dELiA*s may be a thing of the past, but its aesthetic is stronger than ever
sOMe tRenDs nEvEr dIe – ThEy jUsT reTuRn iN dIffErEnt fOrM.
Case in point: Delia's (stylized on its catalog cover as dELiA*s.) More than once, the internet has mourned the loss of the teen girl clothing store with the erratically capitalized name and its incredible catalog.
Every few years or so, someone announces the brand’s death, only for the brand to reemerge in some diminished form online. Its slow death began in 2014, and extended to 2015. Even now, the brand continues to hang on with a simple site. And yet the nostalgia keeps flowing. The eulogies are extensive and exhausting.
Still, Delia’s – as an aesthetic and as a YA worldview, not as a company – has reemerged, on our clothing racks and throughout our digital spaces.
tHe bEst pArT of tHE '90s iS aLiVe.
To be fair, '90s fashion has been back since 2016, the height of the mom jeans renaissance. In the years since, the trend's proliferated and gathered hurricane-level energy.
To see the trend at work, look no further than the Urban Outfitters fall 2018 collection, which looks ripped from the pages of a late 90s Delia's catalog. The styles are pretty much carbon copies of its Clinton-era ancestor. Frankly, I'm thrilled.
Here's where to spot the trend in action:
A stripe success story
Evidence A: Compare how Delia's did a multicolor, oversized horizontal stripe with how Urban does it today:
Delia's, 1996:
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Urban Outfitters, 2018
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I, for one, am thrilled to see stripes in full force, having suffered through the soporific Stripeless Tee Era, lasting 2014-2015.
The great American overall revival
The Delia's trend transcends retro stripes. Take a look at evidence B: Overalls. Overalls took a nose-dive sometime in the early '00s. Now, try walking through Brooklyn without running into a 30-year-old dressed like a Nick Jr. character. If there's one good thing to come out of the Trump era, it's the Great Overall Revival.
Late '90s Delia's and 2018 Urban Outfitters have been at the forefront of overall-positivity, but so have dozens of celebrity influencers and regular humans on Instagram. Attribute its renaissance to whatever variable you want, whether it's simple cultural nostalgia, youthful reminiscing, or a renewed appreciation for the slight-masc-of-center, gender-bending-lite look.
Here's how Delia's did it back in the day:
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Urban Outfitters, today:
Zooey Deschanel, 2016:
Delia's just intuitively understood what people like about overalls: It makes them look like they're five. As a 35-year-old currently rocking a pair of shorteralls, I'm into it.
Plaid on plaid on plaid on Doc Martens
It wouldn't be Delia's/Urban/2018 if it didn't include plaid in every plausible material manifestation. Think: plaid flared pants, plaid vests, plaid mini-skirts, plaid mini-backpacks, and plaid mini-thongs.
It's a retro aesthetic that many of us in the reasonably dressed community don't want to see return.
Here's the Delia's take on the form:
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And here's Urban Outfitters:
It's more than just Urban Outfitters
Multiple Instagram accounts now feature not just '90s fashion, but a specifically Delia's vision of the '90s: loud, retro, a tiny bit shapeless, a little tomboy-ish, animated, nostalgic, and sometimes even feminist-lite.
Frankly, it's just fun.
Take, for example, this skirt from Amazon highlighted on fashionsecrets93. If this isn't Delia's 2018, I don't know what is.
Then there's Instagram account lost.and.layers, which has a more serious '90s feel, but also includes some lewks that look straight out of a Delia's fall catalogue:
Instagram account 90s.gals is a little more melancholic than Delia's was, where the models always looked like they were having funfunfun (and according to reports from the time, actually were.)
Still, the account gets some of the '90s Delia's girl-power-lite energy just right:
Babemania's store and Instagram account also tracks heavily in '90s street style and even includes some Delia's-like looks available for purchase:
The store's main Instagram account has been known to share pages from the Delia's catalogue as well:
What's to account for this heavy dose of '90s teen girl nostalgia? Who knows. If anything, it's probably a mix of the usual sartorial and cultural factors, including nostalgia for an earlier, less evil, gender-bendingish time. We were younger then. Life seemed less Donald Trump.
Either way, I'm glad the spirit of Delia's is back with us -- on our racks and in my favorite Instagram accounts.
Heather was the Web Trends reporter at Mashable NYC. Prior to joining Mashable, Heather wrote regularly for UPROXX and GOOD Magazine, was published in The Daily Dot and VICE, and had her work featured in Entertainment Weekly, Jezebel, Mic, and Gawker. She loves small terrible dogs and responsible driving. Follow her on Twitter @wear_a_helmet.
