Today’s Fashion Flashback—Marc Jacobs’ Spring 1993 Grunge Collection for Perry Ellis That Got Him Fired

    I have been reminiscing of my younger days when there was a lot less to worry about and fashion was fun and carefree. Flashback to 1993 when GRUNGE was the scene. Music was loud. Plaid was everywhere. And dirty hair was acceptable. Ahhhh, those were the days.    

    In November of 2025, I found the fashion show for Marc Jacobs' Spring 1993 Collection for Perry Ellis on YouTube. I had never seen that full fashion show, and there I was, seeing all the outfits for the Spring 1993 collection. Wow!!!  It was EPIC !!! Back in 1993, I could only see fashion shows on STYLE With Elsa Klensch on CNN. And they never aired full fashion shows; only highlights. For the first time, I was seeing every outfit, a high-end version of Grunge! Plaids were turned into diaphanous silks. There were beautiful granny see-through dresses. Outfits were paired with Doc Martins or Birkenstocks. And every outfit was layered upon layered as was done during the early 90's. Sadly, this collection got Marc Jacobs fired from Perry Ellis, but the firing catapulted his career.

    Since November of 2025, I have been recreating some of my favorite looks from the show by gathering what I can find on ThredUp and The Real Real. I have found some beaded cocktail dresses, crochet cardigans, and long ethereal silk or silk-like dresses. Not Marc Jacobs or Perry Ellis, but other brands.

    Here are some of the iconic looks from the Spring 1993 Perry Ellis Collection that Marc Jacobs designed. 

  

  

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite look is the first one pictured. I was lucky to get 2 beaded cocktail dresses and some crochet sweaters/cardigans. Another favorite look is the floral granny dress. I found a couple of silk and silk-like floor length dresses. I will be mainly be wearing these outfits to church on Sundays. Alas, I live in a small town now, and there aren't too many places to go to except the grocery store. And church.

    For a better look at the collection, check it out below.

 

Today's Fashion Flashback -- GRUNGE

Spring 2013 brings us designers with obvious grunge inspiration. Exactly 20 years after Marc Jacobs brought us the S/S Collection for Perry Ellis that got him canned.  Yes it was the infamous grunge Perry Ellis Collection.

Other designers that featured grunge as an inspiration during Spring/Summer 1993 were Anna Sui and Christian Francis Roth, but hardly anyone remembers that they too brought grunge to the runway that year.

Here is a look back to when fashion was first inspired by the grunge movement, which was beyond music, it was a lifestyle for those living in Seattle Washington.  It was never meant to be glamorous.  Grunge was a music scene whose revelers were mostly in poverty.  Grunge was even dubbed anti-fashion by some.  Blogger Ali Basye sums up the grunge influence with her blog: 

The Day that Grunge Became Glam

I was ecstatic to find some fashion footage of the time when grunge hit the runways.  This one features the infamous collections that first brought grunge to the runway.  (Just ignore the Oscar de la Renta collection which was not grunge-inspired.)



The following gem of a video from CNN's Style with Elsa Klensch features the Anna Sui Spring 1993 Collection.




Those collections reportedly did not sell well, hence Marc Jacobs being fired from Perry Ellis, but it left an indomitable mark on fashion, as evidenced through the years and by some of the S/S 2013 collections.  

Some of the designers bringing grunge back to high-end for Spring 2013 are:

Check out the entire Spring 2013 collections from Style.com for 3.1 Phillip Lim, Dries Van Noten, and Julien David.  (Just click on the names and you will be linked.)