The 1990s Timeline

1990

• Miuccia Prada

  The political-science graduate who turned her family's Milan leather-goods firm into the most intellectually influential label of the decade - industrial nylon, 'ugly chic', and clothes designed to make you think.

• Gianni Versace

  The Milan designer of baroque prints, gold Medusa heads and body-conscious glamour - the man who put the supermodels on the runway together, dressed Elizabeth Hurley in the safety-pin dress, and was murdered in 1997.

• Martin Margiela

  The anonymous Belgian designer of the blank white label, the split-toed Tabi boot and garments remade from old clothes - the 1990s' most radical thinker about what a garment is, who later designed for Hermès.

• Distressed and Pre-Worn Finishes

  Ripped knees, faded washes, frayed hems and sandblasted 'wear' - the factory techniques that made new clothes look old, feeding grunge's thrift-store look to the mass market, at a real cost to garment workers.

• Oversizing and the Dropped Crotch

  How 1990s baggy clothes were actually cut - extra-wide legs, deep crotches, dropped shoulders and deliberately enlarged patterns - from hip-hop and skate jeans to grunge layers and Margiela's giant garments.

• Unstructured Tailoring

  Jackets without big shoulder pads, stiff canvas or full linings - soft, light, fluid tailoring that followed the body instead of building a new one, and replaced the 1980s power suit.

• Rave Culture

  All-night dance parties in warehouses and fields, acid house smileys, baggy clothes built for dancing, neon and mesh - the youth movement that grew out of 1988's 'Second Summer of Love' and shaped streetwear through the 1990s.

• The Supermodel Era

  Linda, Naomi, Christy, Cindy, Tatjana and Claudia - the handful of models who became global celebrities in the early 1990s, launched by a 1990 Vogue cover and a George Michael video, before the waif and the actress-cover took over.

• Crushed Velvet

  Stretchy, shimmering velvet with a deliberately crumpled pile - the 1990s revival fabric of slip dresses, chokers and scrunchies, of grunge-goth evenings, and of Tom Ford's 1995 Gucci hipsters.

• Microfibre and Performance Fabrics

  Ultra-fine polyester and nylon microfibres, waterproof-breathable membranes and technical stretch blends - sports and outdoor textiles that crossed into everyday and designer clothing in the 1990s.

• Polar Fleece

  A soft, warm, quick-drying polyester pile developed by Malden Mills with Patagonia around 1980, which in the 1990s moved from mountaineering kit to the everyday zip-up of half the population - and, from 1993, began to be made from recycled bottles.

• Prada Nylon

  A tough, tightly woven black nylon, until then used for things like military tents and parachutes, that Miuccia Prada turned into the most coveted luxury material of the early 1990s.

• Dr. Martens Boots

  The air-cushioned, yellow-stitched work boot designed by a German doctor and made in Northamptonshire from 1960 - adopted by skinheads, punks and goths before becoming the 1990s' favourite boot to wear with a dress.

• The Bandage Dress

  Hervé Léger's body-sculpting dress built entirely from bands of stretch fabric sewn together like bandages - the supermodel era's ultimate going-out dress, and the glamorous opposite of grunge.

• The Flannel Shirt

  A plaid workwear shirt from the Pacific Northwest, bought cheap in thrift stores and worn open over T-shirts or tied round the waist - the single most recognisable garment of grunge.

• The Hip-Hop Baggy Silhouette

  Oversized jeans, big jackets, work boots and designer logos - hip-hop's 1990s silhouette, and the women who wore it their own way, from TLC's baggy layers and Aaliyah's boyish cool to Lil' Kim's high glamour.

• The Waif Silhouette

  Very thin, pale and deliberately unglamorous - the waif look that replaced the supermodels' curves, launched by Kate Moss and a new generation of photographers, and criticised by 1997 as 'heroin chic'.

1991

• The Grunge Silhouette

  Layered, loose and deliberately unpolished - flannel over band T-shirts, ripped jeans, long cardigans and floral dresses with heavy boots - the Seattle music scene's thrift-store uniform, briefly and awkwardly turned into high fashion.

1992

• Alexander McQueen

  A Savile Row-trained East Londoner whose theatrical, dark and brilliantly tailored shows - the bumster trouser, 'Highland Rape' - made him the enfant terrible of 1990s London and chief designer at Givenchy by the age of twenty-seven.

• The Slip Dress

  A simple bias-cut dress on thin straps, borrowed straight from 1930s lingerie - the decade's defining dress, worn minimal and bare by Kate Moss, over a T-shirt by grunge kids, and as a wedding gown by Carolyn Bessette.

• The Minimalist Silhouette

  Clean lines, neutral colours and nothing extra - the pared-back luxury of Calvin Klein, Jil Sander and Helmut Lang, built on slip dresses, simple trousers and soft, unlined tailoring.

1993

• The Low-Rise Waistband

  Trousers and skirts cut with a short rise so the waistband sits on the hips, not the waist - launched by Alexander McQueen's shocking 'bumsters' in 1993, sexed up by Tom Ford's velvet hipsters, and everywhere by the end of the decade.

• Sheer Mesh and Chiffon

  See-through fabrics - chiffon, georgette, organza, stretch mesh and fine knits - worn in layers or on their own, from minimalist 'naked' dresses and Kate Moss's 1993 slip to club-wear mesh tops.

1994

• Tom Ford at Gucci

  A young Texan designer who turned an ailing Florentine leather house into the sexiest label of the decade - velvet hipsters, satin shirts and 1970s glamour in 1995 - and helped invent the modern 'creative director'.

• Push-Up Bra Construction

  Angled, padded, underwired cups that push the bust up and together - an engineering idea from 1960s Canada that became a sensation in 1994 with the Wonderbra's 'Hello Boys' billboards.

• Britpop and Cool Britannia

  Oasis, Blur and Pulp, the Union Jack reclaimed, and a new generation of London designers - the mid-1990s moment when British music, art and fashion felt like the centre of the world again.

• Friends, Clueless and TV Style

  'The Rachel' haircut, slip dresses over T-shirts, plaid skirt suits and knee socks - how a sitcom and a teen film became the decade's most influential style guides, taking designer and street trends straight to the high street.

• Cargo Pants

  Loose military trousers with big bellows pockets on the thighs - adopted by skaters, ravers and hip-hop fans, then by pop stars in low-rise versions, and one of the most-worn trousers of the late decade.

1995

1996

• Girl Power and the Spice Girls

  Five women, five instantly recognisable styles, a slogan and a Union Jack dress - how the Spice Girls turned 'girl power' into the biggest pop phenomenon of the late 1990s and made fashion a matter of personality.

1997

• The Y2K Silhouette

  Low-rise trousers, cropped baby tees, platform trainers, metallics and tech fabrics - the playful, pop-futurist look of the last years of the decade, built for the millennium.

1998

1999