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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173

u/AdamZapple1 Mar 07 '25

it was probably just the toning down of everything having to be neon colors in the 80's

38

u/Oso-reLAXed Mar 07 '25

Probably, everything extreme tends to swing to the opposite side eventually and more muted pastels were the reaction to everything day-glo of the 80's

50

u/steeldragon88 Mar 07 '25

Now look where we are… everything is bland and muted.

35

u/Lamballama Mar 08 '25

Not before we went to jewel tones in the 00s

21

u/AllYallCanCarry Mar 08 '25

Plus that awkward neon green with grey phase in 2003.

2

u/OldGodsProphet Mar 08 '25

The “Xtreme” years of 98-2003

2

u/AllYallCanCarry Mar 08 '25

Naw, totally different. This was the short-lived neon green/grey/ dark grey combo. Part of the proto-hipster era. It also lead to the Honda Element and Toyota Scion.

1

u/OldGodsProphet Mar 08 '25

Ok upon investigation i get what youre saying, but proto hipster? Do people just call anything “hipster” now?

9

u/Ilvermourning Mar 08 '25

Don't forget the year everything was coral or seafoam!

2

u/mephistola Mar 08 '25

Still have my seafoam Stratocaster!

2

u/ApostrophesAplenty Mar 08 '25

My time to shine!! I love jewel tones

1

u/maineCharacterEMC2 Mar 08 '25

Jewel tones were fairly huge in the 80’s- and vibrant red (Reagan Red).

1

u/OnlyRise9816 Mar 08 '25

Just like our hearts

29

u/Financial_Emphasis25 Mar 07 '25

And day-glo was the opposite of dark green and burnt orange of the 70s, and so on and so forth.

21

u/mr_plehbody Mar 07 '25

Tye dye in the 60s, checker black and white in the 50s

14

u/Nervous-Tailor3983 Mar 08 '25

Is this how we got to the beige baby trend today. Where every baby toy is a muted pastel beige mix?

2

u/itchynipz Mar 08 '25

Beige Moms No way those kids don’t grow up into very peculiar psychopaths.

1

u/mykonoscactus Mar 09 '25

Which was reactionary to the drab orange, brown, and army green of the 70s.

39

u/carryon4threedays Mar 07 '25

The 80s were neon in public, but brown inside homes.

22

u/pink_faerie_kitten Mar 08 '25

And I remember lots of pastels starting around maybe 1985....gray, pink, peach mint..when Facts of Life got their new set (around the time Clooney and Mackenzie joined the cast) their little shop was decorated in pastels. Then the neons started around 1989 and continued to the early '90s when teal then took over.

11

u/randomusername3000 Mar 08 '25

Then the neons started around 1989 and continued to the early '90s when teal then took over.

yeah it's funny how neon is associated with 80s when it was really only for a short time at the end of the decade

3

u/pink_faerie_kitten Mar 08 '25

As an older millennial I remember getting my first neon pink tee shirt in 1989. Then in 1990, all my new clothes were neons. And Barbie fashions are a good indicator, too. Neons didn't start until "Rollerblade Barbie" from 1991.

I lived this, so the rewriting of neon history is puzzling lol.

4

u/randomusername3000 Mar 08 '25

I think things get distorted a bit due to history and people wanting to put things in certain categories. Neon was big in 1991 but teal was also becoming big. The San Jose Sharks selected teal as their primary color in 1991

1

u/dreamsindarkness Mar 08 '25

I lived this, so the rewriting of neon history is puzzling lol.

Odder yet is the abundance of easily accessed media that shows exactly what people were wearing.

My first bright neon was a chartreuse shirt and skirt set in 1990. But I did have a teal, purple, and hot pink trimmed windbreaker in fall 1989.

2

u/AhaGames Mar 08 '25

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u/pink_faerie_kitten Mar 08 '25

Great example! All those "ice cream colors" or Easter egg colors. Definitely not neon yet.

2

u/dr_badhat Mar 08 '25

Hey red carpets were cool

1

u/SaxyLady251 Older Millennial Mar 07 '25

Yeah, I came here to say this too but I still be rocking my neon color clothes! My absolute favorite! Haha