i love the 90s

So I was a teenager in the 90s, I've spent far too many hours watching the VH1 series about the 80s and 90s, and I am writing some fiction set in the 90s. My mind is often back in that time of middle class supremacy and relative peace and prosperity. But this week it seems like everyone else has decided to join me back in my retro-revere.

First, I came across this article about how fashion trends from top TV shows and movies of the 90s are making a comeback. My So Called Life? Empire Records? Saved by the Bell? These are such formative parts of my adolescence, that most likely I am still taking some of my cues from these, if not dressing in plaid skirts and belly shirts all the time anymore (oh, but did I ever parade around the halls of my high school in them). I can admit it, I wanted to be Kelly Kopowski, having to choose between Slater and Zack, and of course ending up with Zack (after a hiatus during that awful Tori season that we all try to forget).

Also, it was a ritual for a while for a couple of my girl friends and I to watch Empire Records every weekend at a sleep over. I am pretty sure every line is still carved in my memory, where things like phone numbers and algebraic equations have been edged out. "Empire Records, open til midnight, this is Mark....Midnight!" Man am I glad to no longer work in retail.

And oh, My So Called Life. I bought the box set, so that I can relive that single season of glory. Finding new "cooler" friends, and letting go of the old ones; having a crush on a guy who doesn't know you exist, until suddenly he does, and you can't think straight, until your best friend hooks up with him instead; being sure your parents are hiding some ugly truth about themselves; wondering if everyone in the world is having sex but you. How are these not universal themes of high school? How did they cancel this show. I'll never really understand, but I'll always feel drawn back into being a self conscious teenager when I watch it.

And will always think of Jared Leto as Jordan Catalano.

So then today, Facebook alerted me to the petition for International 90210 day on Thursday, 9/2/10 (9-02-10). Aren't they clever...or bored. Now, I am always up for any event that means dressing up, and have thought about how I could transform myself a little more into Kelly Taylor or Donna Martin that day. But I can't quite see pulling off a mini-dress at work.

Of course, all of this came on the heels of the NYT article that Elaine Benes from Seinfeld is now a new fashion icon (even though she never was when the show was actually on). I'm not quite ready to jump on the flowered moomoo bandwagon.

The real question is, do I go dig the old flannel shirts and ripped jeans out of retirement at my parents' house, or just let other people play out this out to the inevitable backlash? I think I may have to let this pass, only dusting off my Doc Martins, because those never stop being awesome.