http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbYtwNYzMWI

I can't believe i'm asking a fashion question, but i'm genuinely intrigued to learn more about this. I was watching this montage of Australian tv commercials from June 1999 and one thing really caught my attention. Check out 0:45, 1:59 and 4:57. The fashion still looks quite "grungy" and "Mid '90s"! :o I'm genuinely surprised by that, because I thought the fashion would have looked more "Y2K" by that point. Was fashion still like that in the US at the time or was it more "Y2K"?

It was definitely much more Y2K over here by then. Grunge culture was just sort of bigger in Australia, not to mention Silverchair was still at their commercial height.

In the United States, dark, scroungy fabrics, Cobain cuts, and flannel clothing were already quickly evaporating, leaving more of a downplayed transitional look in its place. By the second half of 1998 or so, it was all about the frosted tips, bob cuts, lighter colors, and short, clean, casual attire.

There are some aspects of grunge fashion that linger on to this day. One of them is guys wearing shorts year round. People may not associate this with grunge in this day and age when it is so prevalent (especially since it morphed into cargo shorts), but it is. Guys wearing shorts ALL the time is a direct result of grunge. Guys wore shorts previously to grunge of course, but grunge normalized wearing shorts anytime, anywhere all year round. I'm not all that thrilled with it, but that's how it is. Another is guys wearing those wool winter hats anytime of year. That still goes on. Looks silly in the summer, but they don't seem to think so.

It was definitely much more Y2K over here by then. Grunge culture was just sort of bigger in Australia, not to mention Silverchair was still at their commercial height.

In the United States, dark, scroungy fabrics, Cobain cuts, and flannel clothing were already quickly evaporating, leaving more of a downplayed transitional look in its place. By the second half of 1998 or so, it was all about the frosted tips, bob cuts, lighter colors, and short, clean, casual attire.


I thought that was the case. I knew that the Y2K-era of fashion started sometime in 1998 in the United States, but I wasn't quite sure if it completely wiped out the Grunge-era of fasion by that point.

I think it petered out pretty quickly over here as well, although i'm not quite sure when exactly it happened. Also, just out of curiosity, what do you think of the fashion at 14:40 in the video? Do you think the audience's clothing leans more towards the Mid '90s or the Y2K era? It seems to be a blend of both, although I honestly don't know too much about fashion, so I might be wrong. :P

I think it petered out pretty quickly over here as well, although i'm not quite sure when exactly it happened. Also, just out of curiosity, what do you think of the fashion at 14:40 in the video? Do you think the audience's clothing leans more towards the Mid '90s or the Y2K era? It seems to be a blend of both, although I honestly don't know too much about fashion, so I might be wrong. :P
It looks 1997-ish.

Different countries have different styles that lingered over different time periods.

By that point in the US, grunge fashion was pretty much a "dead trend".

I thought that was the case. I knew that the Y2K-era of fashion started sometime in 1998 in the United States, but I wasn't quite sure if it completely wiped out the Grunge-era of fasion by that point.

It was sort of transitional. 1996 was when grunge fashion first started to lose influence and clothing got a bit more colorful, albeit still very denimy and baggy. Grunge was still quite popular in America that year, so the culture was still there, albeit in its elder days. 1997 was fairly similar, although I suppose things like the Spice Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Backstreet Boys might have gotten some people to pick up newer looks, especially since grunge was solidly dead by spring of that year. Already, guys in 1997 looked much more like they did throughout the Y2K era than they did in the mid-90s, having either generic short 90s cuts like the curtain or bowl, neutrally short hair, or spikes, possibly with frosted tips. They mostly wore polo shirts, not as much the patchy, scroungy outfits aside from the occasional flannel shirt. Women, on the other hand, were still very 1996-ish in their look and weren't quite conforming to the Y2K styles in massive numbers yet, despite progress from 1995.

I think it petered out pretty quickly over here as well, although i'm not quite sure when exactly it happened. Also, just out of curiosity, what do you think of the fashion at 14:40 in the video? Do you think the audience's clothing leans more towards the Mid '90s or the Y2K era? It seems to be a blend of both, although I honestly don't know too much about fashion, so I might be wrong. :P


It definitely looks Y2K era. I can't spot any grunge fashion, just the short hair/polo look for the main guy and women who look more casual than the more full-on mid-90s look.

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1999 commercial breaks from my country. I think the Anchor ad was possibly the first commercial I remember.

I've always heard that while grunge music ended by 1997, grunge fashion lasted longer, till about 2002 or so.

It was sort of transitional. 1996 was when grunge fashion first started to lose influence and clothing got a bit more colorful, albeit still very denimy and baggy. Grunge was still quite popular in America that year, so the culture was still there, albeit in its elder days. 1997 was fairly similar, although I suppose things like the Spice Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Backstreet Boys might have gotten some people to pick up newer looks, especially since grunge was solidly dead by spring of that year. Already, guys in 1997 looked much more like they did throughout the Y2K era than they did in the mid-90s, having either generic short 90s cuts like the curtain or bowl, neutrally short hair, or spikes, possibly with frosted tips. They mostly wore polo shirts, not as much the patchy, scroungy outfits aside from the occasional flannel shirt. Women, on the other hand, were still very 1996-ish in their look and weren't quite conforming to the Y2K styles in massive numbers yet, despite progress from 1995.

It definitely looks Y2K era. I can't spot any grunge fashion, just the short hair/polo look for the main guy and women who look more casual than the more full-on mid-90s look.


Thanks for clarifying it and giving your opinion on the commercial in the video. :) I honestly had no idea about how the "Grunge" look phased out over time or how transitional it was, to be honest. 

I noticed the transition while I was in middle/junior high school. My sixth grade yearbook has me sitting down in a plaid grunge-like outfit (1996-97 school year), while by the time I left and moved onto high school in 1999, that mix of neo-'70s styles (as opposed to the late '60s being the nostalgic era of choice during the early-mid '90s) and Y2K fashion (including short, buzzed hair for men) dominated more.

But at the other end of the spectrum (1992-93), remember that alongside grunge, hip-hop fashion was becoming quite popular as grunge came in, replacing the flat top, classy '80s urban look complete with cheesy jewelry with the spiderweb hairdos and tattoos. That more urban look evolved into the "bling bling" style during the Y2K era, just a bit later than when grunge fell out (around 2000-01 or so).