Monday, May 17, 2010
Signature Look of, well, 1990 - Body Suits, Crystals and Wide Headbands
6:26 PM | 
Posted by
Wide Lawns |
During what would have been my senior year of high school, had I not dropped out in the middle of 11th grade, I discovered black eyeliner and proceeded to abuse it thoroughly. Ancient Egyptians would have felt I was overdoing it a little. By this time I hadn't outgrown the spiral perm yet, but I had dyed my hair purple and then tried to dye it black on top of that, resulting in a purple-black tie-dye effect, which was less than attractive. This was also the year that everyone I knew became obsessed with shopping at the Salvation Army and Goodwill for old jeans and body suits. Body suits were big in 1990 and I must have had 17 of them, most of which were black and all purchased at various thrift shops and were leftover from someone's "Let's Get Physical" days. I used to go thrift store shopping with Aunt Kiki back then. Her then mother-in-law was both senile and a hoarder and we would take her to the World Thrift on senior discount day so we could get 50% off. She'd buy a ton of crap to hoard in her house, Aunt Kiki'd buy baby clothes as she was pregnant with her third daughter and I'd buy old jeans and body suits. It all worked out quite well. I'd wear my body suits with baggy jeans, still pegged (that hadn't quite ended yet, but would by the next year), held up with wide, witchy looking belts. Big square buckles were in - the Pilgrimier the better. I still wore scrunched down socks, but they weren't the size and thickness of a sweater anymore and as you can see in this drawing, I was still really into the lace up black shoes from 7th grade. I alternated these with some Payless slip-ons with huge silver buckles that would have made Miles Standish proud. Now during this time, I was in the 16/17 age range, I really, really felt that my true calling was to go Wiccan and move to Salem, Massachusetts where I would join a coven and perhaps work in an herb shop. I had spell books and professed to celebrating Samhain, but really the only thing I actually did was wear crystals. I loved crystals. I carried a bunch around in a little pouch, as did pretty much everyone in 1990. I was big on the rose quartz to attract love and I liked amethyst because it was purple. I had a bunch of quartz crystals that I wore on black silk cords around my neck and one of them hung from a silver crescent moon (the celestial motif was about to explode) which I got at a new age store and thought was the absolute shit. Now, in addition to really wanting to be Wiccan, I also really really wanted to be Lady Miss Kier. I mean, every girl did. We were obsessed with Deee-lite
and groove was definitely in our hearts, along with witchcraft and while it seems that those things would clash, somehow they didn't. To complete our Lady Miss Kier aspirations, most of us girls in 1990 wore super wide, stretchy black headbands right at our foreheads. I also confess to having purchased two catsuits at the World Thrift. One of the catsuits was full length and the other was short shorts with gold braid trim. I also bought some platform soled boots that were a little too small to wear with my catsuits and wide headbands. Being on the modest side, I never ever worked up the nerve to actually wear any of these get-ups outside the house, but oh, how I wanted to. I used to put them on, squeeze into the painfully tight boots and press play on my World Clique cd and dance in front of my mirrored closet doors when I was all alone. I've never admitted this to anyone until now, but I did. Looking back from age 36, I totally should have worn those outfits out in public. I could never get away with it now. My 17 year old body was five feet and six inches tall and 112 pounds. I would kill to have that body back. I couldn't fit one thigh in a catsuit or for that matter a body suit these days, but we never know what we have until it's too late and we're desperately hoping empire waists never go out of style.
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3 comments:
LOL, I had several of those outfits and accessories myself.
you said you found a photo of the MULLET??!? will you share it with us, pretty please? If we beg? :-)
I only had one bodysuit, it was purple. I think this was either 8th or 9th grade for me. I wore it all the time with striped jeans. They were striped with lots of colors in varying widths of narrow stripes. The whole color scheme was muted and darkish so I don't think they were THAT bad for the time. I remember having a pair of clog type shoes that I adored. I got them at Payless and they were fake leather, black, had a large chunky heel and chunky soles, they were slip ons, and had a rounded toe. Can't remember if there was a buckle on them or not. I remember my older cousin laughing at them and saying they looked like combat boots, so maybe they did have laces, like 3 or 4 lace holes on each side.
The mullet pic is right below this post, but it's a little grown out from its original state.