Shop Happy Girl

1997 Fashion Trends?

I need to do a comparison of 1997 fashion trends vs. the trends of today for a project at work. I am having the hardest time thinking of fashions trends from 1997. I have tried a Google search but I haven't really gotten any favorable results. I would appreciate it if you guys can help me by listing some of the trends you can remember or even direct me to a website. I will also be needing photos of these items so a good website would be most helpful.

Public Comments

1. Let's see.....1997....I was a Sophomore in HS......I wore a lot of grunge band t-shirts(Nirvana, Bush, Tool, etc.). Jnco's were popular. Buddy holly/Nerd glasses were in......I remember a lot of girls wearing Tweety shirts....no clue why ANYONE would do that.....Skater stuff was starting to get popular....brands like Es, DC, Etnies and Globe. Sagging your pants was cool.....goth kids would carry around lunchboxes.....and Abercrombie was starting to come into play 'bout that time along with Tommy, Polo and anything preppy. Good luck Girly!
2. i have a seventeen magazine from late 1996 which is near there. I remember mary jane shoes were in style. baby doll dresses and t-shirts. lots of those different color lip sticks and glosses, and those old metallic like nail polishes. i remember everybody wearing bibs and overalls. there were no flared jeans really, they were all straight leg and tapered. doc martins here is a link that might help you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s_in_fashion http://www.kidzworld.com/article/4632-90s-fashion-trends
3. I'm sure some of this is regional. But in 1997 Seattle, there were still a few grungers around (shorts, docs, band t-shirt with a long-john type shirt underneath). In my mind though, I think of 1997 as the year of Gap. It seemed like everyone had a sweater twin set and a pair of khakis. I also remember lots of chunky shoes (Docs, John Fluvogs), Converse One-Stars or similar skater shoes, and wide-leg carpenter jeans for him and her. The style was transitioning at that time to more urban upscale looks (I remember Kenneth Cole becoming really popular around then, and I think that's when Banana Republic went urban and less Tommy Bahama). Girls in Guatemalan jumpers and boys in flannel shirts were now seen as "so early 90s". I also remember that my "broom-stick" dress was still pretty fashionable at that point. I think today's styles are a bit more fussy. Clothes in that time period were more simple, less fabric and detail. Today lots of clothes have unusual sleeves and folds, more stitching, etc. Particularly for dressy clothes, back then it was more clean lines and nice fabrics (Vera Wang dresses personify this) and now it is all about opulence and excess (sparkles, beading, folds, pleats, etc).