Bench’s 90s

I saw the pictures from Bench’s 90s capsule collection and something about it stuck with me. Shot in a Berlin skatepark, all these track suits and color blocks, the whole streetstyle aesthetic that was supposed to be gone by now. The thing is, I didn’t grow up thinking the 90s were cool. I just lived through them, wearing what my parents bought me or what I could scrape together.

But looking at these now, I get it. There’s a confidence in that era’s ugliness that I can’t stop thinking about. The logos didn’t hide. The colors didn’t compromise. Proportions weren’t worried about looking good—they were just there, occupying space, not asking permission. Everything these days is so carefully balanced, minimal and refined. The 90s just threw shit together and somehow it worked.

The collection gets the details right, which surprised me. You could make a throwback like this into a joke or a costume, all exaggeration and winking. Instead, the track suits are almost restrained. The proportions are there—that 90s silhouette—but they’re cut in a way that you could actually wear them and not feel like you’re at a theme party. There’s shimmer in the fabric, color accents throughout. It could be a costume. It’s not.

I think that’s what gets me. It’s not a caricature. Someone understood what actually made that style work, not just what it looked like. There’s a difference between copying the aesthetic and understanding the attitude. The 90s didn’t ask if it was good. It just was.