'90s trends that are long overdue for a comeback

According to the jeans I'm wearing and the mini backpack I'm not sure I can carry off, the nineties are back, and baby, they're here to stay. We're seeing more and more of the decade represented in fashion and pop culture. And while I'll never be sad about high-waisted jeans and repeated viewings of Reality Bites, I'm morose over the lack of authenticity that's come to define the decade's biggest hits. Which is why I call for a full return of the nineties, abundance of glitter and all.

Trend #1: Staying in on Friday nights to watch Dawson's Creek and/or TGIF

Pre-Y2K, none of us went out on Friday or Saturday nights. Oh sure, we thought about it; we watched our favourite characters on our favourite TV shows prep and prime for Friday night parties, dances, or whatever it is Joey and Dawson did before Jen moved in. And we wondered what it all meant and why all cups seemed to be disposable and red.

Our own nights were reserved for snacks, television, and a best friend who agreed Dawson Leery's sweater vests were offensive at best. They were defined by watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch and pointing at objects in the living room to see if maybe you were a witch too. They were robust with hope that Cory and Topanga could really make it. They were nights of couches and telling older and younger siblings to please shut up. They were nights of asking your parents if you could please stay up for Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place, and not because you liked the show, but because you wanted to stay up until 10.

Trend #2: Having only $25 to spend at the mall

If you babysat in the mid-to-late 1990s, you made $4 to $5 per hour and you treasured your small sums more than you have treasured anything in your adult life. That is, until you went to the mall, and all bets were off.

Nail polish, lip gloss, keychains, Spice Girls collector cards, cheap Leonardo DiCaprio books, and/or anything caked in or defined by glitter. Shopping circa 1998 was a scavenger hunt. It was a test to see what you could acquire with one hundredth less of the budget you'd see on an episode of Supermarket Sweep. It was a litmus test to see who would grow up to budget (nope) and who would grow up to use shopping to fill the void (hello).

Trend #3: Wearing knock-off Adidas pants

If your closet was bursting with living, breathing, on-brand Adidas pants, you were a spoiled brat and I hate (am obsessed with) you. The rest of us? We had maybe one pair acquired only if we could prove to our parents that they were on sale for a limited time at Sears.

Trend #4: Walking on the back of our jeans until they were ripped and disgusting

"Your jeans are too long" my parents tried to tell me as I happily tread on the back of them, ripping them to shreds. For the simple price of whatever it is you pay for jeans, you can do it too.

Trend #5: Seeing Titanic once a week for three months

You jump, I jump.

What made you think that you could put your hands on my fiancee?

I'll never let go -- I promise.

The reason I can sit here, typing each line verbatim and without looking up who said it and when, is because I did what all of us did as of September 1998: I watched Titanic on VHS once a week. And I often dressed up in case Leonardo DiCaprio could see me through the television screen.

Little did I know I would always be too old to date him.

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