Why we still haven’t hit peak 1990s nostalgia

IN LONDON, there’s a new bar called Bunga 90 themed on nostalgia, with an entrance through a mockup Blockbuster-esque video store and bands such as the Cranberries blasting over the loudspeakers.

This summer, the Oasis reunion tour sold out stadiums around the world. Former British Vogue editor Edward Enninful is curating a ’90s exhibition at the Tate Britain to open next year. And on runways and at retailers, ’90s trends are omnipresent, including checked skirts that look straight out of Clueless. 

Nostalgia for the 1990s isn’t new. Experts say that 20 years is the general threshold for trends to cycle back, with two decades being the amount of time required to start feeling wistful about another era, rather than seeing it as the recent past. Think about how the Americana musical Grease was released in 1978 but set in 1958.