Why Fashion Still Loves the ’90s—and What to Do About It
The Run-Through with Vogue
Vogue
4.1 • 764 Ratings
🗓️ 19 August 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ten years ago, at the launch of Vogue Runway, there were a series of articles published about the ’90s. Sarah Mower contributed a piece on the lasting impact of Helmut Lang, Lynn Yaeger penned an ode to grunge, and Luke Leitch shared his recollections of the decade’s menswear (shout-out for warehouse-sale Maharishi!). A quick survey of the fall 2025 trends includes both 1980s Working Girl chic and aughts-era indie sleaze. But the ’90s reign supreme, and with incoming creative directors at Gucci, Versace, and Maison Margiela, three brands at their It-est in those years, the ’90s aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
On today’s episode of Vogue’s Run-Through podcast, Mark Holgate, Luke Leitch, and Nicole Phelps—proud Gen X-ers—discuss the persistence of the ’90s phenomenon and make the case for a new kind of futurism.
The Run-Through with Vogue is your go-to podcast where fashion meets culture. Hosted by Chloe Malle, Head of Editorial Content, Vogue U.S.; Chioma Nnadi, Head of British Vogue; and Nicole Phelps, Director of Vogue Runway, each episode features the latest fashion news and exclusive designer and celebrity interviews.
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Art and Fanning Andrews, Vogue's beauty editor at large. |
| 0:03.0 | eBay is one of the places where it ends up factoring so much into my fashion month because it lets me find pieces that I know aren't just pushed on me because it's a trend that's happening at the moment. |
| 0:13.0 | There's an element of discovery with eBay where I'll find something new that excites me. |
| 0:24.3 | This is a run-through. I'm Nicole Phelps. It's our 10-year anniversary here at Vogue Runway. |
| 0:30.1 | And looking back to that August 2015 time, we were talking about the 1990s. Sarah Moer wrote about the enduring influence of |
| 0:40.4 | Helmut Lang. Lynn Yeager penned an ode to grunge. And I interviewed Camilla Nickerson, |
| 0:47.6 | who was the stylist on the very influential music video, Freedom 90, by George Michael. |
| 0:55.8 | And it struck me that we are still talking about the 90s 10 years later, |
| 1:00.2 | which is why I brought Luke Leach and Mark Holgate, my colleagues at Vogue, |
| 1:04.9 | onto the podcast today, to discuss the phenomenon. |
| 1:09.1 | Why can't we get over the 90s? |
| 1:11.1 | Mark Holgate and Luke Leach. |
| 1:12.9 | My first question is, why do the 90s remain trendy? |
| 1:19.1 | I mean, for me, I think it's two things. |
| 1:21.4 | I think in part it feels like the last decade |
| 1:24.1 | where fashion was, |
| 1:31.1 | innocence, the wrong word, but it's the kind of one I'm going to use, but I think we were pre-conglomerate, pre-Megraband, pre-globalization, pre-just the vastness |
| 1:41.2 | of the industry now, the 90s, which it was just kind of, in some way, smaller, |
| 1:46.5 | a little bit more kind of eclectic and individualistic in some ways, I think. |
| 1:53.4 | I mean, I started working in the 90s, in the industry, in the mid-90s, |
| 1:58.6 | and it just felt like it was a kind of smaller kind of time. |
| 2:04.6 | And I think probably people look back and they see the beginnings of some celebrities coming into |
... |
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