The 90s Bands That Inspired The Trends Of 2021

Oasis’ success story is almost unrivalled in that of British music, but their upbringing in working-class Manchester informed their sense of style in a unique way at the time. As keen to hit the stage in shell suits and bucket hats as they were more standard rock band fare like button-ups and baggy jeans, it was through bands like Oasis that sportswear and fashion began to intermingle throughout the 90s.

Drawing as much on funk-soaked sounds as they did harder forms of rock from the earlier part of the decade, the Chilli Peppers brought an eclectic sense of style to the stage that set them apart as true rockstars. Ever the showmen, they were as willing to make a fashion statement performing in their Calvin Kleins as they were decked out in surf-inspired streetwear.

While they undoubtedly changed the game when it came to West Coast Hip Hop, the groundbreaking hip-hop collective don’t get the credit they deserve for the influence they had on streetwear. Hip-hop smartened up its sense of style dramatically in the 90s, moving from to a more refined look that incorporated jackets, denim, sports jerseys and core workwear like carpenter pants from brands like Carhartt and Dickies. NWA helped drive this, and their monochrome aesthetic, informed of course by the Los Angeles Raiders football team, had a huge influence on how streetwear would develop in the decades after.

Kurt Cobain’s band are fashion icons simply off the back of the amount of people who wear their t-shirts alone, but Nirvana also carried a sense of style that added a surprising amount of sartorial playfulness to a grunge movement that was, in theory, supposed to be dismissive of fashion altogether. Cobain himself was particularly free-spirited when it came to the clothes he wore, donning not just grunge essentials like Converse, ripped jeans and slogan t-shirts, but feminine pieces like fake fur coats, cardigans, and even dresses from time to time. His influence on high fashion reverberates to this day.