The '90s Shabby-Chic Trend Combined Glam and Grunge for an Easygoing Look

Take the essence of the English countryside, stir in a thrifty flea-market sensibility, add a plush sofa, and you get shabby-chic style—the eccentric, eclectic look that ruled the 1990s.

The countrified look was a backlash to the urban styles inspired by Miami Vice and Memphis design in the previous decade. Shabby-chic style was a little bit elegant, a little bit worn, and very romantic. It featured antiques (real or reproduced) with a layer of peeling paint, pastels paired with neutrals and earth tones, flea market mirrors, faded floral upholstery, and touches of Rococo elegance like twinkly chandeliers. At the time, the high-low mix of grunge and glamour was groundbreaking.

The Ashwell Effect

Rachel Ashwell, a British stylist, grounded the now-iconic look in America. Ashwell, who had a background in prop and wardrobe styling, came to the United States in the 1980s. She opened a home furnishings store in 1989 in Santa Monica, California, where she sold vintage decor and slipcovered furniture. She aimed for everything to be just a little undone so people would feel at home slouching on overstuffed furniture covered in worn linen.

An immediate hit on the West Coast, the shabby-chic look went nationwide in 1996 after Oprah Winfrey did a feature on Ashwell. It exploded in popularity, and Ashwell developed an impressive celebrity following. She also wrote several books on the style, opened a dozen Shabby Chic® stores around the country, and hosted a Shabby Chic® TV show in the late 1990s. The style became as quintessentially 1990s as the Rachel haircut.

Speaking of "The Rachel," perhaps the most famous example of shabby-chic style is Monica's apartment in Friends. Her place featured vibrant jewel tones rather than English country pastels, but the artfully mismatched decor pulled straight from Ashwell's aesthetic, right down to the white slipcovered sofa and mismatched kitchen chairs.

"Shabby chic is a balance of ornate and cluttered," says Dr. Anna Ruth Gatlin, assistant professor of interior design at Auburn University. "Its roots go to England and the Victorians, but it also includes a sense of environmental awareness."

Secondhand Style Sweeps the Nation

A generation after the dawn of the environmental movement, people were beginning to worry about their impact on the planet again. That's because the United States grew by almost 33 million people in the 1990s, the largest population increase in history. The explosion of humanity was even bigger than the baby boom and had people worrying about their impact on natural resources. "Sustainability really came on board again, people were thinking about recycling, about how we could reuse things," says Dr. Lila Gomez-Lanier, associate professor in the department of textiles, merchandising, and interiors at the University of Georgia.

At its core, the shabby-chic aesthetic was an upcycled look. It was about reusing rather than buying new. By mixing old and new furniture, it made mismatched rooms a statement and perfectly matched rooms unimaginative. Buying an entire set of furniture was considered off-trend. A shabby-chic room was collected, one piece at a time.

And while a genuine Shabby Chic® sofa from Ashwell's shop or a knockoff from Pottery Barn cost thousands, the aesthetic could also be assembled affordably by perusing thrift stores and flea markets. Generations of mass-produced furniture meant there was a ton of used tables, sofas, and headboards out there just waiting to be slipcovered and painted for a second life. "You really start to see this mix of eras and influences in the 1990s," Gatlin says. "Young people are putting together all sorts of items into an individual, eclectic look."

Those slipcovers were practical, too. You could pull them off and toss them into the washing machine, making them perfect for a laid-back lifestyle where kids and dogs sat on the couch.

There was also an economic component to the popularity of the shabby-chic style, Gatlin says. After the stock market crash of 1987 and the resulting recession, people were looking to be thrifty, she says. There was a hangover from the "greed is good" era. We were tired of shiny new everything, shoulder pads, and big hair. We were ready to let our perm grow out, chill out on battered furniture, sip a cup of coffee, and relax.