A while back, Cultist wrote about the return of '90s fashion thanks to a New York Times profile of the Elaine Benes look making a comeback. With Vagabond hosting '90s Homecoming this weekend, we wanted to pay homage to the smaller accessories that made living in the '90s so totally awesome. We're not only talking about fashion here, we're talking about cultural statements that are quintessentially '90s.
Let's take a look at the five Clinton-era accessories we miss the most and weigh their chances for a comeback.
5. Pagers
Beeper, pager... whatever you want to call 'em -- it was the poor man's cell phone in the '90s. You'd get a page (or beep) alerting you someone was trying to contact you. The page would display the number trying to reach you and then you'd have to find a pay or public phone in which then you'd call back saying, "Hey, did someone from this number page me?" It sounds inconvenient, but in the '90s it might as well been a piece of technology from The Jetsons. Later, kids created a series of codes that would mean something, like "143" stood for "I Love You." And to think, parents today worry about acronyms like TTYL or BRB.
Chances for a comeback? Unless there's a super-ironic app for that, slim.
4. Wonderbra
There you saw her, across the bar looking at you. You noticed her breasts, beautiful and perky, like she had just got them yesterday. When you take her home, get her undressed, and snap off the bra, you notice something peculiar. Her rack now looks like something out of National Geographic. Dammit, Wonderbra!
Although available for several decades earlier, the Wonderbra reached global popularity in the '90s when women realize they could fool men into thinking they had perfect breasts. Women have ruled over the opposite gender ever since.
Chances for a comeback? Did it ever go away? Men are even getting in the game by fooling women to think they have big dicks.
3. Tomagotchi
Mom didn't let you have a real pet? No worries, the Japanese provided American kids with an alternative, a virtual pet that needed love and attention, and pooped pixelated waste. The pet was held in a key chain about the size of an egg, meaning you could be annoying anywhere you went by pretending like the digital critter was real. The point was never to let your Tomagotchi die, because like a real pet, if you ignored it and forgot to clean and feed it, it would waste away. No worries though, unlike real life, you could hit the reset button and try again.
Chances for a comeback? Done, there's app for that.
2. The "Rachel"
These days, people look at Jennifer Aniston with pity. But there was a point in her career everyone wanted to be her. She was the star of a very popular sitcom called Friends where characters lived in a whites-only New York City. But more popular than the sitcom or Aniston was probably the "Rachel," the name given to the haircut sported by Aniston's character. It was rumored that her contract with the show prohibited Aniston from altering the "Rachel," but after several seasons and a new decade, Aniston finally altered the look several times before the show ended in 2004.
Chances for a comeback? Very high. If Elaine Benes can make a comeback, so can Rachel Green.
1. AOL Installation Disks
You were already a member, but for some reason America Online (better known as AOL) assumed the nation needed to stockpile on its installation software before Y2K. Getting them in the mail was almost a daily occurrence, but then they started popping up in store bags and magazines. The amount of trash that AOL produced in the '90s thanks to staturating the market with the disks is perhaps why we a currently under the threat of global warming.
And after AOL joined forces with Time Warner, it seemed there was no stopping this behemoth. Well, that was until high-speed internet took over and your dial-up modem became obsolete. Now the once-powerful company is barely hanging on thanks to content farming and stiffing workers.
Chance for a comeback? Not likely. Not sure if everyone hated AOL more back than or now after the Huffington Post merger.
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