What I wore in 1997 (as a frugal ‘90s kid)

[@teresachaotic.corner]

Hey guys! The looks I've described may be regional & specific to where I grew up, so if you have a different fashion memory of the mid-to-late '90s, we love to hear it! Or just share your favorite fashion decade/year!

[@alliauyeung3004]

Loving the stream of consciousness fashion pop culture musing

[@teresachaotic.corner]

thank you! 🥰

[@hotpink3459]

I was 12 in 1997 and wow, it was an amazing year. I loved all the pop and R&B music on the radio, and I remember loving the 90s-does-70s fashion! I had a lot of orange, brown and lime green in my wardrobe.

[@GoldmineVideoLoot]

'at 12 years old. I was kinda crazy' lol

[@teresachaotic.corner]

🤣❤️

[@melastac]

I want that frosty light purple lipstick!

[@motqex]

I love binders, paper and school supplies - it’s a totally normal feeling 🤭

[@teresachaotic.corner]

🤣I'm a full blown school supply/stationery fangirl

[@t3hsolo]

I love this kind of nostalgia.

[@teresachaotic.corner]

thank you! You know I do🥰

[@nickcaputo4374]

Teresa, Loved this look back at your 90s childhood and the "useless information" you store away in your mind. I have plenty of useless information in my head as well, although I think its better described as offbeat or not average. Be proud of that useless info! Although I'm a child of the 1960s I still found your exploits fashion wise intriguing. I particularly enjoyed your opening about the lending of pens. It brought back memories! I can still vividly recall the day the prettiest girl in class, Gina, who sat at the desk in front of me, asked if anyone had an extra pen. Even though I was super-shy I rushed to give her my pen. She took it from my hand as my heart beat furiously and said "I'll give it back to you" and, being a nice person as well, kept her word. Thanks again for this fun and quirky trip down memory lane!

[@teresachaotic.corner]

Awww! That's sweet of you! The '60s were an awesome time too! As you can tell, I appreciate the culture/fashion/vibe of every decade! ❤️

[@electricelectric1500]

Love your really unique style of video essay. The storytelling, the visuals...I'm a fan! My mid-to-late 90s fashion consisted of a bunch of cheap necklaces (I remember in particular a yin-yang necklace, the classic smiley face, and an alien necklace), I owned a couple silk shirts, and my Tommy Hilfiger shoes were the coolest thing I bought with my own money back then.

[@teresachaotic.corner]

Thank you so much! I remember the alien motifs & the Tommy H windbreakers/overalls:)

[@mcrazza]

Yes, Millenial nostalgia! ✋ 1997 was a huge year in many respects both personally and globally. I was 12-years-old in my final year of primary school in a little corner of Australia. We finally reached the end of the first part of our education and were on the cusp of entering high school... and puberty (remember that happening?). Tamagotchis was everywhere (and dying :p). The clear craze was in lots of things. Britpop was happening with the Spice Girls, Oasis and Blur. People were dancing to the Macarena (remember the moves?). Kids were collecting Tazos. I remember the big movies of '97 like Austin Powers, Men in Black, Titanic, Lost World: Jurassic Park, Star Wars 20th Anniversary, As Good as It Gets, The Fifth Element, Tomorrow Never Dies (for Michelle Yeoh), My Best Friend's Wedding, L.A. Confidential, Good Will Hunting, Life is Beautiful... there's so many! Then there were the stinkers like Spawn, Alien: Resurrection, Batman & Robin, Mr. Bean: The Movie. And what about the music? That's an even longer list. 12-year-old me remembers MMMBop, Barbie Girl, Backstreet Boys, Radiohead's OK Computer... There's way too much. A lot was happening in TV land. Buffy, Daria, South Park, Stargate SG-1, Just Shoot Me!, Ally McBeal, and Dharma & Greg all debuted that year. Lois & Clark ended. Friends and ER Seasons 3 & 4 were standouts. Gaming was also huge. FFVII, GoldenEye 007, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider II, Gran Turismo, Crash Bandicoot 2, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Carmageddon. And as I touched on earlier, 1997 was a seismic year in terms of world events. Depending on where you were the two prominent ones (at least for me) was the handover of Hong Kong and the death of Princess Diana. The latter was year-defining. There were other big news events like Pathfinder landing on Mars, Labour winning the UK election (which was closely linked to Cool Britannia and a big sense of optimism for what was to come (but failed)), the killing of Gianni Versace, and so on. Wow... that was too much. Sorry! It all came flooding back. :D The 90s was a completely different time. It was a great time as a kid. I miss parts of it but I don't miss other parts. For better and for worse we've moved on. We're living in the future and tomorrow will be better.

[@teresachaotic.corner]

As a walking '90s IMDB, I love how you listed all the movies that came out in 1997. My family went to a $2 cinema and watched most of all those movies. Good times! ❤️

[@sci-fiwasabi1590]

Thanks for the nostalgia trip! Not sure if others get the same thing, but half of my dreams take me back to the bedroom I grew up in during the 90s. I left that place in 2000 and they've since turned the backyard into another house, but I've never been back inside (not like I could just knock on the door and explain my plight). I've lived in many places since and don't live anywhere near that house now, yet my dreams keep pulling me back. Not that I mind, but I've no idea why I never dream of my other places. While dreaming, I sometimes explore the rest of that house, but my bedroom is always my respwan spot. Anyway, I don't really miss it in reality (that room was tiny), but can't seem to ever let it go

[@teresachaotic.corner]

Having never had an quintessential '90s kid room (or a room to myself for that matter), sometimes I come upon renderings of the nostalgic '90s kid bedroom and feel such peace and joy. I miss something I never even had... Thank you for watching!

[@hotpink3459]

I had that exact same Five Star binder

[@teresachaotic.corner]

They were so awesome!

[@hotpink3459]

"reenactment" 😂😂

[@gamedotfilm3929]

I just found your channel from Letterboxd! 👋👋👋

[@teresachaotic.corner]

Welcome! ❤ no way, I'm mentioned on Letterboxd?

[@jamesonstalanthasyu]

I am little older, kid years was in the 80s, and my mom was very frugal too. Thing was, both my parents were successful doctors and still bought inexpensive/cheap and from the probably knockoffs in Flushing, NY. I wonder if this was the typical Asian mom in America trend, or an Asian immigrant trend.

[@teresachaotic.corner]

It might be a trend amongst Asian immigrants in the '70s/'80s as they probably had to leave everything behind to start a new life, so frugality definitely comes into play! How was your '80s childhood? I love my '90s childhood but I also wish I was older in the '80s to enjoy all the pop culture first hand instead of experiencing it through reruns/movies in the '90s.

[@Woodland_moth]

I miss the 90s!

[@teresachaotic.corner]

me too!

[@Throughwinter882]

When I was in third grade, every boy in my class wanted JNCO jeans-imagine denim so wide it could pass for a long skirt. Anyway, desperate to fit in, I scrimped and saved for weeks to buy a pair. But when my parents caught sight of them, their response was a firm: "Um... No... We have standards in this household, Buddy." So, I ended up with a shirt featuring a green, smiling gecko; press its belly button, and it spoke lizard phrases, thanks to an "innovative" built-in speaker. I was deeply uncool that year, but I was never alone when I wore that shirt.

[@teresachaotic.corner]

Love the story🥰 I remember JNCO jeans. I had my share of wide leg jeans but I never dared went that wide:) I also remember lots of geckos in the '90s!

[@annlarse]

Thanks for the video💜 I wonder if you’ve found your flashlight, and if so, what is it?

[@teresachaotic.corner]

❤️ thank you! Finding the flashlight is a work in progress😭 especially with the ghostly glow of '90s nostalgia being so tempting!

[@missdenisebee]

I still remember ratting out a friend of mine in 5th grade, who “borrowed” one of my super cool pencils & then refused to return it. He was SO butt hurt, but I was DONE😂

[@teresachaotic.corner]

Gotta respect the writing utensils! Girl, I lost Sanrio & Lisa Frank pens & pencils 😭 until I set my foot down

[@lidiyafoxgloveauthor]

I was also a frugal kid, my parents gave us a weekly clothing allowance of I believe $4 or $5 a week? Which had to include shoes, socks and underwear. That really didn't go very far. Mom wanted us to buy everything at Thriftko basically, but around '97 was when I really wanted to look like a weeb kid and I remember buying a full price shirt by dollhouse with a random anime girl face on it. It was 100% polyester, so it didn't breathe, and basically stank horribly the second my sweaty adolescent body would put it on. Undeterred I also bought a JNCO shirt with an anime-style face on it. At least that one was cotton but it cost $36 (!!!!!). I will never forget how expensive that seemed. But that was all we could do, there was no Sailor Moon merch yet. After the JNCO shirt, I barely had any money all year for anything else. I basically had like a few pairs of jeans and a few black shirts and plain ringer tees from the thrift store and my only shoes were knock-off Docs from Target. I lusted after everything in the delia*s catalog continuously. If only I had just saved the delia*s catalogs, because they are worth hundreds on Ebay now. Oh and we bought so many bootleg anime CDs in Orlando's Vietnamese district with no idea they were bootlegs...I still have a bunch of them.

[@teresachaotic.corner]

Love hearing about your wardrobe from the '90s! By '97 I was super into Sailor Moon, didn't have have T-shirts but had a watch, one manga in Japanese, and Serena's wand! I'm still in love with ringer tees. Target with the place to go for It shoes at low prices. And back in the '90s they were super cheap, like $3-5 cheap. I'll always have a fondness in my heart for those jellies. Omg, the Delia catalog. I used to pour over it and dream: "One day when I'm rich and famous I'll shop from Delia and look as cool as these models" lol

[@lidiyafoxgloveauthor]

@@teresachaotic.corner Yes, the one manga in Japanese...😂 and it was like a random volume too, like volume 8 or something, I had NO idea what was going on. I would love for ringer tees to come back into fashion. Well, they probably have somewhere, but I haven't seen many around yet. One of my other prized shirts of the day was a ringer tee with the Friends logo that was on sale from the cheapest store in the mall, but as you noted, was probably better made than almost anything at the mall now...

[@teresachaotic.corner]

@@lidiyafoxgloveauthor That Friends shirt 👌 Back in 2017-2018, I got some stripped ringer T's from Old Navy. Not the exact same as the '90s one. I suspect that somewhere in my childhood home, in my mom's clothing mountain (my mom is a mild to moderate hoarder as in not severe enough to go on reality tv, but pretty bad) is my '90s Xhilaration ringer T. My one random Sailor Moon comic involved some kind of costume ball and while I couldn't read it, I was there to swoon over Tuxedo Mask who totally made out with Serena at the end.

[@lidiyafoxgloveauthor]

@@teresachaotic.corner I think you got a better random volume than I did. I remember me and my sister sobbing over what we thought was the real death of Tuxedo Mask in like, season 1. I'm not sure how I knew that anime did have the serious potential to kill off characters for real, considering it was the first one I watched. Luckily he made it, haha

[@teresachaotic.corner]

@@lidiyafoxgloveauthor Did you watch the Sailor Moon anime that was on tv in '96 (very specific memory of year lol). Okay, so I was really into the bickering/chemistry between Serena and Darien... So right when the plot thickened, exactly on the episode when Serena discovered Darien was Tuxedo Mask and he was spirited away to another dimension, they cancelled the show and I never knew what happened next! The ultimate cliffhanger! Of course, now, I could probably find Sailor Moon streaming somewhere or just look up the plot, but I never did... Guess part of me likes the mystery of not knowing.

[@candydemure]

I don't think tweens nowadays are totally out of line. When I was that age I wanted a Juicy Couture track suit, I don't know how I knew about it but I did, and my mom was like, no you can't have a hundred dollar pair of sweatpants that say Juicy on the butt.

[@teresachaotic.corner]

Did you eventually get the track suit?

[@scorpionic-night]

she was right

[@mechaocean170]

I was born in 97!!!

[@teresachaotic.corner]

'97 was a great year!

[@newgeot850]

Liked the video alot very cool and saw other one you talking about Movies DVDs and 4k i mean anyways subsribeded & dont get upset your beautiful... ☺

[@teresachaotic.corner]

Thank you!🥰

[@newgeot850]

@@teresachaotic.corner Hi there, No problem again love the channel and cant wait for your next vid.🥰🥰🥰

[@chickenwings6172]

Pencil up their nose ear or butt. Also how do these kids not have their own pencils?

[@gorequillnachovidal]

a tongue on the other hand.....

[@teresachaotic.corner]

Let's keep the pencils to the head region, buddy. To my knowledge, no one ever stuck my pencils where the sun didn't shine or else I would freak out and flip my desk lol

[@gorequillnachovidal]

your credit cards are in your wallet??? Cray cray

[@teresachaotic.corner]

they have an assigned slot. We all go a little cray cray sometime...

[@candydemure]

I don't think tweens nowadays are totally out of line. When I was that age I wanted a Juicy Couture track suit, I don't know how I knew about it but I did, and my mom was like, no you can't have a hundred dollar pair of sweatpants that say Juicy on the butt.