

Everyone but actual babies had binkies around their necks in the nineties. Many came across the unusual accessory for the first time in the 1991 movie “Boyz n the Hood.” In it, the character Dooky[b], played by Dedrick D. Gobert, is often seen with a pacifier in his mouth. It is said that the actor sucked on one in real life to combat his smoking addiction. Others got into it by seeing Flavor Flav wear pacifiers like pendants. Over time, they started being associated with rave culture, substance use, and gangs. At that point, they were banned from schools. Still, the impact pacifier necklaces had on nineties pop culture is truly worth studying.

This icy style was the defining fashion trend of the 1990s. Today, it is a source of deep-seated cringe for generation Y. On paper, it doesn’t sound too bad. In fact, it’s quite similar to the new dip dye technique of hair coloring. However, it’s how the hair was styled into spikes and each spike was individually bleached at the tip that made it rather questionable. Nevertheless, the trend spread far and wide. It was so pervasive that frosted ends became the only thing that put Justin Timberlake and Guy Fieri in the same category. A modern version of this hairstyle seems to have made a comeback, though, and thankfully, it is a lot more bearable.
Which of these trends do you want to see coming back? Let us know in the comments!

[b]https://youtu.be/FEub6dInjsI?si=ocIJQBh_ijBaWqfM&t=12
https://youtu.be/n9xCbm3GuyA?si=G-ZIIz1N60qtLCco&t=5