Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/867968
W hen Sir Winston Churchill opined, "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it," he wasn't talking about your closet this season. Or was he? In case you haven't been paying attention, we are poised on the brink of a full-on 1990s revival, and, get this, Winston—we are planning to learn from it and repeat it! Isn't it amazing how quickly these decades come in and out of focus? No sooner have you donned that '60s Ali McGraw beret, that droopy '70s Talitha Getty caftan or that '80s Madonna bustier, that a whole new era pokes its head into your exhausted consciousness. And though it didn't seem so at the time, now the 1990s seem so quaint, so innocent. No cell phones until late in the decade—not even flip phones. No Facebook. No tweeting Presidents. I am assuming here that you are a person who is old enough to even remember the decade of "Harry Potter" and NYPD Blue, Monica Lewinsky and Tonya Harding—even if you were just a child at the time. If not, you need to double down on your education—not just two Friends reruns each day, but four. A study group with your buddies where you teach each other to emulate Rachel's hair, and consider suiting up in Elaine Benes's oversize blazers and Becky Connor's striped sweaters. As you may have already guessed, whatever the larger culture has decided to embrace is invariably reflected on fashion runways. But don't worry—no one is going to force you into high-waisted stone washed denim, Slap bracelets and pastel athleisure pants straight out of "Clueless." Because, as it turns out, plenty of designers have also spent the past year in a time capsule, watching videos of Lady Di and Paris Hilton. At Raf Simons's much anticipated inaugural collection for Calvin Klein, the homage to Helmut Lang's '90s designs was apparent in details like drifting feathers imprisoned in transparent plastic. (And fun fact—Helmut was the guy who, back in 1998, decided to stage his show in New York before the European collections, precipitating a calendar shift that remains in effect to this day.) Phoebe Philo at Céline, who can always be counted on to offer something artfully avant-garde but eminently wearable, has deconstructed slip dresses straight out of the Yohji Yamamoto playbook. And Donatella Versace says the starting point for her most recent couture collection was the Versace ad campaign of Fall 1998, NINETIES Lynn Yaeger takes a look back at the decade's greatest hits—on and off the runway. CHILD OF THE 92 BAL HARBOUR