Flora Watkins

What was so great about the 1990s?

Nostalgia for the decade is driven by those who weren’t there

  • From Spectator Life
[Alamy]

‘They’re selling hippie wigs in Woolworths, man… the greatest decade in the history of mankind is over,’ laments Danny the Dealer of the 1960s at the end of Withnail and I. These days, given the apparently insatiable appetite for all things 1990s, you could be forgiven for assuming that they’ve pinched that title. Nineties fashion and music are back: Pulp have just released their first album in 24 years, while Oasis are reforming for a series of mega gigs. There’s even been a Labour landslide.

The Face magazine, which launched the career of the ultimate 1990s supermodel, Kate Moss, is currently pulling in the crowds with its Culture Shift exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, while former Vogue editor Edward Enninful is curating The 90s, which will explore ‘a decade characterised by its bold creativity and rebellious spirit’, for Tate Britain next year.

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