Inspired by the '90s: Winona Ryder and Drew Barrymore's Wardrobes

M. T. January 14, 2014

Inspired by the '90s: Winona Ryder and Drew Barrymore's Wardrobes

After the 1980s' Molly Ringwald's red-haired, pastel-clothed, iconic teen-character had served her time, Winona Ryder, the dark-haired, dark-eyed pixie-beauty, took over the role, representing the epitome of the female teenager during the 1990s' coming-of-age movies. Winona's simple and - typical of the '90s - low-key minimalistic sense of style attracted much recognition in the fashion industry, especially during the height of her career. In her movies, she could wear everything from the late '80s shoulderpads (Heathers) with the early, rather un-flattering grunge-phase of the '90s (Night on Earth, Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael) and the popular earth-coloured minimalism of the same decade (Reality Bites) - as well as the '60s preppy and Nouvelle Vague-inspired fashion (Mermaids, Girl Interrupted). Cheeky and unabashed, yet also sweet and modest she perfectly embraced the '90s youth culture that was permeated with identity confusion and self-consciousness and furthermore developed the teenage outsider archetype since the '80s high school movies.

The pictures below are, in order of appearence, taken from: "Reality Bites" (1994), "Night on Earth" (1991), "Mermaids" (1990), "Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael" (1990), "Heathers" (1988), "Girl, Interrupted" (1999) and lastly, various pictures of Winona off-screen:

Fashion Trends of the '90s: The minimalistic, the grunge and the rock/rebel chic:

Another favorite style icon of mine from the '90s was Drew Barrymore. Much has changed now (as it usually does) but back then, Drew's clothes as well as her lifestyle screamed of true good-girl-gone-bad attitude, of rebel chic, rock and grunge influence, which very much contradicted her very girly, sweet face (a nice contrast to the contemporary heroin chic image from Kate Moss). True, she struggled with drug-addiction from, sadly, a very young age but luckily she came through and somehow it never left any visible 'marks' on that sweet face - nor her bright attitude towards life and her positive career as it is of now. A change for the good, but also a farewell to the rebel chic look (except she got it back a bit in Charlie's Angels). However, luckily, we can still appreciate her impeccable sense of true '90s style back in those days: