The 90s were truly a different time, and not just because they existed over a decade ago. Culturally, 90s pop influences were so disparate to the ones with which we now engage—attainable, familiar and jovial, there was a sense that everything we wanted was just around the next corner, unlike the aspirational, otherworldly, Gaga-esque expectations we’re drawn to today.
Never was this truer than in the first few seasons of Friends. Set in the deepest, darkest depths of the 90s, if all you were looking for was a saucer bowl of coffee, a laugh with five of your best soul-mates, and a floral dress, Friends had you covered. I’ve been re-watching Friends from the start again (for the fifteen-billionth time) and what has struck me is the pervading nature of everyone’s favourite 90s show (yes, I like Friends better than Seinfeld. No, I have not, nor have I ever, bumped my head).
What I’m getting at is the influence of Friends is as strong today as it was in 1998—all you have to do is take a closer look, for instance, at the spring collections to realise that even now, fashion is still largely friendly. When I was backstage at Paris Fashion Week,* I was lucky enough to bump into my old friend Raf Simmons. When I asked the designer about his SS11 influences, he answered firmly, “it was Monica. I love Monica. This concept of one bright colour—pink, here see, like this—and another bright colour—look like this, orange—and then the red pants, this makes me crazy. Monica wore it before Anna Dello Russo, Anna wants to be Monica, Jil wants to be Monica, you want to be Monica, it’s all about Monica for spring.”
I promptly emailed Anna Dello Russo’s people to ask if, in fact, Anna had copied the iconic Monica colour-blocking look. Their stern reply was “no comment” but rumour has it that Anna was spotted burning her orange and pink Jil Sander ensemble after midnight in the Tuileries. I guess some people just don’t like being second best.
This friendly fashion influence really got me thinking about the enduring nature of the fashion of Friends—and spurred me on to delve a little deeper. After Missoni’s FW11 runway, Angela Missoni agreed about the unavoidable referencing to Friends. “After I saw Raf at Jil do it—you know, the Monica—I couldn’t help but think about my favourite Friends fashion. What I remembered was this sorbet shaded outfit Phoebe wore to Rachel’s party and I just thought to myself ‘yes, this will be the colour palette for my collection.’ And as you can see the Missoni print looks just divine in these colours.”
Roberto Cavalli was equally emphatic about the influence of Phoebe over his body of work, especially his FW11 collection. “Phoebe is the gypsy, like the Roberto Cavalli woman. She wears these long dress, her hair, always long. Hanging crystals around her neck she is into the mystic arts, she is all that the Roberto Cavalli woman is. But she does not wear fur. This is unacceptable to Roberto Cavalli, but he loves her anyway.”
In London, Holly Fulton shares similar sentiments, but sees her work as more ‘Rachel.’ “Oh yeah, Rachel. The ensemble she wore in season 2 with the graphic print down the front—well that’s the reason I got into fashion design in the first place. And as you can see, the motif, although sometimes it takes on slightly different forms, appears in all my collections.”
Vera Wang is also nostalgic about Rachel. “Oh yeah, Rachel is the reason I got into wedding dress design. In the first episode, where she runs into Central Perk in her wedding dress—that’s my constant inspiration. When I’m making my dresses I think to myself—if Rachel were getting married today, would she wear this? I think of her especially with the bigger, poufier styles.”
Karl Lagerfeld simply said of Janice, “she is the modern day Coco Chanel. This would be what Coco is like if she lives in Queens. I like this, a true concept.”
*I was not, nor have I ever been, backstage at Paris fashion week. All the quotes in this article are completely fabricated by me in order to prove my already tenuous point.