Grunge, a Fleeting Fashion Rage

Grunge, a Fleeting Fashion Rage
▪ 1994

      In the MTV era, music groups reign as trendsetters in the realm of clothing styles for U.S. youth. This phenomenon helped provide an explanation for the relatively short-lived explosion of grunge, which started in Seattle, Wash., and eventually echoed in Europe.

      The term grunge originally applied to the punk-metal guitar sound of such Seattle-based bands as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, but it also became synonymous in the late 1980s with both their music and clothing styles. Before a group's music took off, band members dressed in thrift shop clothes out of economic necessity. The fickle weather of the Pacific Northwest prompted musicians to wear layers and always to have a spare flannel shirt tied around their waists.

      The key components of the grunge look consisted of the ubiquitous plaid flannel shirt, thermal underwear, T-shirts with band logos, ripped jeans, and stocking caps. The favoured footwear was either combat boots, particularly Doc Martens, or Converse high-top sneakers.

      While 1970s punk was antifashion, rejecting the prevailing trends, the grunge movement was "unfashion" at heart. Typical grunge dressers created their mismatched outfits by wearing whatever clothes were scattered on the floor nearest to the bed.

      Some teen fans began dressing like those musicians in 1991, before trend watchers started taking notice in the summer of 1992 with the release of Singles, a movie about the Seattle scene. By the end of that year, grunge had become a byword. Although the style was worn by both sexes, it tended to be more popular with men.

      In the spring of 1993 a few influential New York designers sent grunge-inspired women's collections down the runway. At Perry Ellis designer Marc Jacobs piled on the layers, combining a cropped vest, low-calf dress, midriff-baring T-shirt, and thermal hot pants with combat boots and a stocking cap. He tied plaid shirts around the waist, but his were made of silk, not flannel. Anna Sui and Christian Francis Roth also endorsed grunge, often mixing it with '70s elements such as rainbow stripes and butterfly appliqués.

      Although the grunge styles shown on the runway were a flop with designer customers, the international media attention helped boost the popularity of the movement among teenagers. By fall major mass retailers had labeled grunge a key back-to-school trend, but by then only some younger teens were still wearing grunge styles.

      The commercial hype had made grunge a dirty word in its hometown. By fall the Seattle version of grunge had already evolved. The new look was more of a blue-collar, work-clothes style. Jackets normally worn by service station attendants, sporting patches with such American good-old-boy names as Bud, Clem, and Goober soared in popularity, as did other uniform-type apparel. (LISBETH LEVINE)

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Fashion and Dress — ▪ 1995       Glamour became the style catchword of 1994 and summarized a look of being dressed up and made up. The new sophistication put an end to dressing down, the look popularized in 1993 by grunge and the style known as deconstruction, which …   Universalium

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