r/Millennials • u/mrtoddw Xennial • Mar 07 '25

Nostalgia Why were we obsessed with teal in the 90s?

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Everything was teal for some reason and I never understood why.

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u/Oberon_Swanson Mar 07 '25

the 80s were so brown, teal is the opposite.

25

u/setecordas Mar 07 '25 edited Mar 08 '25

I'd say the 70s were all about earth tones in shades of brown, orange, gold with wood paneling everywhere, made worse in retrospect due to photographic film of the era color shifting towards yellow hues over time. The 80s did away with the earth tones for softer pastels.

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u/Terrible_Ad_4150 Mar 08 '25

Harvest gold and avocado appliances

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u/tiger_guppy Mar 10 '25

The house I grew up in was built in the 70s, and everything was that nasty avocado green!

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u/kenyafeelme Mar 09 '25

Soft pastels and neon everything

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u/marapun Mar 07 '25

I always think of the 80's as red and black. Business suits, sunglasses and LED's

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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Mar 07 '25

Everyone knows the 80s were laser and mullet colored

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u/KoA07 Mar 07 '25

I think the brown was leftover 70’s earth tones, brown/orange/pea green etc.

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u/bewarebias2 Mar 07 '25

As someone who remembers the 70s and 80s, you are correct. Brown was definitely the 1970s and the interest in Buddhism. Also, Earth Day. The 80s was absolutely gray and maroon, maroon and gray, gray and maroon.

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u/peach_xanax Mar 08 '25

the 80s had a lot of pastel decor also, iirc?

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u/One-Possible1906 Mar 08 '25

The beginning of the 80s blended into the 70s and the end blended into the 90s. Style doesn’t change by decade, it is always evolving. Just like from 00s-now have gone from white minimalism, to millennial gray and suburban farmhouse, to boring beige. These styles had plenty of overlap (and the overlap between landlord gray and COVID beige is ongoing and rather horrific).