My sister and I were talking yesterday about fashion that was popular when we were in middle school.  She is 22, so she was a child of the 90's.  I was in middle school from 1987 to 1990, and I remember Tretorns, Sebagos, turtlenecks with the round-collar Forenza cable-knit sweaters, tight-rolled jeans, Guess (or Palmettos, the cheapo version) jeans, those high-top shoes that had the little pocket in them for change - were they Roos?, Benetton anything, Skidz baggy skater pants for guys, 17th St. Surf Shop shirts and the plastic charm bracelets with all the little clip-on charms.

What did you wear in middle school and what years were you there?

I went to middle school/jr. high (7th-8th grade) from 1984 to 1986. 7th grade I wore parachute pants, hi-top sneakers left untied, sleeveless t-shirts  :D ;D , Ocean Pacific corduroy shorts and polo shirts.  8th grade I wore more jeans than shorts, put the big fat laces in my tennis shoes and usually wore a collared shirt whether it was a polo shirt or button-down shirt untucked. :P

   Jr. High from 1981 to 1983...

   In at least one picture, from 1982, I'm still wearing my bell bottoms from grade school.  Wore mostly polo shirts, jeans and Chuck Taylors or Pro Leathers.  Also owned several different Converse t-shirts (I loved anything Converse...)  The fad at school was to use one blue lace and one gold lace - school colors.  Kept my hair sorta long...

I remember wearing paisley button down shirts.  I wore ESPRIT stuff, Bennetton and tretorn sneakers.  Guess jean jacket was a must.

I was in junior high school from 1990 to 1993 (7th, 8th, and 9th grades), and I wore Guess, Esprit, those Hypercolor t-shirts, and L.A. Gear in the early years, and in 8th-9th grade practically anything Stussy or Mossimo was in fashion.

I loved to go shopping at this store called Fashion Gal, where you can buy a lot of department store brands at relatively lower prices. Come to think of it, I think two thirds of my wardrobe in junior high and high school came from Fashion Gal. It went out of business over a decade ago, and I miss it alot. Of the stores at the mall, my favorites were Merry Go Round, Rave, Pacific Sunwear, Vans, and Miller's Outpost.  :)

We had to wear school uniform in the U.K mine was brown. However I do remember that my skirt was a tight knee length pencil skirt with over the knee socks worn with these lace up shoes that were very 'in' at the time. We did the fashoin thing as much as we could within school uniform guidelines, but mostly it was the hair, earrings and bags that were the most fashoinable things about us. 

I also had to wear school uniform at that age.  Mine was maroon (burgundy-ish) blazer and skirt and white shirt, maroon tie.  Burgundy was a reasonably trendy colour at the time but I wasn't allowed fashion skirts for school wear  >:(  Just these A-line 2 inch below the knee skirts my mum made  8-P

1983-1985

Chams shirts or sleeveless "Billy Squier" muscle shirts
parachute pants
spiked hair which grew very long
hi-top Nikes
bandannas around the ankles and near the knee

I was a headbanger :)

1972-74....Heck I don't remember,all I remember is having to have painter pants& bell bottoms,my mom still made me wear skirts to school to 8th grade,my sister and I still had to wear boots in the snow which didn't go over well when the kids on the bus are picking on you,because your also made to wear a stupid big fur type hat on your head >:(

Eighth grade girls dressed liked ZZ Top videos.  Skanky but somehow alluring.  That's my chief memory of '80s middle school fashion.  I had no fashion.  I was a total nerd. 

hahaha I wore an uniform since I went to Catholic school.  ;D

British Knights high tops

Acid-washed jeans...

I don't remember what I wore.  I went to Jr High (as it is called here) from 83 to 85.  I seem to have blocked out that period of time. :D

1989-1991

We started out tight-rolling our pants.  Did anyone do that?  You'd tighten the bottom of your pants around your ankle by folding over itself, then rolling it up a few times.  I don't remember what year that stopped, probably around 1990, I guess.  I'm sure everyone just got sick of doing that, especially on the more slippery pants where the roll would come undone and you'd have to keep doing it LOL
Those were the days.

Don't forget rat-tails  ;D

1989-1991

We started out tight-rolling our pants.  Did anyone do that?  You'd tighten the bottom of your pants around your ankle by folding over itself, then rolling it up a few times.  I don't remember what year that stopped, probably around 1990, I guess.  I'm sure everyone just got sick of doing that, especially on the more slippery pants where the roll would come undone and you'd have to keep doing it LOL
Those were the days.



OMG...we used to tight roll our jeans too...how rad huh? Hahaha..I still want to make a t-shirt, with a retro looking person it tight-rolling their pants, and underneath it saying, "Tight rolls are cool" :D ;D

Well, I wasn't in middle school until late 1994 to early '96, but in a way this story still counts.

It's sort of embarrasing, but I wore these semi ripped jeans in an attempt to be cool. Especially because there were tons of girls at my school that I liked. The way this got started in the first place was that I remember around 1988 how my mom said it looked cool to do that. I think I accidentally ripped them a little bit in a fall or something?

Well, I remembered that and tried to rip this pair as much as I could get away with, according to our dress code. I was getting kinda weird looks throughout the day, but didn't really think too much of it, until sixth period journalism class. That was my favorite, both because I loved writing (we had like this mini publication, like a school newspaper) and the atmosphere. There were a few girls I liked, especially this one in particular who was something of a Nineties Val. I thought she was so cute back then. ;) Well anyway, she herself said something to me along the lines of, "Like ohmygod, that is so 7 years ago". It was in a friendly way, but still as if to say "come on dude, that looks so silly now!" I was so embarrased hearing it from her, but I could laugh about it too, lol.

Surprisingly, even at that point, I still didn't totally understand how dated something could become and that it wasn't cool immediately afterwards. Like I didn't see anything wrong with wearing a late 80s style in 1995, but that taught me otherwise. ;D


For the most part though, I was never too over the top with how I dressed. I guess I had sort of a toned down alternative '90s look (i.e. plaid/flannel shirts), along with just the casual T shirt and jeans look sometimes too. To this day I'm sorta like that too, although I have more to pick from now.

My school was half elementary and half middle school so, let's say my middle school years was 1988-1990 (6th grade to 8th grade).  We wore school uniform, but we also wore regular clothes, so I remember the polka dots (Kwame anyone), rayon shirts, acid wash jeans, African medallions (Afrocentric period) LA Gear, Gumby haircut, box haircut, door knockers, symmetrical hairstyles, British Knights, Triple Goose jackets etc.

I remember waking up early to use my curling iron to curl (fry) my poofy bangs and then spray them into a brick hard masterpiece on my forehead.  I also remember wearing Sam and Libby shoes that were flats with big leather bows on the toes of them.  I had these shoes in several different colors.  I also remember "sebago" shoes--funny--I'd forgotten them, and I had a wanted a pair so badly when I was in middle school lol!  I also wore the huge t-shirts with leggings and used a freaking hair rubber band tie to pull up the side of my t-shirt (I'm not explaining it right, but you get the point).  I was such a nerd.  I also remember wearing big slouch socks that usually matched the color of whatever shirt I happened to be wearing at the time.