90s Rave Fashion

Introduction

The spring-summer 2021 collections discovered last October plunged us into a reassuring and welcome nostalgia. A return to the 1990s 90s Rave Fashion, when carelessness, lulled by a spirit of rebellion tinged with rock and electro music, existed reflected in the wardrobes, tightened to the essentials.

The kick-off was given in particular by the first collection imagined as a duo by Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada for the Milanese house: three-hole minidresses declined in a powder pink or a very light yellow, black shirt-trouser set enhanced with harness-like drape, sets of overlays and volumes meticulously executed. Sweaters in finely cut lightweight mesh, back to the foreground logo.

Pushing the cursor further, the duo brought a series of prints with the sixties to pop connotations out of the archives, seen for the first time in Prada’s autumn-winter 1996 collection and reinterpreted on large pleated skirts associated with hoodies.

The First Collection of 90s Rave Fashion

It was followed by pieces with colours that stood sometimes electric and sometimes sober. And easy cuts by Daniel Lee at Bottega Venetta zipped polo shirts combined with loose pants worn low on the hips at Coperni, elegant black suits combined with leather braces and an apparent absence of makeup.

Thus, the first collection of the American Matthew Williams for Givenchy is the perfect reflection of this. If the look is, at first glance, resolutely sober – articulated around impeccable beige suits. Short dresses close to the body or fatal bareback dresses. The irreverence nestles in the thick chains passed around the neck and on the handles of the bags.

The transparent tulle tops were worn with rolled-up black shorts, cracked leather pieces, imposing sneakers, and studded pumps. A fashion vocabulary is reminiscent of Helmut Lang, a leading Austrian designer of the 1980s and 1990s 90s Rave Fashion. Who retired from the catwalks in 2005.

Visionary, throughout his career, he anticipated the major social trends in his collections: preponderance of androgyny. The rise of pieces from the sport. Keen interest in technical fabrics. And mixing of materials. Now turned towards art. He cultivates discretion but signed a collaboration with the house Saint Laurent for a series of sculptures last November.

Many had grown up in the 1990s, and it is not surprising that today’s creators reappropriated this period that marked their construction. Matthew Williams, 35, Givenchy’s artistic director, grew up in California, where he frequented skate parks and local DJs.

In an interview with Le Figaro last October. He took up the definition of luxury by Martin Margiela, another significant figure in the fashion of the 1990s: “Quality, comfort and timelessness”, to which he added the notion of eco-responsibility, a theme dear to new generations.

Fashion Design and the Arts of 90s Rave Fashion

For Leyla Néri, director of the Master in Fashion Design and the Arts at Parsons Paris Fashion School, current students exist particularly interested in the 1990s Rave Fashion. “Until about ten years ago, our students stood interested in it. Today, they ask a lot of questions about the work of Helmut Lang or Raf Simons. They are, for them, real references.

Create Collections but Wardrobes

They see them as iconic designers and particularly adhere to the vision of Helmut Lang, which was not to create collections but wardrobes. He wanted to make clothes for real people. Which they serve in real life. It is why we find in his work a practical dimension. In addition, minimalism existed not gendered, and this particularly echoes the current concerns of the students.”