Guest Post: My Most Embarrassing Moments in Fashion and Beauty
By Dustin Hunter, Makeup Artist
Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Dustin Hunter has been designing various media since his early teen years. Studying several different art forms, Hunter’s creative background ranges from illustration and photography to fashion and interior design to music production and makeup artistry. He has worked for over a decade as a professional illustrator and his retail interior design concepts have been featured in nation-wide publications, receiving recognition for their uniqueness and creativity. Check out his blog and YouTube channel!
My Most Embarrassing Moments in Fashion and Beauty
With every decade comes a birth of something… unnatural. An exaggeration of something that was once cool, twisted and warped into something truly horrific: massive shoulder pads and razor-sharp blush, “Hammer” pants (which is even embarrassing to type), and the HUGE wall o’ bangs fringe, platform Mary Janes and–one of my favorite love-to-hate moments–the Bobbi Brown look of the 90s.
I actually experienced TWO trendy-at-the-time flashbacks recently. One of them, I am sad to report, was entirely my own doing. I had requested a specific haircut from my stylist (shaved on the sides and long on the top) that would allow me to style a nice pompadour, which looked great, except on the days when I didn’t style it, and I looked like Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys circa 1998.
Later on, during that week of bad decisions, I also began sifting through the boxes in my attic (re-organizing and making room for new piles of crap that I have decided I cannot part with but no longer want in my immediate vicinity) where I stumbled upon a relic from the Flintstones era: actual photographs! On paper! That’s when I noticed the hair. “Wow… that looks a lot like my hair right now,” I thought to myself as I looked over a photo of me from the late 90s.
Flash forward a couple more Kodak envelopes and a few more years, and there it was: a wonderful gem of me with spiked hair (bleached tips of course) wearing one of those silver beaded necklaces that we all thought were somehow… good?
Aye, I had my share of skater shoes and tight shirts (some with Lycra even), baggy pants and wallet chains, silver rings, and those bizarre necklaces. I would even routinely shave off all seven of my chest hairs in an attempt to look more like a model from an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog! Why?! Because I thought it was cool, that’s why! And no one ever thought to tell me otherwise.
It made me wonder… what fashion and beauty trend will be next? What offensive thing am I wearing RIGHT now that will haunt me years later? Wait… hang on–my low-rise pants are riding a little too low and people are looking at me funny while I’m typing.
Oh my goodness, I love you!!! I am 42 so I think we are similar in age and I swear, I have so many things too that I look back on and think, “Really???” I TRY to look at myself now and wonder if I need to tone anything down to avoid future embarrassment. BUT, I then think life is no fun if you can’t be goofy in it and colorful so I guess I will just continue to look back and cringe. Oh well!! Rock on! 🙂
Agreed! How boring would it be to look back on old photos of yourself and be so “average” that you can’t have a good laugh? 🙂
I LOVED this post! Lol, so true about us all thinking something cool at any given time and it just being sooo ugly later. My current memory were those semi-clear blue (and various other shade) sunglasses that EVERYONE wore that had little rhinestones on them in shapes like hearts and stars. …even guys. Yeah…awkward.
My fashion mistakes all came when I was too young to dress myself so I blame my mom. Makeup wise…too thin brows (I blame the person who waxed them), too heavy eye shadow (okay my fault) and too heavily penciled in brows to compensate for them being too thin (hangs head, the photos, the photos!).
Yess!! I believe that was around 1999 to about 2001, when I started high school. Do you remember at the same time they had the bandanas out with a rhinestone design on the forehead area and people used to wear those out all the time. I used to even rock stark white eyeliner on my lash line. What about the bandana tops! LMAO Horrible! I can go on for days
I actually skipped those kind of sunglasses because I had to wear prescription glasses. I was so upset that they didn’t do pink heart prescription lenses!! I will admit to huge flares and an Avril Lavigne phase when I was 12/13.
Oh and then the advice from my mother around then along the lines of ‘you can put on more eyeliner so it shows up beneath your glasses’ Queue very stark black waterlined eyes >.<
Thanks Dustin! I’ve said before that I won’t participate in any trends that are from the 80’s. Had to do them the first time around, and not going to do it again! So, no bright or fluorescent clothes for me this summer thankfully! 🙂
I’m with you, Christine; if I’m old enough to have rocked the look (dubious though it might have been) the first time around, I’m not going to demean the memory of that firm young body by attempting it again. 😉
I have a pic somewhere of very short hair on one side slowly swooping around to an angular bob on the other. To make it even better, I’d used ‘Flirt’ to render my tresses that lovely shade of eggplant that is so often seen in natural hair. LOL
here, here! 🙂
I, too, went through adolescence in the ’80s. I hated the clothes then, too, and was often shunned by my more “fashionable” peers. I never wore *anything* that I didn’t truly like, so I have no regrettable fashion choices (unless you count the ones my mother made me wear when I was very young…). I never chose to wear something because it was on-trend, but rather because it appealed to me.
I was lucky enough to find a style that suited my tastes, and still does-I am what one might call “Goth”. I have toned my style a great deal, in both clothes & makeup, but I still go for a dark, edgier aesthetic. Of course, it helps that I still look like I’m in my 20’s…
Trends come and go, the good as well as the bad (hello, neon), but I would love to see people be able to go with what they like, and not worry about not “fitting in” with their peers. I never cared, and I turned out just fine.
“not worry about not “fitting in” with their peers.” Spoken like a true goth 😉 Hehe I’m right there with you – And I STILL have some issues of Propaganda magazine kicking around the house 🙂
I just remember being in 6th grade in the mid-80’s , and all of my “friends”, who didn’t care about fashion the year before, all decided that I was suddenly not the same person anymore, just because I didn’t care for Keds and neon colors. It’s funny, though, because every time I ran into someone away from school, they would act like my BFF. I learned at that time that people can be really shallow, and I decided I didn’t need that in my life.
I always liked the music associated with the Goth culture, so when I moved onto a new school the next year, I met a new group who happened to dress in a way that made sense to me. I was fortunate, though, to have a mentor of sorts, so I at least didn’t have to go through an awkward “baby-bat” phase.
Can I get a hell yeah on that last statement you made?! HELL YEAH! Haha.
In middle school – this was the mid-90s, so I don’t have the excuse of the 80s – I wore frosty blue eyeshadow. I “borrowed” it from my mom and would apply it at school so she didn’t see! Unblended and applied with my fingers, of course!
I escaped a lot of stuff but it was mostly because trends took awhile to catch on in Washington. Location ends up playing a big part in what’s trendy – Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, we were usually about 2-3 years behind the times.
Until the 90’s of course. LOL! “What’s with all the flannel?” I remember people asking… Um… It’s COLD up here!
I always got “What’s with the lumberjack flannel?” and my standard reply was ” …I’m Canadian”.
I remember “rolling” my jeans every morning – such a terrible look, along with trying to work my naturally curlly hair into big bangs.
Make-up wise: the dark lipliner with pale lipstick (tried to pull off) Currently I can’t think of a widely used makeup look that’s going to haunt us later, but the neon clothing obession is not going to last!
OMG! I remember dark liner with pale lipstick! I remember this girl who worked at the GAP (funny the things I remember) who did that unblended lip liner for YEARS! It used to drive me CRAZY!!!
My landlord still does that! She’s determined to keep the 90s alive…
Haha love this post. I definitely look back on my skater/greebo (UK term? not sure) phase with mild horror. I had a pair of jeans that were so flared you could have camped under them. No, literally, I fitted one of my friends, albeit a small one, under one of the legs once. And the chains/fishnet arm tights/striped knee high socks! Total disaster. Not sure what will be next on the chopping block but I have my fingers crossed for the peplum…
I sooo remember this, when I was 11 everyone at my school had discovered Camden market, hence massively baggy jeans and Slipknot hoodies! I never got into it, but I did have a pair of jeans that I loveeed which were ripped at the bottoms, which I thought were great!
I only ever did the REALLY baggy jeans for halloween one year when I went to school as “normal.” I had to borrow clothes from friends LOL! But everyone – even the teachers – got the joke.
I don’t go too trendy with my clothes- I adore streamlined, natural-fibre, solid colours and stripes, though right now I am having a fling with neons and LOVING it- but I have collected some truly amazing photos of bad hair and makeup looks during my 26 years on earth.
my top three are a hairstyle my mum kindly referred to as “the Elvis” (gelled pompadour in my teens), using light-reflective concealer all over my face because it matched so well in natural light (in photos i appear to be dying of tuberculosis), and using a “temporary” cherry red hair colour which lasted for about 5 months and went orange near the end. oh, and using that sheer white lipstick with purple reflects that was trendy around the Millenium.
I got a perm. Enough said.
When I was 5-6, I wanted to be Ginger Spice from the Spice Girls – I had the platform shoes, red glittery dress and a union jack one, and I wore these with a lime green puffer jacket/bomber jacket. I won’t hold my head in shame because I think I was a pretty on-trend 90s child!
When I was about 7-8 I picked up on the skirts over trousers look that was big back then as well hahaha!
As a teenager in the 00s I avoided the ‘bling’ trend…in fact I don’t think I really followed anything. Nothing comes to mind, I don’t think much defined the decade, other than massive emphasis on retrospective fashion which seems to be the norm now.
As a teenager though I did go through the super bright makeup phase – neon and glitter – as well as the heavy eyeliner too, but not that badly!
I’m 21 and I think I’m okay with my style and makeup choices – I think most of us try not to look like anyone else, and certainly at my university I don’t see anyone like me, so that’s what matters ^_^
Fabulous post Dustin!
I tried to get my hairdresser to dye my hair bright red (except for the front which I wanted day-glo yellow) so that I could look like Ginger Spice for the concert. She refused…
I’m kinda glad she did. LOL
I probably have made too many embarassing moments to count, but the one that quickly come to mind was my love affair with smudgy black eyeliner thanks to Billy Corgan, which I also paired with (painfully metallic) silver eyeshadow…my one way to rebel against my Catholic school uniform, I guess!
Wait… is that not cool? I still do that 😉 LOL
Sperm brows are probably my biggest regret. I’ve long seen the error of my ways but, some folks I know continue to embrace it. WHY???
I hope the brown-red lip from the 90s will come back. I rock that color like no other. Hoped that the NARS Bleeker collection would cause a stir but, no such luck. Fingers crossed!
Ahahaha, the phrase “sperm brows” definitely just made me snort some coffee up my nose. I know *just* what you’re talking about! I’ve never gotten that look…
I’ve been wanted to do a 90’s makeup tutorial complete with Melrose Place guitar riffs in the background… and of course, lots of brown lipstick 😉
omg please do. pleeeeeeease 😛
I have to say the bright colors this year are so in, and in five years will be soooo out are probably what I will wince a little seeing. My take is that I love color, so future embarrassment can wait. I’m going to rock my hot pink and candy coral as long as I can. I’ve got to get all my glittery bright eye shadow urges out before I hit THAT age (whatever that age is…not sure who decides, but there’s an unspoken agreement that when we hit THAT age we cut our hair and stick to neutrals. Boo).
I say if you like the trend then go with it. At least you’re having fun! I’ve spent way to much time being safe and leaving the colors on the shelf while I once again wear brown, beige, and the like. This spring has been a renewal for me. New life, new marriage, new happiness…and let there be color!
whoa, i didn’t know there was another Laura R here. haha.
I am almost 36 and I will take bright colors and glitter to my grave.
I don’t pay attention to trends but here I am with some of my hair dyed purple I did the dip dye thing years ago and was bored recently and did it again.. then I saw all the pictures of how it’s trendy now (to my dismay of course). I have dyed my hair unnatural colors off and on since I was 19 years old.
Most embarrasing now that I look back- years of dyeing my naturally blond hair black, making my brows black with who remembers what… for what was my life at the time… Goth culture. Still respect it but yay for me for going back to my roots, literally!
Circa 1998 my mother dressed me in burgundy overalls and cut my bangs herself straight across my forehead. I looked like a very serious farmer’s daughter.
Aw!! Haha that’s cute!! 🙂
All I can think of was the white eyeliner i wore in my Senior portrait!
I have a feeling the beauty trend we’ll all be laughing about in 10 years is the Ombre dip-dye trend for hair color
i know i’ll be laughing at all of my bright lipstick + bright eyeshadow combos!
I personally think ombre/dip-dyed hair makes most people look like they’re just too lazy to touch up their roots. I know that’s how I unintentionally got the look anyway.
Muffin-top wearing jeans with thong straps exposed that are hiked high on girls/woman. I’ve seen a full decade of that crap and it’s still a bad trend that spans 3 groupings of hi-school and collage kids in that time. Also blame the jean company at they seem to refuse to made NOTHING but Low Rise Jeans with every leg style possible. I have to shop for jeans that at least hit the hip bone in the most unlikely places.
I didn’t wear much makeup as a kid, but oh my the clothes…if I see any of the following come back, I’m going to go bat sh** crazy: Patent leather shoes, Cross Colour clothes, floral print jeans or jeans with ‘fake’ leather or suede on the front thigh, stirrup pants, stripe print blouses with sheer floral print sleeves and the ring watch.
I don’t fall for trends now so hopefully there will not be anymore embarrassing photos in my future. I’m guessing a lot of ladies and some men will regret the skinny leg jeans. I don’t care what your friends tell you or what you tell yourself in the mirror, skinny jeans do not look good on anyone.
I wish the banana hair clip would die off.
So many. So so many. One of the ones that haunts my brain the most is wearing knee-length jean shorts (guys shorts) and colorful fishnet stockings. I was so (fake) punk back in late high school. I also had a couple of plaid skirts that I wore with oversize safety pins (non-functional of course) through them. Ugh, I want to punch myself in the brain just thinking about it.
Oh wow.. Well, as a child of the 80’s AND i’m from New Jersey (i graduated HS in 1987) I can remember many a mistake.. many.. So, without further delay, here it is..
* BRIGHT blue mascara, like ridiculous electric blue
* Purple blusher
* Neon belts, and lots of them
* Slouchy socks, sometimes two or three pairs WITH the jeans tucked into them (yea, its hot, i know) while wearing KEDS sneakers OR Nike high tops (no other choice!)
* Stiff Stuff Hair spray used to the point hair was sharp and weapon like, but stayed high all day..
All I can think to say to this AMAZING comment is: “Like totally.”
You sound AWESOME!!
I think the current trends that’ll haunt us later are; Ugg boots, Crocs, and crackle polish. I can proudly say that I have taken part in none of those things.
Ergh Crocs! I dunno how anyone can think they look good! They basically look like the kind of shoes surgeons where in the operating theatre. Horrendous! And yeah I can see us regretting Ugg boots and crackle polish :/
As a surgeon, I have to wear the horrible shoes that look like crocs when I go into theatre 🙁 they are not a willing choice, but I sadly can’t think of anything better!
Haha, I have no doubt I’ll facepalm someday when I look back on crackle polish, but I have to say I do kind of love it at the moment – if only because it’s so much fun to paint it on and watch it crackle before your eyes ^_^
I believe Crocs were originally meant to be gardening shoes..
As for ugg boots, what about all those silly girls who wear them with mini-skirts?
I’m going to add to your last sentence…
“As for ugg boots, what about all those silly girls who wear them with mini-skirts?”
In the summer, while it just makes their legs look fatter than they really are…
LOL. And now there are sequined UGG Boots! MAKE THE MADNESS STOP!
I don’t mind the boots or similar boots if worn in cold or snow, but seriously, in the summer…?!
Crackle polish FTW! That one is already getting a little funny 😉 LOL
but…but….uggs are supposed to be slippers! what has happened to them? sequins? really?
Oh, man, so many fashion woes as a middle/high-schooler in the 90s and early 00s. Of course, terrible patterned leggings with giant t-shirts. In 8th grade I definitely wore the jeans that were so flared you could hide pets or small children under them. High school, giant raver pants with the neon-colored reflective bits and pointless straps, those damn silver ball necklaces, waaayyy too much eyeliner, fishnet arm warmers… yikes. I look like a goober now too, but for the most part it’s gooberishness of my own preference rather than fashion trends. I don’t know if that will make it more or less embarrassing down the road…
At least wearing stupid raver pants made me aware of the raver pants song:
Johnny’s going to a rave
Hoping his pants will behave
And he’s gonna dance like a monkey
‘Cause his pants, they’re real funky
Raver pants, raver pants
Raver pants, they come from France
Everybody loves to dance
In his very own raver pants
Well, in general, I dressed pretty badly up until my twenties, when something in my fashion brain finally clicked and I started paying attention to my appearance. This was in no small part due to my extremely low self-esteem and obesity, both of which are issues I dealt with in college. These days, I’m more comfortable with my body and have a mostly complete idea of my style.
Makeup wise…oh man. Probably the worst was when I let a friend of mine do my makeup for a homecoming dance we attended. Looking back on the photos, I can see the retro look she was going for, but back then, she and I had only limited knowledge of such novel concepts as skin undertones and natural coloring…to put it kindly, the photographs serve as a good example of why cool-toned women should be very careful with orange-reds. 😛
A more recent, though less serious goof, was the first time I tried shimmery highlighters. I completely misunderstood the directions as they were how to be used…and wound up applying the stuff to my ENTIRE face rather than just my highlight points. Luckily, it was a very subtle, low-shimmer formula, so it really didn’t show unless I was in harsh lighting, haha. Now I do serious research before I start using products I’m unfamiliar with. 😀
First: cheers for being comfy with the body you’ve got!
Second: I STILL see girls looking like a vampire from Twilight caught in the sunshine when I go to the mall. Sparkle and shine is awesome but if it doesn’t play against something that’s matte, the effect is gone and… well it’s kinda like trying to sit through Transformers 2. There’s just too much going on!!!
Sparkle overload is pretty tragic, but nowhere near as tragic as having paid money to see Michael Bay’s Transformers. You have my sympathies. 🙁
I don’t know if this exactly fits this post, but the only time I really remember ever feeling uncomfortable/embarrassed was during a sociology class when the guy next to me (I had thought of us as semi-friends at the time) was praticipating in a discussion about appearance and had said “I dislike girls who wear makeup, I think it makes them look worse. Like I see a girl with a lot of makeup on and I am turned off because they’re trying to make themselves look different from how they reallly look.” And I was sitting next to him in full makeup, foundation, blush, yellow eyeshadow with black eyeliner, mascara and suddenly feeling very aware of how much makeup I was wearing! It only affected me for a second though 🙂
Firstly, Dustin – I heart you! Secondly, the biggest offender of past mistakes include raver “phat” pants. By no means trendy, but damn, there’s no missing that if it’s on the street… in broad daylight, high waist and a denim tent on each leg. I cringe now, but I have no regrets. Thirdly, what I hope will become a laughable footnote of current trends is an insanely high heel. I cannot fathom how an 7″ hybrid of a hoof and a stripper shoe is fashionable.
I am with you on the shoe thing… in fact the whole porn chic thing that’s going on at the moment. Stop it, ladies, no one wants to see your fanjo 😀
Oh goodness, I was at a wedding not to long ago and one of the guests (I think she was the groomsmen girlfriend actually) was wearing THOSE shoes in that plasticky iridescent white vinyl.
I won’t describe her dress in full detail but lets just say at a wedding involving a full Catholic mass, it’s not advisable for your bellybutton to be visible via your cleavage…
I remember whne I was at high school there was this huge trend for having little rhinestone gems glued onto one of your teeth near the front. I was devastated I couldn’t have it done coz I had braces at the time. But looking back it was ridiculous! And around the same time there were these nail charms that you had to pierce a hole through the end of your nail and the thread a jump ring through that had a charm hanging off it. I thought it looked cool at the time but the amount of times I got the charm caught and it ripped through my nail and I had to cut and file my nails down. It was so stupid. I dunno if these were only UK things but they were HUGE at the time!
HAHA! We had them in Ireland aswell I never did either because I would have lost it with something in my mouth and I had never nails long enough to do the nail charms but a friend of mine actually had a kit to do it with lmao!
We had them in Portugal aswell. You may still find women with nail piercings, even.
Haha, I still have one of those silver ball chain necklaces! SO LATE ’90s. I just couldn’t part with mine–so many memories!
Yea I still have mine too 🙂 I can’t throw it away. Some things you NEED to keep to show your grandkids!
Got married in 1990….I had the “headband with the pouf veil” AND the sleeves on my dress were so big and round I look like I could have flown away….I think I was channeling Olivia Newton John AND Cinderella all in one fabulous wedding ensemble. I will tell you that it gives people today a LOT of laughter, which is always a good thing!!! Sigh…!!!
That just made my night, thanks. 🙂
Haha! I had a freaking flat fringe and a bob for 12 years. And I had my hair split down the middle which I used to INSIST was showing in my ponytail. So I had a huge fringe and facelift ponytails with a massive white strip down the middle of my head.
I also once wore an outfit comprised entirely of various shades of pink.
Baggy jeans and hoodies
I my adolesence was in the 2000s and there were some heinous crimes to fashion comitted during those early few years lmao. I think when I hit 15 I kind of got some sense and started dressing somewhat “normal” lmfao
While I’m still pretty young, I am definitely looking forward to when I can look back at current trends and laugh. My pet hates of fashion right now would have to be: 1. Flatform shoes (Didn’t we learn the first time?), 2. High-waisted shorts (Because the only people who look good in these are model material!), and 3. Top-knot ponytails.
Oof, yes to ALL of those. There are some really regrettable fashion trends going around right now. Those little tweed shorts are definitely high on my list, too. And don’t forget people wearing tights as pants. How that one ever came to be I’ll never know…
Yes! I hate tights as pants! Especially when they’re the thin variety. Another one I’m seeing lately is a white top with a fluro pink, bright blue, or black bra underneath. I mean really. I’m glad these people are wearing a bra but I don’t want to see it.
In menswear I think the thing that I’ve been hating the most is the super skinny/tight/but also low-in-the-crotch jean. It looks HORRIBLE! Like you were wearing an inner tube on the inside of your skinny jeans… but then it popped… but then your pants still stayed all stretched out and loose. Ick.
First off, I would like to say that I had the biggest crush on Nick Carter around 1998 (we were totally going to get married) and the hair just added to his appeal.
OK, trends I stupidly followed. There were a few. I’m a 90’s kid so I got into the grunge look whenever my mum would let me. The hugely baggy jeans, those silver ball necklaces, temporary tattoos on my upper arms. Oh, and crop tops with the baggy jeans were a must in summer. But I also loved those girly little outfits with the matching top and skirt. Oh! and skorts lol. And no outfit was complete without one of those “tattoo” choker necklaces or armbands.
Then I turned into a pre-teen in the early 00’s. I loved tiny miny skirts with knee-high socks and my school shoes (I was going for the preppy look). I had this one top that had a big split in the front from under bust level to the hem. Jeans that were super tight until the knee when they flared out way too much. Of course, the jeans had to be so low cut that you had to put your hand over your butt whenever you bent over. In the summer, it was all about knee-length board shorts and tank tops. The surfer look was all the rage here in Australia.
Then came 2005, the year I turned 15. That winter I bought a pair of bright pink fluffy ugg boots. I’m talking boots made of fur. They were technically slippers haha. So bad. I wore them with everything. I especially loved wearing them with a pink skirt, pink top, and pink blazer.
In 2006, I got called “emo” a lot. I made the mistake of pairing my black skinny jeans with a black graphic t-shirt. other than that, my style was pretty good. I still own (and wear) a few pieces from that year.
So clearly, I was a stylish child lol.
I love all of those outfits! LOL 🙂 I, on the other hand, was all about AJ – SO cute!
AJ was too hardcore for my 8 year old self lol. Now at 21 I definitely can appreciate his talent. And when I say talent, I’m not just talking about his voice lol.
26 now. A kid of the 90s and was just entering my teens toward the late 90s. I don’t remember too much, but things I do recall:
– Jellies! I had a pair of pink sparkly jellies that I adored. I lost them in a lake. 🙁 My mom was terrified I was going to cut my foot on something in the lake and die, so she made me wear my jellies in the lake. I wanted to swim as far as I could, so I did, and one of my shoes fell off, so I put my foot down to find it, but I couldn’t touch the bottom, so I kept trying and when I did touch the bottom my shoe was gone. My other shoe slipped off and I got to the bottom quicker. Shoes = totally got sucked into whatever sandy crap was at the bottom. It actually felt like there was some swirly suction action, so I peaced out quick. I never got another pair of jellies, so I would totally take a pair now, haha.
– I remember fanny packs, lots of spandex bike shorts, and those stretchy leggings with the stirrups (if that’s what they are called, but you know what I mean when I say that stupid fabric part that went under the foot).
– I remember my mom cutting my bangs despite my pleas for her not to do that. I have pretty much discarded all pictures of me with those bangs. Why were they so bad? I had very thick, curly hair, and she would cut them so short…my hair would always spring up several inches and with the bangs would turn into a curly poof at the top of my forehead aka Poodle Bangs.
– At one point, I thought brown lipstick was cool. Not dark brown, but brown none the less.
– Frosty eye shadow. One color. Almost all the way up to the brow. I didn’t participate in this one too much. There were still girls in 2004 when I graduated HS wearing the Mimi shade of frosty blue everywhere on their eyes with raccoon liner.
– I remember bell bottoms and hip huggers in the 90s with baby doll tees/tanks. If you didn’t partake in the grunge, emo, gangster, etc. stereotyped attire then this is what you wore.
– Oh, and belly chains. What. THA. F. WHY?!
– I also remember choker necklaces being big as well as those tattoo cuff bracelets and necklaces (if you can call them that).
Oooh! Belly chains!!! Blech! LOL! I completely forgot about the piercing craze too – until you mentioned belly chains!! OMG SO many of my friends got pierced! It seemed to go along with music too… This was how it went:
Joan Osborne = The cool/but also kind bad girls got nose studs.
Mel “Scary Spice” B = Everyone I knew got a tongue ring (Jay still has his Haha!)
Janet AND Britney! = The belly ring… I had to see SO many of my friends’ tubby bellies with navel rings in them. For AT LEAST 3 years.
The worst was the overlap that happened (no pun intended) between the belly ring AND the exposed thong! AH! WHY?! LOL!
Haha, yeah, all the guys wanted ear piercings and all the girls wanted belly button piercings. The cooler/edgier/a little bit more bad ass girls got the nose piercing. The “slutty” girls/guys were the ones who wanted the tongue piercing. Then the “outsiders” got the eye brow or lip piercings. Pretty much everyone had something pierced!!
As for the overlap of the navel piercing + low rise jeans + thong/panties display, the first time I saw someone overweight wear that attire, I told them how fucking awful it looked. I wasn’t trying to be catty at all, but I just never did and still don’t understand why bigger girls wear clothes not made for their body type. I say this as a bigger girl, LOL. I went through wearing clothes that just made my weight that much more apparent, but hey, I guess if people are comfortable in it then whatevs!
I love you Dustin.
Ohhh, lets see… I think it would be the bright turquoise eyeshadow (to match my button up one piece jumpsuit of course) with frosted pale pink lipstick, a top ponytail (with coordinating scrunchie!) and a complete lack of self awareness or shame.
To be fair, it WAS 1991 and I was 12. I still cringe thinking about it more than 20 years later.
What is the Bobbi Brown look of the 90s?
Watch any episode of Melrose Place 😉 LOL! The 90’s beauty look (which I just identify as “classic Bobbi Brown”) was very matte – matte face and matte lips – and very brown. Often the brown/red blushes would match the brown/red eyeshadow.
I got so irrationally happy to see Dusty featured! Shout out to him because he’s an amazing artist and inspiration!
I loved my Calvin’s and Candies, then I lived in Norma Kamali dresses and suits for a chunk of the Eighties… I never did neon or really trendy haircuts because a certain layered cut just needed sleeping on clean and wet to be perfect. Life is easy for Twenty something’s.
I was a well ranked athlete so I spent a lot of time in Super Hero clothes, Spandex with designs set in and curvy stripes running all over. Loved that! But I had the body for it. The Nineties were so awful I quit Fashion! Brown? NO! I think I wore Levi’s and hundred percent cotton white men’s shirts. My shoulders are so broad, and my legs muscled enough I had to sew and the Eighties had great clothes to copy from runway but the Nineties were an absolute Fashion Waste Land! I don’t do plaid or greasy hair or brown.
Wait! bad platinum bleach jobs in the mid nineties! Horrid! That’s it. The pictures make me cringe. Bad toner issues. Nuff said?
*needs a drink before the confession* *gulp* here goes:
1. Spiral tight perm that never relaxed to those ringlets we saw in the pictures.
2. Muscle Pants in crazy prints that had elastic at the bottom around the ankle. (really?! why? in case a mouse runs up your leg?)
3. Acid wash jeans. I wore em the first time.
4. Big bangs laquered with Aqua Net hairspray
5. Loreal Mattique super matte foundation
6. Frosty blue eyeshadow and frosty barbie pink lips with electric blue mascara *has another sip of the drink*
7. Bleached my hair ontop of the spiral perm “frosted it”
8. UltimaII nakeds collection devotee
9. Coffee Bean brown lipstick by revlon (im a pale white blonde)
10. Rolled up jeans with pleats (gahhhhh! yup the acid wash kind)
11. Super huge bright colored earrings
12. Mini skirts, tights and legwarmers (all at the same time)
13. Arm full of gummi bracelets
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New trends doomed:
1. bright day glo lipstick
2. Sequin ugg boots
10.
I don’t know if this could be categorized as “beauty” fail, since I didn’t know any better, but I used to look like Ugly Betty. Literally. LITERALLY. Up until I was 14.
Then during my last years of high school, platform boots, white pallazo pants, then trying (with much fail) to emulate the year 2000 goth Gucci Tom Ford era. Don’t make me start on the Coyote Ugly fashion! Yes, I was one of those girls.. but the girls in the movie was so beautiful!
It’s a miracle we could walk around dressed like that considering we lived in a muslim country!
Some of the more well off girls began using Shiseido foundation in high school, while I was caking on my Maybelline 2 way cake! Oh dear lord, the pictures I could show you.
Gosh, it was the late 90’s/early 00’s and it was a BAD time for fashion and beauty. My college girlfriends an I look back on those photos and practically pee our pants from laughing so hard. The backless shirts, the plaid and pleather pants, giltter and lame fabrics, colored animal print, body glitter, chunky heels, asymetrical hemlines, trucker hats, etc. At the time we thought we were soooo hawt, but now we wonder what the hell was I thinking and why didn’t any of you tell me how horrible I looked? I also fell victim to the 90’s brown lipstick epidemic, Revlon Toast of New York was my favorite!
I’m only 21, but I was 14 at the height of the scene/emo trend. Of course, I really got into it. The only look I don’t regret was my chin length shaggy hair with the faux hawk on top… with pink streaks. It was pretty awesome. But I gotta say, neon knee-high socks, combat boots, mini black pleated skirt with a black hoodie and TONS of those stupid plastic bracelets? Not my best look XD
Does anyone remember when in the late 90’s early 2000’s those little tubes of cheap, suuuuper sticky lipglosses were everywhere? Well, I’m sorry to say, I had dozens of those things. The ones with the rounded black caps and flared plastic tubes. I don’t think those things even count as lipgloss now…they were just a sticky mess. I’m sorry to say that in my early forays into makeup, I used those things for everything. As in, I used them on my eyelids as well as my lips to make them shine. It’s a sad story. I’m glad that’s over!
You think that is embarrassing? Wait till you hear this…
At the time I used to go clubbing wearing a really short cropped lycra top, blue low cut cargo pants (powder compact in left leg pocket, cash in the right), teal glitter on my eyes, bindi spot on my forehead and jewel in my bellybutton!
o_O
( Your photo? I think that look is great on you and the necklace compliments your collarbones, I’d have so hit on you to no avail if I’d come across you…)
I don’t typically find that embarrassing. It’s good to have gone through those moments to make us know that we do stupid decisions and we learn,right? I’d say yes because I have gone on that too. I am 30 and when I look back to what I look like before,wearing skimpy jeans and big tees like the of the’80’s Paula Abdul style and having a Diana Ross’ lion hair.. That, I think was totally spelled as “please don’t get out of the house” look.. 😀