Statement of the Day - YouLookFab Forum

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Dressing

About: Nine '90s Inspired Footwear Trends

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Statement of the Day

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I hereby crown the '90s as the decade with the chunkiest and most uncomfortable shoes - very generally and subjectively of course. (I LOVED my Docs, flat slides and mesh sandals).

You did however do very well in the '90s if you had high volume feet and could wear chunky black footwear (and if dainty mules stayed on your feet). If all the outfit components were right, I would have loved the look on you. There is good fashion in every decade.

Dressing

37 replies

Latest reply was from lyn67

Neel

Veteran

I hope they don't become completely mainstream! Thereby fading my hopes of finding sleek sandals for summer :D. I need to find my white sandals atleast this summer!

Carole

Veteran

I hate to admit it, Angie, but I have no recollection of my footwear in the 90's. Maybe that's a good thing...I wasn't really a fashionista back then:) come to think of it I did have a pair of mules and I remember those probably because they caused calluses on the tops of my toes from griping and rubbing...won't be revisiting that style time around.

Anonymous

I remember hating everything about the '90s, including the shoes. I had a few pairs of square-toed shoes that I really liked, but they weren't chunky. I didn't buy too many pairs of shoes back then, to be honest.

Transcona Shannon

Veteran

Dainty mules never worked for my feet - kept slipping out of them. But otherwise, I LIVED in chunky footwear in the 90's. It was the decade of High Volume Feet Footwear!!!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

You ALL make me laugh. Thanks for the chuckles.

Tanya

Veteran

During 90's I actually loved the clunky footwear, it being the grunge phase and all that. It probably has something to do with being a teenager and having very healthy and non-fussy feet. My peers who dressed in a similar manner considered ourselves cool as opposed to different social teenager groups who went for pretty. Cool kids were clunky shoes, oversize clothes and listened to Nirvana. Non-cool kids wore pretty shoes, nicely fitting clothes and listened to New Kids on the Block or Michael Jackson. The two groups did not mix, and shoes were always the first indicator to which group one belongs. High school and all it's drama

Anonymous

Now that you mention this again, I cannot for the life of me remember what I wore for shoes in the 90's ! I obviously had mules, pumps, boots, but I must have turned a blind eye to the trendy chunky stuff. I think I was an old lady before my time back then

Anonymous

Hehe, Lisa took the words right out of my mouth!

shedev

Veteran

I'm a stompy footwear girl at heart. My favorite pair was a powder blue pair of timberland type boots by Luggs. I got a ton of compliments. I still have a pair of Harley boots that have a square toe, bought on vacation in about 2002. Can't bring myself to part with them.

Sara L.

Veteran

I can't remember very many of my shoes from the 90's either. That's very odd, because I've always been a shoe person. I know I had black boots with chunky heels (not Docs though) and I remember a couple pairs of mules, but that's all I can think of. I remember my shoes clicking as I walked across the office but what those shoes looked like, I have no idea.

Style Fan

Veteran

My feet were in heaven in the 90s. I have always had painful feet. They are not high volume just average volume. Doc Martens were wonderful. I loved grunge if that was the 90s. I am still grungy.

Jeweled

Veteran

I have big feet and remember reveling in the chunky, comfy sandals I wore throughout the 1990's!

(In contrast, dainty-strapped sandals make me look like Bigfoot.) LOL

Diana

Veteran

See exhibits A and B below. Both from the late 90's.

A: chunky foam platform slides (on me) and platform sneakers (on my sister). Hey, look, Angie, I am wearing white shoes!

B: These block-heeled open toed mules were my absolute favorite shoes. They were actually pretty comfy if you discount the fact that I was always walking out of them/flinging them off my foot. There was one memorable incident where I flung one halfway across a crowded restaurant (didn't hit anyone, amazingly!).

I will admit to a fondness for the girly dress + big combat boot grunge look and I still occasionally will wear a version of it with my Docs. As I mentioned on the blog post, though, even Docs are not a great match for my narrow, low-volume, flat feet.

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Laura (rhubarbgirl)

(website)

Veteran

I totally rocked the combat boots and chunky oxfords and all that in the 90s. But then, I was a small town kid in a farming area, so pretty much all of us wore practical shoes 90% of the time anyway, regardless of trends.

Remember when wearing long underwear as leggings was a thing? I used to do that all the time in college. Dresses, long underwear showing, and combat boots. It was actually a pretty practical look for science lab work, as long as your skirt wasn't too flowy.

Joy

Veteran

Pre-YLF I think I owned a pair of black shoes and a pair of brown. The black were probably slides and the brown were Birkies plus I probably had a pair of Nike sneakers and black pull on mid-calf boots. Around the house I went barefoot. Oh, and some black pumps with 2.5" heels for dress. Pretty grim to think about.

dashielle (Ann)

(website)

Veteran

OMG, my high volume feet are in heaven again! I still have some of my chunky, 90s style sandals that will be coming out more often this season. Slides drove me nuts if there was any heel, with all the clacking and longer pants getting stuck under my heels...I'll pass on that one.

Firecracker (Sharan)

Veteran

I'm sure I wore chunky shoes, I just don't remember what they were! And I don't think they were any of these key styles, really. I do recall a pair of black suede t-strap Hush Puppies with a platform heel, but I bought them at the end of the 90s, probably '98 or '99. I felt very cool in those Puppies! ha ha!

jackiec

Veteran

I wasn't anywhere close to any sort of fashionista, and had a tiny budget back then. But I loved my black chunky Fluevogs that looked like Docs. And I had chunky sneakers in cream that were not comfy but I loved them. And mesh sandals in tan with chunky black soles. So so so comfy and they lasted me years. Oh I just loved the chunkies in the 90s. They still steal my heart.

rachylou

Veteran

I wore granny shoes in the 90s and also mules. I still wear granny shoes. And desperately want to annoy myself again with mules. I can't think what other shoes I wore. Oh wait, of course. The little Ferragamo shoes were my mainstay.

Marlene

Veteran

I was an office-working girl back in the 90's. I remember several pairs of kitten heeled pumps...one bright yellow, one bright red and a couple pairs of very pointy flat black loafers. I had a pair of black and white houndstooth kitten heels as well. It was in the day when I had to wear suits to work to conform to the dress code (pantyhose, anyone????). Long jackets/short skirts. The little pointy kitten heels looked good with that style. I had a big pair of white sneakers for casual wear (with my flower-print jeans).

Tania

Veteran

I loved my black Doc Martens in the 90s, along with thrifted army gear and plaid shirts!

Nebraskim

Veteran

I kind of never gave up my chunky footwear. So I'm so out of style I back in style.

Sal

Veteran

Haha Diana I had a couple of pairs very similar to your pics...but black of course!! I was a university student at the start of the 90s, then worked and travelled in London and Europe, then a try hard corporate consultant in three different cities. I don't have a lot of fondness for many of my clothes as I was either struggling or saving for my first home. I do remember wearing black shoes with everything!!!

I don't have any shoes left from the 90s except for my wedding shoes....but I have one pair in rotation that I purchased in 2000 and I still love and wear them regularly.

Caro in Oz

Veteran

You make me smile Angie. There is good fashion in every decade - sometimes it is just harder to find

AM

Veteran

I can't remember. Just like it took me forever to remember where I parked my car in the Town Centers huge parking garage. And I realize that this is only the beginning of a very slippery my slope. My husband would argue that I'm not at the beginning but well into it!

Staysfit

Veteran

My 90's fashion: Hospital scrubs and Birkenstocks or Keds with socks and a white lab coat. No kidding. It was pretty bad! If I wasn't wearing that I was sleeping, probably in a clean pair of scrubs. Then when I was pregnant and nursing my babies, I wore awful 90's pregnancy clothing, which looked suspiciously like the scrubs only larger, and more colorful; plus the Birkenstocks or Doc Martens in cold weather. It was my fashion free decade. :-).

Ruth M

Yes, Angie, I wore and loved those chunky, clunky styles in the 90s. I thought I was the bee's knees. With the benefit of hindsight, these "big" shoes probably looked ridiculous with my skinny ankles and calves (more Minnie Mouse than bee's knees).

Anonymous

I honestly can't remember what I wore. I know I had at least three pairs of lace-up prospector boots (kind of like combat boots, one was black, one was brown, and one grey). I also wore my mum's vintage Frye Campus cognac boots, and the motorcycle boots I wore yesterday. Other than that I am drawing a complete blank.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

You are a scream. All of you. How can you not remember what you wore on your feet in the '90s? Come on ladies - jog those memories. *smiling*

Diana, you win the prize today. KILLER '90s pic and looks - and white shoes to boot.

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