How to dress for a party in 90s style
For girls, bright makeup and hairstyles with combed bangs are required. Clothing should correspond to the style of the 90s: leggings, acid colors, wide T-shirts with a belt at the waist or short tops. Take an old T-shirt, shorten it and glue on bright letters or write on it with a marker. Men will create the mood of that time if they find a crimson jacket, wear a “golden” weighty chain, and grab a “large and thick format” mobile phone as an accessory, or you can wear a tracksuit and a T-shirt with the image of the “Kino” group.
How to decorate a room
A birthday in the style of the 90s cannot be imagined without specific attributes. Hang up posters of nineties stars. Place a cassette recorder on a separate table and lay out cassettes of popular groups:
Carmen, Technology, Hands up, Tender May, etc.
If a party in the style of the 90s is celebrated at home, then it is worth covering the furniture with old bedspreads, such as tapestry ones, bringing a Record TV from the village, laying out an old program guide on the coffee table, where you need to mark with a pen the most outstanding shows this week. Musical arrangement is the simplest part of the paraphernalia, since today it is not difficult to find a collection of hits from the nineties. In addition to the musical selection, it is worth taking care of the lighting design of the dance part of the evening: light music is a must.
Invitations
Any celebration begins with invitations, including a friendly party, so do not deprive yourself and your friends of such a pleasant attribute that allows you to understand that you are a welcome guest. Invitations also create the right mood and help you immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the holiday long before it happens.
It’s best to start making your own invitations, especially since it’s very easy to do. Print out pictures from this era on a black and white printer, remembering to include the date and time. Another option is “Love is...” style inserts, Disney Club posters, or cassette covers of your favorite bands. But probably the most pleasant invitations are children's photographs of party participants. Get the photo secretly from your friends and scan it, and then handwrite the details of the celebration on the back side diagonally.
What to cook - menu in the style of the 90s
The nineties were not distinguished by any special delights in holiday tables, although it was at this time that we learned about chewing gum, chocolate bars, instant juices, and an abundance of fruit appeared.
Hot
baked chicken, permanent mashed potatoes
Traditional salads of that time:
- Herring under a Fur Coat,
- Olivie,
- mimosa.
It is necessary to set the table with the utmost simplicity, provide everyone with polka-dot napkins, and place the dishes on common areas. Instead of juices, use Pear soda.
Picture from blue screens
The second most important thing after the Christmas tree was the TV. Everyone was waiting for the traditional congratulations from the first person of the state, after which a stormy celebration began, a blue light and a very late concert by world pop stars.
The first and last years of the decade surprised citizens accustomed to everything and became a real holiday story. The fact is that the people of a large country were congratulated on the upcoming 1992 not by an official, but by a satirist. Yes, the then very young Mikhail Zadornov was broadcasting from the blue screen, making his speech considerably longer and “delaying” the onset of the year by several minutes.
And when everyone was waiting for the onset of the millennium, as a symbol of some completely new life, Yeltsin congratulated the audience and announced his retirement from politics under the Christmas tree.
The music show “Old Songs about the Main Thing” was a good undertaking in every sense of the word. The new format, which replaced the familiar Blue Lights for several years, appealed to all generations, and the artists enriched their repertoire with new versions of old songs.
Party in the style of the 90s scenario
Before coming to the party, let each guest name one of his favorite activities of those years, or remember something of the characteristic features of the nineties.
The evening, as already mentioned, should be accompanied by a musical selection of hits from the 90s.
Inserts or jokes
After a short feast, invite the company to play a mega game - inserts. Give each participant 5 chewing gum inserts: turbo, catch from…. Recall the goal of the game: everyone places a bet and then tries to flip a stack of inserts with a blow of their hand.
Invite guests to remember “beard jokes.” It will be very interesting to remember those jokes that almost everyone knew then.
"Call of the Jungle" or "Tetris"
Remember television programs. Many games can be recreated at a party. For example, “Field of Miracles”, if you want to play active games, stage “Call of the Jungle”. As a competition, organize a relay race with an egg in a spoon, which you need to carry from point A to point B, or offer to take part in a pillow fight on a hill. Remember what competitions you remember from Sergei Suponev’s program.
The famous game "Tetris" can also find a place at your party.
Organize a competition for an outstanding record by distributing Tetris games to the participants and determining the playing time for them in advance (no more than 5 minutes). Many will ask for revenge, while others simply will not be able to stop, remembering how much excitement this game gave in the past.
Disco in the style of the 90s
The evening must end with a super discus. During the final part, organize several competitions with nominations: the most popular moves at a disco of the 90s, the coolest dancing guy and girl, the bravest dancer, the most persistent dancer.
Be sure to give gifts for participating in competitions and quizzes; let your guests have souvenirs as a memory of the fun discus performer: cassettes, posters, keychains, chewing gum (some are still on sale), chocolates, etc.
“There’s something moving in the bowl!”: remembering the iconic products of the 90s
All about delicious life in the city of Chita. Restaurants Clubs Bars Cafes.
The 90s became an era of discoveries. And not only social and economic, but also, above all, consumer ones - yesterday's Soviet people discovered entire categories of products. Much of what first appeared on the shelves in those days has long become familiar. And something is gone forever with the period of initial accumulation. Here are some stories from different people.
Instant "juices" Yupi, Invite and Zuko
Powders, which when dissolved in water made it possible to obtain sweetish, bright liquids, were one of the first imported products that instantly spread throughout the country. They weighed almost nothing and did not require special storage conditions.
The success of this specific product in Russia was facilitated by the fact that, in addition to children (whom the advertising was initially aimed at), chemical powders with flavorings and sugar were loved by adults, who used them to make simple cocktails based on vodka or alcohol in general (more on that below). Restaurateur Andrei Korotyshev even recalls that particularly brave individuals threw these powders directly into vodka (if it was “especially obscene”). The result was a sweet drink of cheerful colors with a completely unchildish effect even on young organisms.
Juices and wine BB in tetra packs
The Hungarian brand BB in tetra packs was one of the first to appear on the domestic market and even competed with the domestic brand J7. “Even” - because J7 was produced by the capital city (it was later bought by the American corporation Pepsi Co), and BB was imported by Novosibirsk. She imported it so successfully that in the first half of the 90s she started bottling this juice.
All about delicious life in the city of Chita. Restaurants Clubs Bars Cafes.
However, in addition to juices, wine could also be purchased in Russian commercial kiosks and stores. Bottled in the same tetrapacks (only the design was different). Novosibirsk resident Larisa remembers buying a bag of this juice for a trip and being surprised at how quickly her teenage daughter fell asleep after a small amount. The package then got lost somewhere, and she still doesn’t know which BB brand product was in that package.
Tree mushrooms
Usually new products come to us through catering. This happened, for example, with nori leaves or pickled ginger, which can now be bought at any Pyaterochka, but 20 years ago people could only see them in expensive sushi bars. And only with the popularity of rolls, these specific products were included in the assortment of retail chains.
All about delicious life in the city of Chita. Restaurants Clubs Bars Cafes.
In the 90s there were no large retail chains (and until 1996 there were no chains at all), trade was carried out quite chaotically, any enterprising person could go to China with a trunk, bring any product and then distribute it to commercial stalls. One of these products was dried muer mushrooms (Chinese - “wood ear”). The package, about the size of a matchbox, contained a small, dense briquette with something almost black. By throwing a briquette into hot water, in about five minutes you could get a large cup with a heap of mushrooms, which were usually fried separately or with potatoes.
Once, a girl who came into the dorm room for a light opened a cup and screamed in horror: “There’s something moving in the bowl!”
And indeed, the mushrooms that had absorbed the water expanded, filled the entire space and began to lift the light aluminum lid.
Alcohol in kiosks
If today the most obvious option for a part-time job for a person without a specialty would be to become a courier for a delivery service, then for students of the 90s it was unloading cars. The entire range of goods that later appeared in commercial stalls passed through the calloused hands of such loaders. This included alcohol in liter bottles, which was then actively imported and sold everywhere as a kind of vodka concentrate (just add water). For reasons of economy, the bottles were made of thin, fragile glass, so any drop of such a bottle on the ground was a one-way trip for her.
All about delicious life in the city of Chita. Restaurants Clubs Bars Cafes.
It’s evening, there’s a truck standing by the carriage, into which the loaders are throwing boxes of alcohol. Most of the truck is already packed, alcohol is squishing under the soles, large fragments of bottles lie in a heap in the corner, small fragments crunch underfoot. At some point, the boxes stop coming into the car, and a smoke break is announced. One of the loaders, hearing this, mechanically takes out a pack of cigarettes and lights up...
Vodka in strange packaging
Although theoretically a dozen types of vodka were produced in the USSR, the mass consumer was unlikely to encounter more than three or four labels (“Russkaya”, “Stolichnaya”, “Moskovskaya” and others) - all of them were bottled in 0.5 liter bottles. With the advent of capitalism, not only foreign brands poured into the market, but also new types of packaging. I especially remember the McCormick brand, which bottled its products in plastic bottles.
— I worked as a loader in a grocery store for six months in the early 90s. When McCormick was delivered, the sellers’ favorite pastime immediately became, as if by accident, dropping a bottle on the concrete floor and watching how the buyer’s facial expression changed,” recalls Igor Maranin.
All about delicious life in the city of Chita. Restaurants Clubs Bars Cafes.
An even more unusual product (even by today's standards) was vodka, bottled in aluminum cans - like beer. The cans had different names - from the completely innocent Aurore to the dark Black Death. Unusual packaging could, however, play a cruel joke on people. Our interlocutor Denis recalls how a classmate who decided to get drunk on the grounds of unrequited love was poured ordinary water into such a jar. The girl never drank vodka, so she didn’t notice the change (it tastes like water!). But it all ended in real intoxication.
Chocolate bars
Chocolate bars appeared in Russia almost immediately after the advent of capitalism. Soft caramel, nougat, and the packaging itself - all this was unusual. An ordinary Snickers could, if not seduce, then certainly interest an adult girl. And an adult man is simply left in bewilderment.
Irina Chumachenko recalls how her father, during a business trip to Moscow, saw an incomprehensible wrapper in his room.
“And then one day in the early 90s, my dad’s friend came to visit us and treated my sister and me to Snickers.” And dad was like, “So that’s what it was.” It turns out that he spent almost 8 years trying to figure out what it was. You should have seen the relief on his face.
Instant noodles
All about delicious life in the city of Chita. Restaurants Clubs Bars Cafes.
Even before the Korean brand Doshirak entered the Russian market, instant noodles from China began to be actively sold in Russia. At first, these were the most ordinary cheap plastic bags, on which, at best, there were some explanations in English, all other inscriptions were made in hieroglyphs. Pavel Yutyaev talks about his first acquaintance with this product.
— I saw it for the first time in the store - I think I should try it. I bought it, brought it home, and there wasn’t even a word in English, just hieroglyphs. Well, okay, I don’t think I can handle noodles. He boiled water and opened the package. Well, of course, put the noodles in boiling water and cook. But I didn’t immediately figure out what to do with the bag. As an educated boy, I knew that people in China love tea. Therefore, I decided that each serving of noodles comes with a tea bag. Unfortunately, it never really brewed in a glass of boiling water. And after opening it turned out to be salty and peppery.
A more severe story happened to a friend of the writer’s father, Vitaly Seroklinov. He had serious problems with local bandits. The father wanted to help and called his special forces friends:
“That guy was hiding in a tiny one-room Khrushchev house on Yugo-Zapadny. He had two companions there, plus I arrived with three heavily armed soldiers. We defended there for two days, according to the agreed conditions it was strictly forbidden to go outside (other fighters were talking to the elder of the bandits at that time), in all the cupboards of the apartment there was only Doshirak of the stinkiest composition, they ate it for these two days, everything stank of it, plus real anxiety did not go away - an assault on the hut was expected every minute. Everything ended well, but since then I can’t stand the smell of Doshirak at all.
Prizes in packages
Lotteries were also popular in the USSR. For example, having bought a Sprint ticket for a ruble, you could immediately find out about your winnings by simply tearing open the packaging and unfolding the piece of paper. But the opportunity to win something by simply buying a bottle of soda or a package of waffles appeared only with the arrival of cunning capitalists.
One of the popular brands of the 90s was Kukuruku wafers. The main feature of these waffles today looks quite funny - they were single, each had its own packaging and was sold separately. And, of course, advertising, which literally stuck in the brain of everyone who lived at that time.
All about delicious life in the city of Chita. Restaurants Clubs Bars Cafes.
Journalist Ksenia Lysenko says:
“Once my mother bought Kukuruku wafers, and on the wrapper it was written that I had won a prize - a baseball cap, but I had to go to Moscow to get it. I didn’t understand what a baseball cap was, but the word was too temptingly foreign, so I tearfully begged my parents to go get a baseball cap. And I didn’t understand why they didn’t agree, it’s a prize!
The 90s are over, and with them comes the excitement of discovering a new world to taste. Unusual products, new dishes and drinks appear to this day, but in conditions of commodity abundance it is difficult to surprise a sophisticated buyer with them. Although there is always the opportunity to throw something well forgotten onto the market under the logo of a fashionable innovative product.
In Soviet times and partly in the 90s, in many houses one could find large jars with dark liquid and a thick layer of either mold or something worse. It was kombucha, the resulting liquid from which was considered beneficial to health. A little over 20 years have passed, and the same kombucha has returned to everyday life in a new guise - as a fashionable kombucha drink. It can be purchased in most bars that cater to the more sophisticated crowd.
nineties
Stas Sokolov12:00, November 30, 2021
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