Take a look around. See a little more neon than what you’re accustomed to? Well, that’s because fluorescent colors and candy raver styling is back in a big way. Whether it’s flannel (which will be featured in a future Trends column on lumberjack and grunge chic) or neon, people are bringing back the culture of "anti-fashion," but in new and reinvented styles. The music scene associated with all the fluorescent action is known as nu rave, which is a homage to the "traditional" rave scene characterized by fog machines, light shows and pounding electronic music, as well as the other musical genres of disco and new wave.
Neon first came into vogue in the early ’90s. Popular items of fluorescent clothing included t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks, shoelaces, hair scrunchies, and fanny packs, worn by both men and women. Whether vintage or handmade, neon is once again in the streets and on the runway, and the fashion-forward know it’s time to make it work!
Here we have some popular neon looks and coordinating Etsy items you can incorporate into your wardrobe. Bring the neon back to your town!
CloudbringsRainbow Shoplift 410BC
resetcouture GreedyGoretti Indiscretion
Check out more fashion forward ideas in our Trends series, as well as on Flickr’s wardrobe_remix, IamFashion.blogspot.com and Finnish street style powerhouse Hel-Looks.
What trends would you like to see profiled? What’s new and forward thinking? Leave it in the comments!
50 comments
Sign in to add your ownannettemusick says:
cool. This seems like the west's version of harajuku. :)
4 years ago
TeenAngster says:
totally!
4 years ago
bitsandbobbins says:
hel-looks is from helsinki, finland, not sweden. :) great post...love all this stuff!
4 years ago
TeenAngster says:
Whoops! My bad. Fixed.
4 years ago
miscelena says:
>>Neon first came into vogue in the early '90s. Close, but not quite.. *grin* "Nu rave" is almost certainly a play on "new wave" - here's a wiki-link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wave_music "New Wave was a rock music genre that existed during the late 1970s and the early-to-mid 1980s. (:::snip:::) This involved the use of spandex, bright colors (such as fluorescents), and mass-produced, tawdry jewelry and ornaments, typified by the dayglo aesthetic of the band X-Ray Spex." Interesting that then it was a celebration of mass-marketing. Heh! (And yes, I'm apparently old now.)
4 years ago
SalmonStreetStudio says:
Are Frankie Goes to Hollywood shirts, aerobics classes and Wham! coming back too? ; )
4 years ago
miscelena says:
God help us. ;)
4 years ago
tigerluxe says:
neon has actually been around since the early '80s.
4 years ago
electricbluebird says:
Wow! Reminds me of a treasury I did about a month ago!
4 years ago
TeenAngster says:
Wham! is always on in my book!
4 years ago
pookeh says:
ooh, nice! *puts on her shades*
4 years ago
TooToo says:
Neon=AWESOME.
4 years ago
jenmenkhaus says:
oh, help! i love the look on the posted work, but am i the only one who actually wore neon the first go round?
4 years ago
electricbeaderella says:
i've been absolutely in LOVE with neon colors lately! This is PERFECT!
4 years ago
TeenAngster says:
You're not the only one, jenmen! I'm right there with you.
4 years ago
syko says:
I thought the girl was wearing a stripy Marimekko-shirt on the photo, well she is! How cool that you find a Finnish picture for inspiration! I love the neons on front page, makes me remember my childhood...
4 years ago
juliebcreative says:
nooooooooooooooooooooo the 80s are back! noooooooooooo
4 years ago
410BC says:
thanks for including us! <33
4 years ago
aplanetnamedjanet says:
Maybe if I just sit still, my turn will come.
4 years ago
lalunedesigns says:
Hey, am I crazy or is that a walking skeleton in that yellow dress?
4 years ago
lollipopvomit says:
thanks for including me! i love neonzzzzzzzzzzzz!!
4 years ago
stitchandtell says:
Well, neon was here in the mid 80's and gone by the late 80's - and EVERYTHING was available in neon - ugh, nothing like neon furniture to match your closet full of neon clothes...LOL
4 years ago
pattihaskins says:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6687814 I almost glow in the dark I'm so neon bright and I'm the Plush Team mascot!
4 years ago
makemesmile says:
I used to wear black and only black all through the 90's, but the 80s were pretty neon. (Dutch pop band Doe Maar had neon pink and green as trademark colours). I like bright colours now, but I still associate it with the synthetic polyester ewh fabric from the 80s. And I agree, lalunedesigns, that's a not a healthy looking girl.
4 years ago
eclipse says:
Storque says: "Neon first came into vogue in the early '90s." I think that was the second wave of neon fad, because there was a lot of neon in the 80's too. In fact I think it was more widespread in the 80's, in mainstream fashion, whereas the 90's neon was mostly limited to the rave subculture.
4 years ago
eclipse says:
SalmonStreetStudio says: Are Frankie Goes to Hollywood shirts, aerobics classes and Wham! coming back too? ---- they ARE back! *shudder* last summer in London I saw tons of young girls wearing those oversize Wham T-shirts, choose life, Relax, etc. They are being reproduced, it wasn't vintage. The fad might be over already though, but things also take a season to spread from Europe to USA so we might be seeing them here this summer. *shudder*
4 years ago
areathriftyone says:
"traditional" rave scene??!!!? Make a girl feel old, why don't you!? I remember those "traditional days"...
4 years ago
SalmonStreetStudio says:
"Shut UP". That is too much eclipse. Neon, OK. Frilly things, ok. Various body part warmers, ok. But Relax shirts. Please don't say that Acid Wash was all the rage in Paris! *goes away humming "wake me up before you go-go" and thinking of the movie "Music & Lyrics", and feeling old*
4 years ago
SalmonStreetStudio says:
Oh, and yeah, the fabrics were ewww! At least the fabric being used to make the too bright and too shiny stuff are better now. Ok, what IS next? Butt bows on dresses?
4 years ago
BlueLadyBeads says:
My Hubby is not allowed to see this. He already bemoans himself to be OLD. This would just confirm it. SalmonStreetStudio, Oh, please, not the but bows. Though, I confess I had one on my wedding dress nearly nine years ago. Eek, I am old.
4 years ago
eclipse says:
butt bows and scrunchies and PERMS. :p
4 years ago
loveforever says:
woot woot! as a proud old-raver, i've been waiting for this to come back in style and i was pretty psyched to see lots of nu-ravers in london last time i was there. gotta go dig out my glow-sticks.
4 years ago
jenNco2 says:
I still buy/play with glow sticks every Halloween. I'm the only person on my block swinging glowsticks on long strings in the dark, lol! I guess not so much any more, with the "new" trend. Maybe I'll finally be "ahead of my time", haha! I say bring the techno and Strobe FX wands... I never stopped listening!
4 years ago
SalmonStreetStudio says:
I think we need to make a BUNCH of smiley face shirts then. yep. and giant pacifier graphixxx?! It is funny how much each generation knows/doesn't know about the one before. I am *certain* we thought we were the first to use/wear/say ____, but we may not have been (as in this, cause some people didn't even know it is actually Neon V.3.0 NOT 2.0!
4 years ago
eclipse says:
it might even be neon 4.0. There were "neon" (aka blacklight) colors with some popularity in the 60's, and hippies used it more for bodypainting or posters, less for clothing. And the mod/OpArt style in the 60's also used it. I have an old 60's blacklight poster I need to list in Vintage.
4 years ago
Peldyn says:
I thought the look at fashion week was 1940's as seen in the looks put out by BCBG Max Azaria? I think the neon look is already over guys!
4 years ago
MoxyFoxDesigns says:
Don't forget the 1950s! Here's an article from TIME magazine dated 6-4-1951. For better visibility during World War II, landing signal officers on U.S. aircraft carriers wore fluorescent-striped uniforms, wigwagged planes to landings with fluorescent "paddles." Most of the material was made under license from Cleveland's Switzer Bros, (chemists), and the services bought about $12 million worth in two years. When peace came, Switzer tried out the brilliant dyes for caps, shirts and jackets. By last week, adolescents were fluorescent from coast to coast, as Switzer's "DayGlo" clothes became the newest fad. Items: shocking pink caps with kelly green brims, electric blue ties striped with cerise, black cowpoke shirts embroidered in fluorescent green. Some youngsters wore one sock of glowing orange, one of rasping raspberry, topped them off with high-visibility shoelaces in contrasting colors. The makers of "Day-Glo," "Coldfire," "Emberglow," "Atomic Fire," etc. hope to extend the craze to adults. In Chicago last week, women were buying brilliant tangerine panties; matching illuminated brassieres were on the way. Men were buying electric-hued shirts stenciled with hunting scenes, were stocking up on chartreuse swimming trunks for the summer season. One welcome promise of relief for dazzled eyes: fluorescent materials will fade after 20 hours' exposure to sunlight, eventually turn dead white. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,858130,00.html
4 years ago
tabidesigns says:
it seems the 80s will never die, we just keep taking different elements from it and reinvent it. I just hope the shoulder pads never return
4 years ago
miscelena says:
MoxyFoxDesigns history note about the fading fluorescent colors reminded me... Anyone have a Hyper-color shirt in the late 80's? Mine was neon-pink, turned to neon-purple... *smile*
4 years ago
scorpienna says:
I always wanted a hypercolor shirt. Of course everyone ended up with their armpits a different color than the rest of their shirt.
4 years ago
SalvagedExpression says:
I'm pretty sure pale washed out blondes shouldn't wear neon but I'm used to sitting out trends. On the other I had just started on a line of black light items featuring glow sticks. I feel like a trendsetter or something.
4 years ago
Palpitations says:
oh, I love the necklaces in the first photo, that is exactly my style. I want to make some for my shop now. =D
4 years ago
shaylamaddox says:
<--- Don't forget the blacklight paintings! Wow, I was so influenced. I can't deny it. I have always loved glow in the dark everything! Great stuff, yay for neon!
4 years ago
MadelinePrescott says:
The 90s? LOL I remember neon colors in the 60s! I was sewing with them again in the 80s for my kids. I love the neon and hot colors. They make me feel cheery just sewing with them.
4 years ago
iamnotadoll says:
neon/fluorescent makes me feel sick. it hurts to look at, and now i have to deal with seeing it everyday just because Those People Who Decide What Is Cool (you know the ones, the ones that make that book) said so.
4 years ago
saranoh77 says:
i thought neon was a big hit in the early 80s not 90s. Early 90's were all about flannel!
4 years ago
youmeyou says:
I love neon...and wardrobe_remix...xo!!!
4 years ago
retropolisvintage says:
Ha! Candy ravers..... I remember (sort of**)those days--- does this make me old? Here's hoping my kids dont find the yellow funfur flares, whistle and plastic chain in the closet!!! In another couple of years I can sell them as "vintage" in Etsy! so silly. :)
4 years ago
annamatrona says:
i think neon looks best in small doses. like my tights in the photo below: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lmadream/1526458801/in/set-72157594536568624/ also neon is good for your fingernails in summer.
4 years ago