A Nineties Christmas...

So technically I was born in 1986, but I spent my more formative years mostly in the nineties and early noughties and my heart is very much in this period. Bring on the paper hats, tacky tinsel, smock dresses and Vicar of Dibley Christmas Special, I say. 

We spent our advent practising for nativity plays with no political correctness issues, blasting out Mariah and East 17 watching Miracle on 34^th Street for the umpteenth time. Our Christmas lists included Sticker books, Polly Pockets and Pogs and, the Puppy in my Pocket Hotel. Tinies Tim and Tears wet themselves- that was enough for us. Later we just wanted the Spice Girls album and a subscription to Shout magazine. As the nineties drew to a close, it was all about skater gear and owning umpteen CDs which invariably got scratched on our favourite songs from overuse. We would record the Christmas Chart religiously with the cassette drive of our Ghetto Blasters, trying our best to cut out the DJs voice and just get the tracks. 

The actual day consisted of crappy stocking presents, board games and watching our parents sing drunkenly to Slade whilst we pilfered Quality Street. We never had any batteries for any gift that needed them, we could never get into the excess of pre-green-consciousness plastic, nineties packaging and we also fell asleep on the sofa. A simpler time.

I've seen many, many wonderful posts by far more prolific bloggers on Christmas and Christmas gifts and I am fully aware that I cannot match these. So instead I will provide a nostalgic look at how to rekindle a little of that nineties spirit and what presents to buy the nineties kids in your life...

FASHION

Nowadays, Christmas jumpers are back in.. and they sort-of-cool and festive. However, style-wise they are more seventies-eighties in era. A nineties christmas jumper looked like this: 

Jumper, ASOS Marketplace, £19.99

In the early nineties our parents loved a patterned waistcoat:

Waistcoat, Etsy, £9.39

Know some kids to kit out? Why not try the nineties staple, the smock dress. (I actually love these still and would buy myself this if in my size.)

Smocked Dress, Etsy, £9.39

ATMOSPHERE 

First, decorations and all hail, the classic paper-chain and paper snowflake. You actually need nothing for these except coloured paper, white paper, scissors and glue (who doesn't have a Pritt Stick hanging around at home?). 

So metallic paper is cooler....

Remember these? Circle of paper, fold in to sixths and cut funny patterns in. You have to know how to handle your scissors to make them this good.

If you can't remember how to do these, there is a guide here - for kids so you should be able to manage.

Here's your playlist:

CD,Amazon, £16.95 or iTunes

And these are a must: (all Amazon or iTunes)

GIFTS

If you know some nineties kids, I'm sure they all like these.. 

Truffle Shuffle t-shirts, all £19.99.

Ladies Playdays T-shirt

Ladies Roald Dahl's The Enormous Crocodile T-shirt

Mens Jurassic Park T-shirt

Mens Bert and Ernie Sesame Street T-shirt

Personalised Converse, £54.00

Whaaaatttt. They are the same converse but full customiseable...

UNO, £2.99 

Ebay

Jellyfish Lamp, £60.00

Because some people still miss their lava lamps and these are way more beautiful... they sell them at Selfridges if you're based in London or in their online store as well.

Nintendo iPod Charger, £22.54

Because.. why not..

Finally- top of my list:

ASOS Backpack, £28.00

Ummm, it's tartan and it totally Cher...

That's all for now. Merry Christmas Kids...

Fashion on Friday: Channelling Clueless

Back in 1995, Director Amy Heckerling led a young cast in a little American teen film based on the classic Jane Austen novel, Emma. Alicia Silverstone led a young cast of good-looking teens as a very rich, very attractive teenager with a computerised wardrobe, a dead mother and the same problems with cliques and boys that all teenage girls have. The script was funny, the lines very quotable, but it was the lifestyle and wardrobes of these teens which seized the young British imagination.

I was aged nine when it was released and barely interested in boys and fashion, puppies and ponies were my thing at this stage. In fact, I didn't seen the film until two years later, at boarding school with mass of other girls, many older than me who said it was "like" the best film ever.

For an awkward pre-pubescent, spotty and swotty eleven-year old, it was an impossibly glamorous other world. It was America, where teenagers drove Jeeps, the boys looked like movie stars and you actually knew Gay people. At the time I wasn't all too sure about Cher's fashion sense and choice in clothing for both herself and her friends. Partial to a baggy trouser and a combat at the time, I believed that her friend Tai looked before the makeover in her grungy gears. In fact the only outfit I really liked was her red "This is an Alaia" dress, a classic nineties, strappy, clingy number that made her look like no 16-year-old I'd ever seen in real life.

18 years later and 18 years of watching the film and quoting the film over and over, I finally love that nineties, preppy Americana look. As the decade has surreptitiously crawled back into our fashion heads over the last few years from chunky boot to matching accessories and all other forms of fray, we are finally in a full on revival from Vogue to Primark. I am now coveting a full on Cher look and despite age and colouring it may now be the time to wear a matching yellow tartan two-piece... or maybe not.

However, I'm inspired to outline some of the best looks from the film and items that seemingly take inspiration from the look in our stores today.

Cher: It’s like that book I read in the 9th grade that said, “‘Tis a far, far better thing doing stuff for other people.”

 

ASOS, Black Beret £10.00

Primark AW13, Dress £13.00

Cher: So, OK. I don't wanna be a traitor to my generation and all, but I don't get how guys dress today. I mean, c'mon, it looks like they just fell out of bed and put on some baggy pants, and take their greasy hair—ew—and cover it up with a backwards cap and, like, we're expected to swoon? I don't think so!

 

ASOS, Daisy Street Tartan Mini Skirt £19.99

ASOS, Over-the-Knee Socks £5.00

Cher: He does dress better than I do, what would I bring to the relationship?

 

New Look, Burghundy High-Neck Cropped Jumper £17.99

Zara, Striped Shirt £25.99

Accessorize, Woven Chain Alice Band £8.00

Tai: Why should I listen to you, anyway? You’re a virgin who can’t drive. 
Cher: That was way harsh, Tai.

London Loves LA, White Lace Taylor Dress £34.00

Murray: Your man Christian is a cake boy! 
Cher and Dionne: (together) A what? 
Murray: He’s a disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde-reading, Streisand ticket-holding friend of Dorothy, know what I’m saying?

 So I couldn't find anything like this, as much as I tried... but I love this jacket..

ASOS, Barbour Tartan Liddesdale Jacket, £179.00

Thanks for reading.