Currently I’m sitting on Mr Smaggle’s slightly uncomfortable leather couch watching ‘Never Been Kissed‘ on TV. There’s this scene where Drew Barrymore is all ‘Oh my god, it’s all about horse shoes this season!’ but clearly it’s all about Baby G watches, one of which she is sporting in pale pink. In year 7, only the COOLEST girls had Baby Gs and for some reason I never managed to get my hands on one. Thank god. They are bloody ugly. This got me thinking about all the other ‘super cool’ fashion items that I needed so badly when I was 14 and I now thank my lucky stars that I never wasted my money on them because, quite frankly, they are awful. If it wasn’t for the Spice Girls, 1990’s Australian culture and the bitches who smoked at the bus stop in the mornings I may never have developed a psychotic obsession with the following items…
* A Baby G watch.
* A pair of Dache Tensile jeans. You know those awful, thin, soft, static, pale blue jeans that everyone was wearing in 1996?
* Hair jewels. The ones that had little clips and you stuck them all over your hair, usually at parties but especially at the formal.
* Cargo pants. And a white singlet. Actually camo pants were better.
* Mickey Mouse platform shoes. They were these weird Spice Girl endorsed bubbly shoes with mickey ears on them. Really weird.
* A purple Billabong backpack.
* A Bananas in Pyjamas pencil tin. For my non-Aussie readers, this is a kids TV show that’s kind of lame and for some reason it was cool to sport merchandise from the show circa 1997. I have no idea why but it didn’t stop me hankering after a branded pencil tin.
* Tattoo jewellery. Those stretchy bands made from dark, woven fishing line and when you wore them around you neck or arm they looked like tattoos?
* Dead straight hair, slicked back into a tight ponytail with two strands on either side of my face slapped down with crunchy hair gel.
How about you chickens? What got your toes curling at the tender age of 14? What hideous clothing item had you foaming at the mouth?
Love Lady Smaggle
xxx
58 Comments
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ooh I remember all this stuff. I was living in Asia around this era and I had about ten fake Baby-G watches, they were really cheap so I had lots of different colours! I was also a fan of the tattoo jewellery. and I always had a Roxy backpack at school, hehe. I guess I’m younger than you though cause this stuff was all around when I was about 11/12
When I was 14 (2001) I had cargo pants from the boy’s clothing section that I loved, cordurouy was having a big moment, I got a pair of Sketchers for my birthday… I was pretty into wraparound sunnies too. This was also the year I got my first pair of converse and I still wear them. Oooh and I remember really wanting a sparkly backless halter top from Supre to wear to the school social! with stretchy flared hipster pants!
And do you remember all those clothes they used to sell in the ‘youth’ section at K-mart, where you’d get like a pair of pants, top, little handbag and matching headscarf, all with the same embroidery or trim or something.
Now I also remember wearing little triangle-shaped headscarves a lot. -
I thought of something else! those pants with the mini-skirt attached! I really really wanted them and when my mum asked why, I could not think of one good reason except that everyone in Girlfriend magazine wore them…
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Oh man, the tattoo necklace/bracelet was SO badass!!! That’s so funny that you posted this today though, because yesterday afternoon I somehow stumbled on episodes of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Talk about nostalgia!
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Oh my goodness, I just recently posted an album full of old pics from high school and in the NYE 2000 pics I’m wearing a tattoo necklace… too cool! I’m sure if I dug deeper I could find one where I’m wearing hair jewels as well.
I stomped around in platform sneakers as well, but things I also remember being huge over here in NZ were Elmo on anything, triangle headscarves (we actually ran our small business in 4th form business studies selling headscarves), the two dyed blonde fringe pieces (A la Ginger Spice), wearing mens trackies from Barkers with “Barkers” emblazoned up the leg… and the list goes on – and that’s just a couple of years in my life :D. It’s fun being nostalgic! -
I would have given my right arm for a pair of platform shoes like the ones Baby and Ginger used to clomp around in (so much so that I made a pair, which is a highly embarrasing story I can assure you!) It’s also sort of funny because I was convinced I was meant to BE Posh Spice…
I was such a gay child.
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Great post! Prompted me to comment…
When I was 14 (1994) I wanted (No, I NEEDED):
A long bobbed haircut with fringe – all the cool girls had a bob, but my parents didn’t want me to cut all my lovely long hair off.
A heart-shaped pendant on a long chain – like the Ace of Base woman wore, to be worn with a cropped t-shirt, long skirt and plimsoll-type pumps.
A cropped, off the shoulder t-shirt or jumper.
Timberland boots. Not the modern ones with heels, the old ones that builders wore. Nice and clumpy!
Black, lace-up, heeled, knee high boots. I wasn’t really allowed heels, definitely not for school! But the most fashion-forward girl in my year wore knee boots with her school uniform. It really worked the look!
A crinkly school shirt. My Mum always bought me the Banner two pack shirts with starched collars and breast pockets. I wanted a baggy, crinkly one to tuck into my too-short skirt… maybe even in cheese cloth!
Anything from Topshop!
The items I did have and were most proud of were my patchwork mini-dress and my black leather-thong necklace, which I had knotted in several places and wore tight around my neck. I thought I looked so cool!
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Wow all of these things were me at 13-14. I had some tensile jeans from Westco, I dreamed about owning a Baby G watch and I loved hair jewels. Another commenter has mentions head scarves, I was all over that trend like a bad rash. Wow the memories!
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Hahaha! I was 14 in 1987, so you can picture the horror . . . But I lived in an isolated small town and no-one had much money back then, so I didn’t get to indulge my dreams too much. Although I rocked the denim-on-denim with extra denim pretty hard. I always wanted something like the corset-bodice full-skirt white dress Madonna wore on the cover of Like A Virgin.
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Ohh, the tattoo necklaces! I wore the same one for over a year straight. Hee.
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The mention of tencil jeans reminded me of my 1995 outfit of a pink angora cardigan teamed with navy blue tencil jeans, both from Esprit. A few times I wore very pale pink stud earings (from Sportsgirl) but had to stop when more than one person told me they thought I had warts on my ears.
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I am 14, and I don’t even know what people my age are supposed to be coveting right now. Im very lucky in that regard; I’m not pressured in any way to follow mindless trends. I love my school! 🙂
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This is such a great question. At 14 which was 1995…I had periwinkle low cut Dr. Martens, rainbow tights, an Eddie Bauer back pack, wedge brown shoes, Gap baggy jeans, white t-shirts, flannel shirts, and oh yes a Gap anorak was a must…not to forgot Ralph Lauren sweatshirts and of course a college baseball cap for bad hair days!
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Wait a sec, I just remembered that the snobby girls would kill for anything with a huge Coach logo(s) on it. Urgh, I hate Coach. And EVERYONE in the ENTIRE school (well, actually not the upper-termers) wears Abercrombie. I hate Abercrombie with a burning passion. I hate logos. Too much negativity in this comment you say? If you have witnessed the MIND-NUMBING HORRORS of Abercrombie all day, every day, you too will feel the burn. That being said, I love my school because even though everyone wears it, no-one pressures anybody else to wear it because there are enough non-Abercrombie loving peeps that it evens out.
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OK, if I have the math right I was 14 in 1988 – the bicentennial year. The Supre of its time was a place called Fashion Flair, or was that Fair. I can’t recall. I know it was across the way from Suzanne Grae in the tiny 32-shop mall that was the shopping mecca of my town. I actually found this (http://katiecrackernuts.blogspot.com/2008/05/speaking-of-80s-flashbacks-this-jacket.html) at a car boot sale. It’s label was from this store and it cost me all of 50 cents. I had to have it. It’s everything 1988 was. Acid denim, lace, tapestry, scrunched bubble bits. Oh, so bad it’s good.
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Oh, I remember those trends! Platform sneakers, especially the white ones, were huge! On an interesting note, in Canada we also aired the Bananas in Pajamas show for a while. :p I had no idea it was an Aussie show; guess I never picked up on the accent. hehe
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Gosh, what a blast from the past!! I coveted jelly shoes….and jelly bracelets and those tattoo necklaces (Mum wouldn’t let me have them though!!) Funny how you look back and realise how tragic the fashion was….
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hehe, great memories. I remember the tattoo jewelry too, so uncomfortable after awhile, and would leave the impressions in my skin! And we had Bananas in Pajamas in Canada too! 🙂
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ohmigod, this brings back awful memories!
i desperately wanted a baby g watch/tensile jeans/anything billabong (or roxy, ha!)
i actually had hair jewels/cargo pants (pale blue baby, yeah!)/platform sneakers (minus the ears… weird?)/tattoo jewellery/and for me it was winnie the pooh not banana’s in pajamas, but same concept.
also, babydoll dresses were totally awesome. lol.
this post made me laugh a lot on my insides :p -
Oh i was thinking about my platform mickey mouse sneakers just the other day!! Possibly the most bizarre shoe ever… Ditto on the cargo pants – pretty sure i wore mine with a bright red midrift top… what a worry. Other things i coveted from that era were impulse body sprays (esp. the spice girl version with the free tattoos!), sparkly hair clips that were shaped like butterflies and this one type of strappy platform shoe that looked like it had been dropped in a bucket of glitter. Oh how my tastes have changed over the years!!
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Sketchers, Tattoo jewelry, cargo pants and headscarves.
My mum let me wear cargo pants (cream, not coloured) and that was it. I am so so grateful to her now that there are no photos of me with tattoo jewelry. Almost enough to forgive her for making me where spots and stripes together when I was 7.
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I too had the triangle headscarf, the platform sneakers and the “butterfly clips”. I also remember at 14 having 2 pairs of pedal pushers, one white and one denim. I also had black framed sunglasses with purple lenses which all the other girls luuuurved! Ooh ooh, one more thing- inflatable clear plastic backpacks!
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But the thing I would have sold my soul for was a hair straightener- instead of ironing my hair on the ironing board!
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Oh I remember the tattoo jewellery! I think I had an unhealthy obsession with body glitter. And I loved the Spice Girls platform shoes, mostly because I was never allowed to get a pair. This was a bit before I was 14, I think when I was actually 13 or 14 I would wear those horribly tacky Supre shirts with stupid slogans on them.
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Ahhh this post reminds me of some fashion tragedies… I too admired baby G watches on the cool kids… Umm I used to think pedal pushers were the bee’s knees, and overalls or dungarees as my mother called them. Denim lover I was!
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ehr… we had Bananas in Pijyamas even here in Italy…
and when I was 14 I wanted cargo pants too, plus awful ski jackets with retroreflectors. but I think those ones were a special “fashion madness” of my hometown kids.
(fun to see how much Australia in late ’90s seemed like Southern Italy in the same years!) -
you’re doing Cosi – cool! I’ve seen a few good productions of it. In melbourne right? where is it playing?
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I was 14 in 1984 – I wanted tartan pants (eek) and braces (and I got them). 🙂 At the same time I had a big curly perm – nice.
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Those Dache jeans were Hot, but I think the year before that it was allll about Slouch jeans, and everything Mambo. Sadly I think I had just about everything you had on that list…
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OOOH! Does anyone remember hair mascara? God. I went positively nuts for that stuff.
Tragic.
Xx
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OH, the tattoo necklace! I used to wear mine all the TIME! Apart from that, I also massively coveted a pink Baby G watch, cargo pants, tall Spice-girl esque platforms, and one of those leashes where you walk the invisible dog (does anyone else remember those? A girl came back from Disneyland with one once, and I thought it was the coolest thing on the planet! How embarrassing..)
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I can’t remember that far back. No, really.
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Oh god ouch…I remember all this! Imflateable anything (backpacks, chairs, cushions damn uncomfortable!) tattoo jewlerry, i had a lovely set that had graduating colour effects, hair mascara (glittery), “high heeled trainers”, i would have given my left leg for cork soled purple suede knee high platforms (yes mom thanks for never letting me!), fake baby g watches, Buffalo trainers (the bigger and puffyer the better), vest tops with brightly colourd bra straps and combats, oh and i had a lovely combat ensamble which was a shirt and trousers all in lovely slippery nylon. Thanks for this post, love the cringey-ness. Oh also this hair style with the bun thats turned so all the ends pop up behind ur head?? thats the best…xxx
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I’ll have to think about this…It would have been 1992 for me. I recall a longing for Cross Colors but I’m trying to think what else…
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I believe Girbaud jeans were IT when I was 14. Big, baggy ones that the girls hiked down to just above crotchpoint. SO attractive. Never nabbed a pair, and soooooo glad.
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Oh how you’ve made me reminisce…
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Emma – No love it’s on in Canberra. Not Melbs yet… soon though…
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Oh gosh – I remember Dache Tensile jeans! I haven’t thought about those babies in years!
Slouch jeans and midriff tops were big – and anything Stussy!
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OMG 14. So this would have been 1990/91 for me …
– Sportsgirl t-shirts and sportsgirl bags
– Bell pants (from the Camel Train!!) with body suits
– A plastic hair piece that looked like a bee hive which you put around your pony tail to make it stand up higher (not sure if I am explaining this clearly??)
– Australis make-upYep. I was HOT.
Man oh man … I have to go and check out some photos now to remember what else!!!
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oh god I’d forgotten about the constant desire to be covered in glitter… body glitter, glitter lipgloss, glitter eyeshadow, hair glitter, t-shirts with glitter…. oh deary me.
and YES hair mascara. I was only ever allowed to buy natural reddish brown colours, nothing fun 🙁 I remember it used to smell weird, and if you didn’t sit completely still while it dried, it would smudge on your face. -
Bananas in Pyjamas! We had them in the US too! They’re oddly coming up a lot recently for me. I used to watch it because it was on right before Sailor Moon. B1, B2. I loved my metallic platform shoes, cargos, tattoo jewelry, glitter, butterflies, and plastic pacifier necklace. I also had a thing for tye dye. Of course, I was still in grade school at that time. When I was 14, I liked wearing checked shorts under my pants and letting the top stick out so they looked like boxers. (I was a tomboy at the time.) And a purple oversized men’s hoodie. And butterfly hair clips.
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Hmmm. I was 14 in 1996. What were my choices….
-band t-shirts
-vintage mens’ trousers, also
-vintage mens’ shirts, especially of the powder-blue bus driver or striped and polyester varieties (I’d just seen Reality Bites and wanted to look like both Winona and Ethan)
-to that end, a pixie haircut
– if not a pixie haircut, then blonde ringlets a la Drew Barrymore in Boys on the Side
-army pants (NOT rip-off cargo or camo. The real deal army surplus). Also an army-supply canvas bag, dog tags, and knitted jumper with epaulettes (I’d just seen Platoon and wanted to both shag and be Willem Dafoe)
-ultra-plucked eyebrows (thank god I never did that one)In addition to my grunge stylings, I also secretly wished I was semi-goth, so black hair, mesh shirts, and fuck-me boots were high on my list. But since I’ve always been blonde and tanned, I knew it was never going to work.
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Oh Miss Smaggle I have only just discovered your little blog of goodness and this post had me cringing and smiling almost simultaneously, happy in the knowledge that someone else had EXACTLY the same age 14 weaknesses as I did. Love!
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When i was 14 (2002) I was going through that awkward goth phase! It’s not that long ago really which is terrifying.. When I was about 12 though I had 2 Baby G watches – pink and yellow! Oh yeah, I was cool. I also remember thinking Kangaroo shoes were really cool and Sprayway waterproof jackets were cool when I was like 8. Oh the fashion mistakes I have made (and am probably still making!)
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Spiked hair — Every guy including myself wanted it, but it looked horrible on me
NOTHING!! — I’d be a naughty little nudist if my body wasn’t so hairy…
Motorola RAZR — If you wanted a girlfriend, this was the ultimate love-note-messenger. It was too expensive. Couldn’t convince my parents to let me get one…
Wifebeaters — It seemed in America in the early/mid 2000’s every guy was grabbing this up, to get that tough “hood” look. I was too thin
Maybe I couldn’t wear any of those items if I wanted to, but now I can really pull off that sophisticated fashionable look: Khaki shorts with Sweater and Oxford shirt, a la schoolboy, little skinny scarves in fun colors, swatch watches (some really dressy, some really playful), and converses 😛
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Oh goodness, this made me laugh. I had forgotten about those things…
– Big flares on jeans. Or, even worse, on those stretchy black pants.
– Velour sweatsuits [Well, I can say proudly that I never wanted one, but I had to mention them since they occurred to me and were so heinous…)
– second to ali-bell on the glittermania
– That hairstyle where you only pull the ponytail halfway through the elastic on the last time through, and then hide the ends under the puffy loop thing that your hair makes (might have been just my area)
– butterflies – printed on clothing and those crazy, glittery ornamental wires ones you could clip in your hair whose wings actually flapped on springs
– I remember really craving a fuzzy blue visor with a silver “00” embroidered on it
– illusion necklaces
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Heh – I was 14 at the height of grunge. Flannel shirts and jeans were my staple.
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When I was 14 it was 2002 and… it was my Nü Metal phase… metal bands T-shirts and bad-ass motorcycle boots, chains hagging rom my belt and black lips… yeah, kinda gothy too…
But I remember those times in the 90’s when I died for baggy waterproof pants… in fluorescent colors of course. -
Ahh, I remember the Baby G watches! My cousin had one and I was soooo envious. Never got one myself, though.
I was very anti-trends at 14, I wore ripped jeans and boring colors. However, secretly I did wish I could get all the “fancy labels” that my friends wore…but because I couldn’t I spent a lot of time making fun of Abercrombie and Fitch. Ya know, because that was “fancy” to me back then.
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Haha…I came across this entry.. I was about 10, 11 at that time when the Spice Girls exploded… I still remember my old babysitter’s daughter, who was 13-14 at that time, She would wear platform sneakers, butterfly clips and ponytail with two strips of hair hanging on her face, too short shirt. I still remember being in her room and the posters of Spice Girls, NYSC boys (I never can really spell ’em correctly) I was part of the trends too.. I had the butterfly clips, Roxy stuff.. those Lisa Rose backpack
BUT when i was 14..that would be…about in 2005-2006
I was a freshman in high school soo..I was in this phase where i got this whole tshirt and jeans r cool… I used to be big on the baggy sweatshirts with college names on them, Jeans, converses…Nothing too “haha i remember this…etc” moments. it was pretty recent. No Trucker hats, or spray-painted shirts
Just boys with their sagging jeans and girls in their Hollister shirts
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“* Dead straight hair, slicked back into a tight ponytail with two strands on either side of my face slapped down with crunchy hair gel. ”
I am SO GLAD it wasn’t just me who thought doing this was the height of all cool… unfortunately I still have my year 8 school photos to remind me to never , ever, under any circumstances do this again.
Other things I loved – those tattoo bracelets/chokers, butterfly clips, huuuuge fake flowers in my hair, roxy branded anything, those terrible fake hair thingys that wrapped around your ponytail/bun and were all curly and plaited, face off brand jeans or black/navy pants with the biggest flares I could find, lots of eyeliner, lip smackers, lipgloss in general (I now hate the bloody stuff), and of course, DADA “gangsta” clothing.. ewwwwwwwwww
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This article is awesome!
I remember i was dying for some of those tensile jeans, and i begged my mum for months to get me some. There was a school social coming up and i had nothing to wear. The day of the social, mum came home with an outfit that she had bought for me, which included a pair of tensile jeans! I loved her to bits for it! However, i have photos of that night and i also wore an orange satin baby tshirt and platform sneakers, as well as sporting the aforementioned ‘ponytail with two long pieces in front”Also-snap pants. does anyone remember those? You know, the track pants with the press studs all down the sides? made so popular by the ever stylish Sporty Spice?
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Oh wow, I miss the Spice Girls. I was about 14 when they were a hit.
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When I was 14 that time I was so preferring fashion.
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When I was 14 I wore a two piece brown and cream houndstooth suit to my first day of school. That was in 2006. In 2005 I wore skinny jeans when everyone else wore bootcut. I think the latter will become more shamefull in the future…
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Omg this post is incredibly amusing! This made me recall so so much!! Even the crushes haha, it’s almost embarrassing to even think about it. I mean, our cricketer Brett Lee, he was gorgeous back in the day, NELLY but who didn’t crush on him at least one time lol, chingy omg so many moments of shame
OK so when I was 14 it was 2001, me and all my gf’s are so guilty of ALL of those hideous trends.
There was definitely a thing for inflatable alien chairs and stuff, floral spandex type above the knee skirts.
Back then if you had a mobile phone they were tiny and HAD to have the snake game, chunky globe skate shoes were absolutely an obsession (it was the boy trend then but I liked boys skate shoes over the girls baby blu or pink etnies) I literally wore them with EVERYTHING!!! Even at parties. Sad I know lol.
Visor hats were huge (worn upside down aswell). By far tho my fave items of clothing from then was Easily: Fluro Hot pants from supre (super tight super short and super cute) glitter tartan pleated check mini skirt, and bright colored frangipani strapless bodycon dresses. Frangipani things were also so popular it’s still sickening.
OOOHHH!!!! THE THONGS WITH BIG FLOWERS ON THEM AND ANKLE SOCKS WITH THE BALL ON THE HEEL ?????
That incredibly annoying music, “baby making music”… meet me at the altar in your white dress.
If your sexy and you know it clap your hands.
MISSY ELLIOTT, NELLY, LIL BOW WOW, so so many memories. This post and comments were definitely good for the soul, thankyou
Pingbacks
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[…] Smaggle’s “When you were 14 years old…” fashion article made me giggle and reminisce about the sartorial disasters of my […]
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[…] Smaggle Style’s take on this was funny because while I remember a lot of the things she writes about, I was also old enough when she was fourteen that I escaped the appeal of most of those trends. I was a freshman in college when the Spice Girls got huge and was far too busy swooning over Ani DiFranco to pay any attention to them. So though there’s only an apparent four years in difference in our ages, I thought it’d be fun to put together a list of what I died for as a freshman in high school–in 1992. […]
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[…] Smaggle Style » Blog Archive » When you were 14 years old… What Comments Off […]
[…] Smaggle’s “When you were 14 years old…” fashion article made me giggle and reminisce about the sartorial disasters of my […]
[…] Smaggle Style’s take on this was funny because while I remember a lot of the things she writes about, I was also old enough when she was fourteen that I escaped the appeal of most of those trends. I was a freshman in college when the Spice Girls got huge and was far too busy swooning over Ani DiFranco to pay any attention to them. So though there’s only an apparent four years in difference in our ages, I thought it’d be fun to put together a list of what I died for as a freshman in high school–in 1992. […]
[…] Smaggle Style » Blog Archive » When you were 14 years old… What Comments Off […]
