remember when we used to rock: pajamas @ parties.

if my memory serves me correctly, pajama parties became popular in the early 90s thanks to the release of the movie, house party 2 (1991). starring 80s/90s rappers, kid n play, play comes up with a masterplan to earn kid's tuition money back - a pajama party where men pay an entry fee and women clad in their pj's enter for free.

i will tell you every tom, dick and harry wanted to throw a pajama party after watching this movie. i wasn't quite in high school yet, but i went to at least two. during that time, dressing provacatively wasn't really our steeze. we still rocked baggie jeans and knee length shorts so no, we weren't wearing lingerie to these parties. we were innocent (ahem, clearing my throat) in flannel (ok maybe polyester) pj pants or shorts and tee shirts. nowadays, these teens ... i can't imagine what they'd rock to a pajama party. enough to make me blush, i'm sure.

check out this scene from the party with toni tony tone singing and a dance off between kid n play vs. tisha campbell (gina from martin) and her friend.

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remember when we used to rock: grunge.

soon after i noticed kurt cobain as a trending topic on twitter, i realized that today was the anniversary of his death. 17 years ago today, kurt cobain, lead singer of nirvana, died from a drug-induced suicide. as twitter fans remembered him, it reminded me of the anti-fashion grunge trend of the 90s. you remember? the unkempt, i-don't-give-a-%#*$ look that teens clung to back in the mid 90s. cobain epitomized grunge: his band's music was gritty and raw and he certainly didn't fuss over his clothes.

now i can only speak from my own little interpretation of grunge. i realize it may have been different from those who lived it. i didn't listen to grunge music and didn't know much about nirvana at the time other than their popular song "smells like teen spirit" that seemed to cross color lines and appeal to young blacks, too (thanks mtv). with that said, i think it's pretty safe to say that the grunge trend influenced my love for thrifting which later sparked my love for vintage.

back in the 90s, me and my girls jumped on the trend and would catch the 22 or 55 across the city to different thrift stores to pick out the grungiest levi's (the more holes the better) or tops that looked like they could have been worn by any one of the brady's. we made it look flyy. plus, thrift shopping was cheap so that definitely worked for us. although the look appealed to us, those like cobain who pioneered the look, had no intention of creating a grunge trend. grunge was just what they were. years later, you can still catch glimpses of grunge fashion. think the olsen twins. or even denise huxtable. did/do you rock grunge?

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while looking for images, i came across this cool blog called fashion. grunge. style. check it out.

remember when we used to rock: finger watches.

i can't remember the exact year but i know we rocked them briefly. i'm guessing it was some time during the late 80s/early 90s. and i recall that we didn't rock them for the time. they were strictly fashion pieces. but of course.

here's a gold version by melodi ehsani. $15 here.

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remember when we used to rock: friendship bracelets.

since yesterday was national friendship day, it's only right that today's used to rock subject is friendship bracelets. if you were a child of the 90s, then chances are you've made at least one friendship bracelet in your life. myself? i've made plenty. i was a crafty little thing in my younger days. i made jewelry and gimp key chains, reinvented clothes and shoes with various bits and baubles and yes, made friendship bracelets. i had a childhood friend named jackie. jackie and i would hike over to k-mart and sift through their incredible inventory of embroidery thread. they had colors for days. and it was cheap!

there were different styles - twisted, braided and woven. i recall the twisted style being the easiest for me to make. the woven bracelets (above) were harder for some reason - it would start off pretty and then get tangled.

and of course, like many trends, the more you had the better. the drawback: they'd get wet and dirty quickly.

and if this post has suddenly made you nostalgic and you feel the urge to make one, click here to find out how.

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remember when we used to rock: stonewash denim.

yes, you remember. bleach was a staple back in the 80s for more than just cleaning. and once we caught on to how fashionable you could be with just a $1.99 bottle of bleach ... we ran with it.

also called acid washed, the look was as if you used too much bleach in the laundry. but of course, the bleach-white streaks and spots were deliberate. ever wonder why it was called stonewash? the process involved washing denim with stones soaked in bleach. As the clothes tumbled in the washing machine, the stones would pound on the denim and create the blotchy bleach lines that we loved.

of course, this process only applied to the big brands, like guess, that made and sold stonewashed denim. mom was not having us putting any stones in her washing machine at home. we'd skip the stones and just use an extra few doses of bleach. worked just fine, didn't it?

and similar to the ripped up, distressed look, your parents really couldn't understand why you wanted them to buy you $100 pair of jeans that looked ruined. fresh prince was right.

so yes i have a couple pair of stonewash jeans hanging in my closet. and a jacket.

sgb still appreciates the trend:

stonewash by sgb, inquire within for details

remember when we used to rock: shoulder pads.

you’d be hard pressed to watch a re-run from the 80s and not notice the bold, in-your-face protrusion growing from the top of every woman’s arms. that would be shoulder pads. yes, the shoulder pads. everyone claims how much of a fashion no-no these were, in retrospect; however, these were a main symbol of power dressing back in those days.

shoulder pads touched down (word play slightly intended) first in the 1940s. then, women’s fashion were influenced by masculine style – military-like (world war II had just began in 1939.)

joan collins and linda evans along with john forsythe, cast of dynasty

fast-forward 40 or so years to the era when bigger was better. you can thank joan collins and linda evans of the night time soap opera, dynasty (wow, i can just close my eyes and remember my mom sitting on the couch glued to dynasty while i sat on the floor in front of her getting my hair corn-rowed), for popularizing the trend. big, bulky shoulder pads were a symbol of power dressing which equated to the perception of status and authority. women with ambitions to climb the corporate ladder of success donned blouses and dresses complete with shoulder pads. shoulder pads could even be bought separately and fastened around your bra straps. whether dressed down or up, you rocked shoulder pads.

as the trend began to fizzle out, shoulder pads got smaller and were even available with velcro straps to allow the wearer to change looks and wear them on or off.

i don’t even have to tell you how fashion repeats itself. i cringe every time I think of my mom’s closet over the years and how we donated everything to purple heart. a great cause but i can't help but to wish i was more of a pack rat! i’d have some fabulous stuff. and no, i’m not hardly scurrred to rock shoulder pads, today.

designers carmilla and mark showcased a line of visible shoulder pads outside of their garments just last year. can we say they’re baaack, in our best poltergeist voice.

and the strong shoulder look that balmain helped to popularize was all over the place in 2009. i still love this look. in fact, my inspiration for this post came after i ordered a strong-shoulder tee shirt online from a store whose name i won’t mention. i never even attempted to figure out just how designers create the strong-shoulder affect. when my shirt arrived, i threw it on. i was hype. the shoulders were strong. until i moved. as soon as i even turned my head the shoulders went limp. womp womp. could you see me out and about trying to look cute and having to “pouf” my shoulders every 2 minutes. not cute. but hey, what can you expect from a $30 shirt. i returned it. but i’m still on the hunt for a hot one.

remember when we used to rock: jheri curls.

i use the word "we" loosely. i never rocked a jheri curl. but i have to keep it real and admit that i wanted one soooo bad. i was in 6th grade, back in like '88-'89. my best friend had one so i wanted one too. but mama wasn't having it. i recall her exact words:

me: mom, i want a jheri curl.

mom: you'll get over it.

thanks mom. that's one thing she said no to that i'm not even mad at.

this man is responsible for the popular 80s, unisex hairstyle:

mr. jheri redding, a hairdresser, chemist and hair care entrepreneur. i swear i thought the man behind this style was a little darker. no, really. didn't you?

well mr. redding was on to something. folks rocked jheri curls throughout most of the 80s and even into the 90s when the trend was losing its coolness. jheri curl sporters became subjects for mockers. remember coming to america?

darryl's whole family sported a curl and they all left wet spots on the couch from the activator aka the jheri curl juice.

i can't write this post with a straight face.

remember when we used to rock: cleats.

and no, not on the field. we rocked them with our outfits, as a fashion statement. who started that? i have to do a little more research and find out.

i don't remember the exact year. it was definitely the 90s. i'm guessing some time around '93 maybe '94. but i might be off. i'm also trying to figure out if this was a philly thing or if this trend crossed state lines.

the cleats really weren't as uncomfortable as you'd think. i had a pair of nike ones - much cuter than the picture above.

i remember a guy in school asking me if i was wearing cleats. he had the most puzzled look on his face. lol. he didn't understand.

i think this trend lasted for a hot 5 minutes. years later, i spotted those cleats on my closet floor looking brand new. smh.

remember when we used to rock: jean nate.

yes, i know it's been a minute since the last we used to rock post but it's back! had to keep it coming - these posts are my favorite.

please tell me yawl remember jean nate'. you don't? man, jean nate' was the staple fragrance of the late 80s/early 90s. if i close my eyes and concentrate i can still smell the scent.






so here's the story because you know i always have a story with the we used to rock posts. i was in 7th grade and mrs. something - i can't remember her name but she used to wear a jheri curl - used to wear it faithfully. she was the assistant softball coach and yes i played (i.e. warmed the bench) for about a week. i couldn't figure out if she was heavy-handed with it or if it was just that strong but i loved it. i asked her what she wore, she answered jean nate' and i went straight home and asked my mom if she could buy me some.

so mom bought me some eventually and i wore my jean nate' after bath splash daily. it's absolutely funny to me now because if i was to smell it today, the scent would irritate the heck out of me.

of course i had to google it and see if they still sell the stuff. and they do. all over the place. same bottle, same logo. it can be all yours for less than 10 bucks.

remember when we used to rock: best friend necklaces.

remember best friend heart necklaces? you'd wear one half and give the other half to your best friend. we were serious, back then, about claiming our bff's, weren't we?

bestie necklace set, fredflare.com, $18

remember when we used to rock: passion marks.

otherwise known as hickeys. remember when having a hickey was kinda cool. you kinda wanted people to see that someone had been sucking away at your neck or whereever your preferred hickey location happened to be.

i remember when chicks would practice giving hickeys on themselves. or front like someone had given them one while everyone knew that a hickey on your mid to low arm meant you did it yourself.

i remember this dude around the way named ... well never mind his name, "playfully" gave me one on my left cheek. it was huge and i spent a week trying to hide it from my peoples. i was successful.

people used to say you could use an ice cube or a comb to make it go away. there was a song that rapped about it back in the day but i can't remember how it went.

kids.

remember when we used to rock: cross colours.

ok, no bs but i remember the cross colour trend but i don't think i necessarily participated in it. don't quote me because i may have borrowed a t-shirt from one of my girl friends or something. just don't remember actually owning any of it. when i think cross colours i think of tlc. i went to school with a girl who looked like t-boz a little bit and she used to rock it. and our favorite go-to store for new outfits back in the day, merry go round, was full of cross colours gear.

i was browsing around online and to my surprise came across a new t-shirt by cross colours. i thought cross colours was gone and buried. didn't you?

kinda cute. $22.95 over at karma loop

remember when we used to rock: penny loafers.

what was the year? i know it was elementary school but can't recall when i got my first pair. from what i remember the only thing that really excited me about them is putting the pennies in them. other than that, i remember them being very hard. but they were the style. and in style i wanted to be.

i did some googling today and found out that they were first created in america in the 1930s but were made famous by the stars of the 60s. any idea where the penny concept came from? it's said that in the 30s during the depression students would put a penny in their shoes for good luck. i know you always wanted to know that. lol

remember when we used to rock: phat gold chains.

when i see dudes wear chains like these:

it makes me want to fight them. and i'm not even a violent person.

then i think about back in the day. dookie chains were always the business in hip hop, weren't they? rope chains. herringbones. the bigger the better. remember?

still somehow iced out chains in your likeness (or anyone else's) or crayola boxes seem so utterly ridiculous. more ridiculous than old school rakim with his dookie rope chains. never mind the recession. it would be ridiculous and pretentious anyway. i guess if i was a young girl now i could relate.

remember when we used to rock: denim/leather pants.

well, well, well, look what we have here. i've been looking for weeks for a throwback picture of the denim jeans we used to wear - you know the ones with the leather down the front side. and i happen to bump into these - a 2009 spin from givenchy by ricccardo tisci.

now these bad boys will set you back $3,440. but back in the day when we rocked them, our weekly allowance from our folks would cover them.

straight from the store, merry-go-round, i had a pair with green leather down the front. they fit nicely too - swore i was cute. i also had a pair of the shorts with the black leather down the front. all my girls had them in different colors: red, brown, snake-skin. and yes we'd rock them on the same days to the same parties.

i wondered when and who would reincarnate these and here they go. did you rock them back in the day? would you rock them today?

remember when we used to rock: scrunch sox.

of course you remember. was it tlc that hyped this trend - wearing 2 or 3 pairs at a time? late 80s, early 90s?

you know how we rolled - blue and pink shirt meant blue and pink scrunch sox. never mind how hot it had to be and how tight your toes were. and if you really thought you were cute, the left foot may have blue on top, pink on bottom while the right foot had the reverse. those were the days.

i remember me and stany had matching outfits (peep a previous week post on the coordinated outfits). i had the blue shorts set, flip up the sleeves and it was yellow. she had the pink one, flip up the sleeves and it was orange. and then the coordinated scrunchy sox - don't tell us nothing. lol. nowadays, you couldn't pay me to wear those thick sox.

shout out to miss nixon for reminding me of this trend.

remember when we used to rock: stirrups.

ahhh. stirrups. a facebook friend (thanks beth) reminded me of this when she posted a status update telling us to be prepared for the return of stirrups. in return, several of her friends responded in disgust to the return of this 80s trends.

and of course, i'm all over it. let me duck from the fashion police now; i hear them cocking their pistols. if i remember correctly stirrups were hot between 87-89. right? we wore every color of the rainbow.

and now their back! and not just in pants. stirrup tights are the business. and of course you can cop them in any color or print that you can imagine. in fact, i dressed one of the models in a pair for my last shoot. check it:

so will you be participating or skipping this comeback trend?

remember when we used to rock: french rolls.

the year was 1992 and i think me and just about all my girls were sitting around in our neighborhood hairdresser's (heyyy yarnie!) room waiting to get our french rolls. we were getting pretty for our 9th grade formal.

but we wore them formally and informally - whether we were getting dressed up or not. i remember some of us would stuff ours with braid hair so we could get a smooth, even roll. and don't forget the pump in the front.

i remember my formal dress was royal blue so i found some blue and clear rhinestones and had yarnie glue them on the pump. wow. gotta love it.

i must scan all of these throwback pictures that i always talk about. truly classics.

remember when we used to rock: coordinated outfits.

"you got to coorrrdinate" -john witherspoon

so back in the day, me and my girls couldn't/didn't sing like tlc but we walked around the neighborhood like we were some kind of group. lol. remember wearing identical or similar outfits as your clique?! those were the days.

we'd get our little money together and walk to the mall and hit joyce leslie, merry go round or weathervane and buy the same outfits in different colors. if there were more of us than different colors than we'd double up - me and stany would get pink, shewanna and shann might get blue ... etc.

we had the short sets, the jean shorts with the leather in front, the plaid outfits from au coton...and don't let shawn or someone else in the neighborhood have a house party...oh, we'd do it up with our $19.99 outfits. i GOTS to pull the old photos out ... priceless pix.

remember when we used to rock: walkmans.

i laugh and feel extremely old at the fact that my youngest nieces and nephew wouldn't know what to do with a walkman. let alone a cassette tape! in fact, my youngest niece laughed at my mom's ipod - my mom has one of the bulky first ones to come out.

in the age of smaller and sleeker, a walkman definitely is old school. kids today couldn't imagine having to blindly rewind and fast forward and hope they find the song they were looking for. or make a mix tape in order to listen to all of your favorite artists at once instead of switching the tapes in and out. ha!