Paco Rabanne 1994

Visionary designer Paco Rabanne first made a name for himself in the 1960s when he introduced dresses, handbags and other clothing and accessories that went against the common sensibilities of the time and challenged the public's perception of what fashion should be. By working with unlikely materials such as paper and Rhodoid — a cellulose acetate plastic often used to line baking pans — Rabanne forced the fashion world to reconsider materials and form.

Rabanne was born Francisco Rabaneda y Cuervo in Spain’s Basque region. His mother was the head seamstress at Balenciaga when she relocated herself and her son to France in 1939 to escape the Spanish Civil War. Once in France, he took on the name Paco Rabanne.

Rabanne studied architecture at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris but pivoted toward fashion and began to design accessories and costume jewelry. Rabanne collaborated with many acclaimed luxury houses — his early clients included Charles Jourdan, Givenchy, Pierre Cardin and Dior.

By 1966, Rabanne was working on avant-garde designs in his own newly-opened studio. He introduced a couture collection titled “Twelve Unwearable Dresses in Contemporary Materials.” The garments — made of aluminum, plastic and eco-friendly paper and fastened with wire — were unveiled at a show that featured music and models of color (both uncommon characteristics for such an event). Sculptural, sexy and solidly Space Age in appearance, Rabanne’s experiments turned heads. Pop star-actresses Brigitte Bardot and Françoise Hardy would soon be seen in the designer’s iconic metallic dresses, and Rabanne found enthusiasts in the likes of revolutionary couturier Elsa Schiaparelli and art collector Peggy Guggenheim. In 1968 Rabanne designed leather boots and erotically charged dresses made of molded plastic and chain-mail mesh for the science fiction film Barbarella.

Rabanne called Salvador Dalí a close friend and drew on the Surrealist movement in his designs. He continued to use unconventional materials in his work. From aluminum jersey and fur to ostrich feathers and Velcro, everything was suitable for his pioneering garments. And Rabanne’s talents are diverse — his prolific output even includes stylish furniture.

In 1999 Rabanne retired from the fashion business. In 2010 he was named Officer of the Legion d’Honneur by the French culture minister. Today, under the creative direction of French designer Julien Dossena, the Paco Rabanne brand continues to innovate and offer looks that nod to the past as well as the future.

Find vintage Paco Rabanne clothing and accessories on 1stDibs.

For fashion lovers, the 1990s have become associated with styles adopted by today’s supermodels and influencers, who never wear the same thing twice. And because fast fashion didn’t yet exist, the design associated with 1990s fashion — vintage '90s handbags, clothing and accessories — has a quality appreciated by the millennial generation: authenticity.

If there was one concept unifying fashion in the 1990s, it was the lean silhouette. “Fashion is a game of proportion,” Alexander Fury wrote in the New York Times in 2016. “Narrow-shouldered and narrow-hipped, the ’90s were skinny.”

If it takes a practiced eye to identify that single concept, that’s because in truth, ’90s fashion was many things to many people. After the 1980s era of strong-shouldered working women, glossy aerobicized bodies and Madonna, fashion branched out.

The industry gained momentum from big-money relaunches of the great Paris houses Dior, Givenchy and Balenciaga, rescued at long last from the constraints of licensing. Japan and Belgium gave fashion new avant-garde ideas to play with. From America came denim, minimalism, '90s grunge fashion and hip-hop. From Italy came sex appeal. And Prada.

For the colorful corsets of her 1990 Portrait collection, audacious British designer Dame Vivienne Westwood drew on 18th-century oil paintings — her models donned the pearl choker necklaces that have become a social media star and a favorite of influencers and fashion lovers all over the world. For a jacket-and-shorts suit from her Fall/Winter 1996–97 Storm in a Teacup line, the designer used the extreme asymmetry of a tartan mash-up to confront, according to Westwood, “the horror of uniformity and minimalism.”

“The ethos of the time was, you could have style, you could be into all kinds of cool stuff. It wasn’t about money, it wasn’t about status,” says Katy Rodriguez, cofounder of Resurrection. In contrast, “our last 10 years have seen the domination of nonstop luxury, money and status.”

Vintage 1990s Chanel bags, for example, are among the most prized of the brand’s offerings — at Newfound Luxury, proprietor L. Kiyana Macon has "clients who only buy ’90s Chanel because they recognize that it is the best quality.” 

Things were different in the ’90s, and the difference is reflected in the clothes. Pull up any recent “How to Do the 1990s” fashion article (or look at photos of current supermodels Gigi, Kendall and Bella), and you’ll see iconic '90s outfits — knee socks, cardigans, fanny packs, fishnet stockings, slip dresses, flannel shirts and combat boots.

Rodriguez has recently noticed something similar happening. Before COVID, customers searched 1990s stock “for very sexy Galliano, Dior, Cavalli — that kind of thing,” she explains, noting that just a few months ago, “people were posting [on social media] the poshest things they could.” Now, in the age of shutdown, “that would just look out of touch.”

Instead, people are looking for “things that are cool but also easy and comfortable, not necessarily super-luxe,” Rodriguez continues. They’re “heading back to the more avant-garde, anti-fashion designers, like Helmut Lang, [Martin] Margiela and [Ann] Demeulemeester.”

Late designer Franco Moschino shocked and titillated the ’80s fashion elite with his whimsical, irreverent parodies of bourgeois finery. Whether emblazoning a sober blazer with smiley faces or embellishing a skirt suit with cutlery, Moschino rendered high style with a hearty wink. He famously said, “If you can’t be elegant, at least be extravagant” — words that, with all due respect to Susan Sontag, epitomize the essence of camp.

Vintage Moschino pants, jackets and other '90s Moschino garments remain so bold and fresh today that even the house's former creative director, Jeremy Scott, drew on the brand's past and the pop culture of the decade for his debut collection in 2014.

Find vintage 90s dresses, skirts, sweaters and other clothing and accessories on 1stDibs — shop Thierry Mugler, Miuccia Prada, Jean Paul Gaultier and more today.