Squeamish Bikini
  • Home
  • Squeamish Features
  • Squeamish Reviews
  • Squeamish News
  • Squeamish Contact
  • About Squeamish

Friday 5...things we believed in the 90s

13/7/2012

15 Comments

 
Picture
The 90s are back. We called it here but where we are excited Grace Dent in the Independent is sceptical. It seems we remember a very different version of the 90s. For some it was full of lava lamps and inflatable furniture, others combat trousers because we'd Never Ever stray from utility chic. In the UK the 90s are clearly divided between a grey, back to basics John Major Britain and Tony Blair's Cool Britannia. Changing Rooms was bringing MDF to the masses, feminism was being repackaged as Girl Power and we were all busy being bowled over by the Nokia mobile phone. Here's what the Squeamish Team believed in the '90s...

1. People who know me now would find this hilarious, but in the '90s I was a card-carrying socialist. I spent Tuesday nights going to meetings in random community centres where we would split into Marxists and Trots before arguing passionately about all sorts of idealist goals that just don't make sense to me now. I used to sell copies of the Socialist Worker and read the Workers' Hammer, and I looked down my nose (still do) at self-identifying socialists who haven't read their Gramsci. Because only I could turn socialism into an exercise in superiority. F1 Kate

2. I believed that George Lucas was a fantastic writer & director. A new, extended cut of the Star Wars Trilogy with new scenes and improved special effects? That'll be awesome! And there's a new trilogy coming out a couple of years later? Truly this is the start of a new golden age for cinema... Gareth

3. In the 90s I believed whole heartedly in my Croydon Facelift. I probably wouldn't have if I had known that's what it was called. The hairstyle that I wore from about the age of 10-18 was a staple of South London schools. I couldn't see how this understated, slick style could ever do me wrong, it looked smart with my uniform and made me look cool with my jeans and witty tagline t-shirt (no comments from Squeamish Kate here! x) If you haven't guessed a Croydon Facelift is a very tight slicked back ponytail. My hair needed no other lubricant than water and when I was feeling nifty I'd jazz it up with a purple scrunchie. I only really started doubting my effortless ponytail when I got my 6th Year Class photo back. My hair was so dark and pulled back so tight that the sun had bounced right off it in such a way that I appeared, as I stood there in my oversized burgundy sweatshirt, to be completely bald! NOOOOOOOOO! Squeamish Nicola

4. It was 1997; New Labour came in, Cool Britannia was A Thing and life-changing exams were still far away for me. I was young and the landslide victory optimism was infectious. But most importantly this was the year that Natalie Imbruglia's début album Left of the Middle was released. It wasn't the music, it was the hair. Oh the 90s crop. Kylie did it, Drew Barrymore had one but oh, Natalie Imbruglia. Natalie, Natalie, Natalie. It was feminine yet tough, short but face framing, stylish and effortless. Girls across my school started turning up to school having asked their mum's hairdresser to make them look Torn. We were still ignorant of straighteners and hair serum and our youthfully bouncy hair refused to emulate the Imgruglia sweep. Most of us requested an Imbruglia but got Claire from Steps I went again and again to the Miss Selfridge hair salon, persistence was the key! Because in the 90s I believed Natalie Imbruglia had the haircut to end all haircuts. (P.S I also believed one day I could join this crew) Squeamish Kate

5. The 90s was a long time; during it I went from naïve goofy 8-year old to... a naïve, goofy 18-year old. The list of things I believed in over the course of that decade stretches from things that now seem faintly ridiculous (god; Tony Blair), to unshakeable truths (Claudia will forever be the coolest member of The Babysitters Club). If there was one belief that I held throughout the entire 90s that it is now apparent was a complete sham, it’s that there was some sort of secret to being an adult. As a child, I thought that were a separate category of humans – it’s not as if that responsibility and maturity would just appear, is it? Even as a teen, I stubbornly believed that there was some sort of learning or initiation process that would mark my passage into Adulthood. Someone would take me aside and explain how to pay taxes, shave my legs without causing rivers of blood to run into the shower, and know which clothes to wear on which occasion. Ha ha. I was we ll into my twenties before I realised that no-one makes you an adult – you just sort of become one, by accident. Which may be why, despite having some of the markers of adulthood (job; marriage; proper dresses) I still feel like I’m faking it. Squeamish Louise
15 Comments
F1Kate link
12/7/2012 07:20:13 pm

Claudia will ALWAYS be the coolest member of the Babysitter's Club. How could it not be so? With those dark, almond-shaped eyes, double-layered push-down socks in contrasting colours, mis-matched earrings, leggings... She was a hipster twenty years ago.

Reply
Squeamish Kate link
12/7/2012 07:22:56 pm

Is there some kind of law that girls in teen novel series must have almond shaped eyes, or eyes framed with long black lashes?

Reply
F1Kate link
12/7/2012 07:29:45 pm

I think it's got something to do with all those poor monkeys bashing away at typewriters, desperately trying to recreate Shakespeare.

Squeamish Kate link
12/7/2012 07:32:24 pm

I think they should stop now they've finished Sweet Valley High, they've never come so close!

Reply
F1Kate link
12/7/2012 07:34:13 pm

WIN!

Andrew Daley link
12/7/2012 07:37:26 pm

Wait, if she was a hipster 20 years ago, that means there is someone that can actually lay claim to the "I dressed like that before everyone else"......

Reply
F1Kate link
12/7/2012 07:40:01 pm

Unfortunately she was fictional. But she was awesome, if you were me aged about nine.

And yeah - she totally invented hipster. Fictionally.

Squeamish Kate link
12/7/2012 07:45:54 pm

Was Claudia fictional before everyone else in fiction?

Squeamish Nicola
23/7/2012 02:15:00 am

I whole-heartedly agree with F1 Kate. Claudia was awesome.

Reply
Gareth
12/7/2012 07:33:28 pm

I feel you missed a trick by not dressing the whale in a Hypercolor T-shirt - the ones that changed colour when you got hot, allowing everyone to see your sweaty pits and nipples, until you threw it away in disgust (leaving you cold and shamed, lying naked on the floor).

Also - (god; Tony Blair) is a tautology. At least as far as He's concerned.

Reply
Squeamish Kate link
12/7/2012 07:38:51 pm

SB Comment of the year. I bow to your Torn lyrics and recollection of Hypercolor T shirts.

Reply
Gareth
12/7/2012 07:57:57 pm

Thanks.

I'd write more but my inspirations has run dry.

F1Kate link
12/7/2012 07:41:28 pm

The shirts were bad, but the shorts were SO MUCH WORSE. Sweaty ball stains in a different colour to the rest of your clothes. Oh yes, the ladies love a bit of that.

Reply
Squeamish Kate link
12/7/2012 07:44:09 pm

THERE WERE HYPERCOLOR SHORTS? Oh gee, I appear to have blocked that. I did have the black cycling/cycle? shorts with the fluorescent pink stripe on the sides.

Gareth
12/7/2012 08:01:58 pm

When a man wore those when he was warm he sure wasn't dignified.

Here's the 1990's advert - it really does look like another era (as silly and distant as the 70's looked back then): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch3J6mFxBKs




Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011

    Categories

    All
    Books
    Booze
    Cinematic
    Dress Up
    Educating Sue
    Educating Sue
    Friday 5
    Friday 5
    Geekery
    Gender Agender
    Gender Agender
    Glitter And Twisted
    Glitter And Twisted
    History Repeating
    History Repeating
    How To
    Just A Thought
    Just A Thought
    Let's Get Political
    Let's Get Political
    Music
    Nom Nom Nom
    Nostalgia
    Tellybox
    Why You Should Love

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos from Pink Sherbet Photography, anunez619, NikRugby23!, Asso Pixiel