Blossom and Floral and the Lure of the 90s

My friend Stan walked in today, took one look at me and said, "What - are you Blossom?" or something along those lines. And I got very excited to suddenly remember the show Blossom, although I was not intending to channel her style and I always identified more with her friend Six anyway:

see what I mean, I would totally wear Six's outfit but Blossom's could unfortunately never be me:

Which got me thinking about the 1990s and styles that are back in as if they ever really went out, a topic that Milla from The Girl Who Married a Bear has posted eloquently about here and here. It's hard to take current 90s-ish trends very seriously if you lived through it and never really left...and by the by, can it really be considered "vintage" if it was one decade ago?

Incidentally, isn't Darin sort of a Joey Lawrence?

Oh, one more thing about Blossom - I once dreamed that my brother Matt and his wife Amy had a baby girl they named "Blossom." But I digress.

Anyway, at first I was thinking, well I never really got into the outrageous hats thing did I? but then I thought again.

Here I am in 1993:

Lo and behold, my hats even pre-dated the 90s, springing from my Anne of Green Gables obsession:

Oh I also tried to momentarily convince myself I wasn't into the whole tacky sunflowers thing until I remembered that I wore this dress for my high school graduation:

It was navy blue with tiny sunflowers on it, in case you can't tell. Addie's outfit on the left was one we shared and cherished, the A-line floral skirt and tie-front white blouse. Contempo Casuals, anyone?

I can feel Cher's influence:

oh and Brittany Murphy, I will always remember (and love) you like this.

So - my choice trend of the 90s for the night is the ubiquitous floral babydoll dresses, a personal favorite of mine and one I will never forsake.

frame of reference

1990s:

and ME, circa '92:

(this one's actually an oh-so-handy skort)

'93:

and '96, still hanging on and with purple scrunchy too!

okay, this is getting ridiculous but my true love and inspiration of the 90s of course was:

tori amos. was, is, and forever will be.

also, without any further ado here are my own personal top five 1990s movies:

(off the top of my head, I know there are so many more greats)

#5 What's Eating Gilbert Grape

1993 Lasse Hallstrom

#4 Arizona Dream

1993 Emir Kusturica

#3 My Own Private Idaho

1991 Gus Van Sant

#2 Box of Moonlight

1996 Tom DiCillo

#1 Bottle Rocket

1996, Wes Anderson

Any loyal 90ists out there?