This style of grunge fashion is all about throwing in lighter colors to soften up the look. Pastel grunge is pretty much what it sounds like, and isn’t too far off from soft grunge. Soft grunge style dates all the way back to the original grunge movement in the 90s where we had goth influences combined with a more gentle aesthetic. This type of grunge fashion is all about combining edgy pieces with those that are softer, creating a captivating contrast in your style. Here are some main ones you may come across on your journey through grunge fashion. Types of Grunge Fashionīeyond just standard 90s grunge fashion, there are so many different types and outfit ideas of this style that create variations of this look. In a world that rattles through trends as quickly as we do now, that means there’s always a new way to look like teen spirit. Grunge’s signature is cast-offs made your own. It’s just a shame we’ll never know what a man who shot himself because his band became too popular would have made of a brand knocking out frayed lumberjack shirts for almost four figures.įortunately, it’s also as accessible as ever if you do things the old-fashioned way – rummage around in your parents’ attics, or the rails in a charity shop, or the dustier parts of eBay. Their take on Kurt’s grunge style is for the man who bought In Utero but can now afford nostalgia served up in cashmere and calfskin, rather than pleather and felted polyester. “Saint Laurent is the go-to grunge aesthetic rock designer brand,” says Seamons, “but Off-White, Fear of God and Amiri also all have pieces that encapsulate the grunge vibe.” Cobain and ASAP Rocky. Which means luxury brands have stepped in. Therefore it’s a look other artists will tap into, sometimes unconsciously, because who doesn’t want a bit of Cobain cool in their look?” “He is one of those rare people who, even when he looked bad, looked good. “Kurt Cobain embodied cool, in a no-fucks-given way,” says the Guardian menswear editor Helen Seamons. What’s changed is who’s wearing it guitar grunge bands are dead, so rappers carry the torch, with Lil Yachty, A$AP Rocky and Travis Scott all partial to black ripped jeans and a flannel shirt. Kurt Cobain, 1990 Grunge’s first flush was a reaction to the excess of the 1980s, which grew during a recession and kicked out at the right-wing governments of George Bush Sr and, in the UK, John Major. As ’90s fashion bubbles up everywhere, grunge has become a mood board mainstay again. But it’s also easy shorthand for any designer after an injection of authenticity.
Grunge style as a trend falls in and out of fashion, but as a look, it’s never left – charity shops are still full of old jeans and cardigans artists, musicians and students are still broke. Jacobs got the sack, but also the last laugh from Alexander McQueen to Virgil Abloh, designers have ever since taken what’s new and young and youthful and luxed it up. For Vogue critic Suzy Menkes, it was “ghastly”.
Which made it all the more ironic when, in 1992, designer Marc Jacobs dropped a Perry Ellis collection full of combat boots, beanies and plaid shirts that reworked grunge’s staples with four-figure price tags. Clothes were either warm, or they weren’t. ‘Thrift’ was a local verb long before the Nevermind album hit number one and Cobain’s music, and look, was that of kids who slept on sofas or under bridges and who only bought clothes when their old ones wore through. And yet the insularity of the scene in Seattle, a city awash in rain and charity shops, meant that it hit the mainstream with a defined look. Grunge style didn’t reject fashion, it ignored it.
Grunge Style and Grunge Fashion: A Brief History In hindsight, it’s a word that encapsulated not just the sound of bands like Nirvana, Mudhoney and Soundgarden, but also their look moth-eaten, unwashed, grungy. But in his description of the scene, sent out to journalists in the late 1980s when its soon-to-be-stars were still dossing in each other’s garages, he chose ‘grunge’. In the beginning, it meant nothing. “It could have been sludge, grime, crud, any word like that,” according to Jonathan Poneman, the founder of Seattle-based record label Sub Pop, some time later.