Celebrity Style
The '90s Fashion Trends Tinashe Wears Again & Again
Plus, the latest on her collaboration with ShoeDazzle.
Tinashe is fully embracing the power of manifestation.
“I put on my vision board at the beginning of the year that I wanted to have a shoe collection,” the 28-year-old singer-songwriter tells Bustle, “and here we are.”
Working with the e-tailer ShoeDazzle, Tinashe curated a collection that speaks to her lifelong love affair with shoes: very tall shoes, to be exact.
“Even when I was young, I was a sucker for heels that I didn’t think I would ever wear,” she says. “But I would still get them.”
Her Tinashe x ShoeDazzle collection which launched this month, features a mix of statement and practical heels. Her goal? To channel the same empowering attitude that fuels her music.
“What I like to provide is the ability to give people a sense of confidence in themselves — to feel like a bad b*tch, to feel like they’re a million bucks, to feel like they’re a rock star, a superstar,” she says. “To give them a little taste of glamour and feeling more confident than we would in our day-to-day lives.”
The collection includes flats, heels, sneakers, boots, and booties, so there’s a style for every fall outfit. “I really enjoy the little booties,” she says. “I would wear them with a trench and leather pants. It would just make it an effortlessly cool moment.”
If that ensemble is sounding like it’s plucked from The Matrix, it should come as no surprise that the ’90s is one of Tinashe’s go-to eras for style inspiration.
Ahead, she walks Bustle through some of the biggest ’90s fashion trends and what she loves (or maybe doesn’t love) about them.
Spaghetti Strap Dresses
“I really like flowy, light dresses, and I love a spaghetti strap. Show them shoulders. And you can wear them with a boot or bootie.”
Mesh Shirts
“I’m a big fan of mesh shirts onstage ... I do a lot of dancing and movement, so it’s nice to layer them under a bustier or something a little smaller so we don’t have any wardrobe malfunctions. But, you know, in my day-to-day life, I don’t incorporate very many mesh shirts.”
Sports Bras As Tops
“That was my old go-to — always wearing a sports bra-type top and sweatpants, which I still do. But I’ve tried to make my outfit more sophisticated. I’m into it, but there’s a time and a place [for it].”
Platform Boots
“I love a big, big, chunky platform. We have some of those in the collection. That’s a small girl thing — we love big chunky shoes, because they make us a little bit taller. And it’s cute with our proportions when you’re tiny and you have a big giant shoe.”
Baggy Jeans
“They’re way better than tight jeans. I’m wearing baggy jeans all day — the baggier, the better. It’s the only way to wear jeans.”
Fur-Trim Cardigans
“They’re are a little flirty and bossy. A fur-trimmed cardigan, to me, feels very brunch, very like Sunday morning, which I definitely think is a look — like pairing it with a miniskirt. But it’s not something I typically wear. It’s a little bit on the [dressy] side, and sometimes I like to be more relaxed.”
Flannel
“I do think you can go flannel crazy. I love throwing a flannel shirt on as a layering piece, like under a jacket or over something else, to give it that casual tomboy essence. I used to dance in them all the time and use it as a layering piece when it got to fall. But again, just be careful with all these trends — a little goes a long way.”
