The redux

Feroze Gujral and her daughter Alaiia channel the best of the ’90s.

- Akanksha Kamath

Confession: I am currently re-reading Bridget Jones’s Diary—the 1996 tome by Helen Fielding that encapsulates the ’90s in a nutshell. In fact, the book’s epigraph should read ‘the ’90s was, and will always be, the most exciting time to live in’. It is a reminder of the decade that was: Jennifer Aniston was creating waves with ‘The Rachel’, Kate Moss was a whole new mood in Calvin Klein circa 1993, and the Supers were the closest we were getting to Greek goddesses on the catwalk.

As we entered the last 10 years of the millennium, the Berlin Wall came crumbling down, as did the excess of the ’80s. Icons like Gwyneth Paltrow and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy replaced Diana Ross and Cher. Sequinned jumpsuits and power shoulders were swapped for naked slip dresses and Bermuda shorts. It was a time of minimalism, the digital revolution, and disappearing global boundaries.

Today, if fashion was a breakfast spread, then nostalgia would be its bread and butter. So proved the spring/summer 2020 runways, where Givenchy brought back denim midi skirts and colourful leather, Bermuda shorts were paired with classic suits at Bottega Veneta and Marni picked up the shoe of the decade— the barely-there square-toe sandal. At home, Huemn by Pranav Kirti Misra and Shyma Shetty partnered with Pepsi in a first of its kind fashion collaboration. The result? A sepia-toned view of the beverage brand. Remember Cindy Crawford stepping out of a fiery red car in a white tank top and blue denim shorts, emulating the new look of the Pepsi can in 1994?