Earlier this month, MTV announced the return of its hit 90's TV show "House Of Style" that will feature a new supermodel host (we cross our fingers for Karlie Kloss!) and will premiere on October 9th.
To celebrate the iconic series that was "House Of Style," MTV unlocked its shiny nostalgia vault and made clips from that '90s source of endless TV marathons available. We've been sifting through these priceless snippets from the past and reveling in behind-the-scenes footage with supermodels, fashion icons and 90's music stars.
Today, MTV premieres its new documentary "House Of Style: Music, Models and MTV," which follows the show's legacy from its first episode in 1989 to its return as a web series this year. The 20-minute film examines the television phenomenon that spearheaded a movement in the fashion and music industries to not only examine style but also make high fashion accessible to the average Jane (and baggy jeaned, ear stud-sporting Joe) and how the pure honesty and access of "House Of Style" was perhaps the 90's equivalent to today's blogosphere.
As per MTV's press release:
"'Music, Models, and MTV" highlights the series' impact in the convergence of music and fashion, the instrumental role the show played in making fashion accessible to the masses, the show's influence in the creation of the supermodel during the 1990s, as well as the intersection of high end and street fashion."
Born in 1991, I was not alive for the premiere of "House Of Style," so I missed the series' first debut. Nonetheless, the images that are presented in "House Of Style" and MTV's new documentary are a huge part of what I think of when I reminisce about the time when hair was frizzed, glam was glittery and grunge was high fashion.
I always knew about Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell and sitting in front of the television watching the impossibly long legged supermodels walking in catwalks. It all seemed so fabulous even in staticky non-HD.
Watching "Music, Models, and MTV" now at age 20 pulls all of the random glimpses in my mind of the series together. Oh! That's what that all was! That's why I love fashion and that's why I totally love the 90's, even if I wasn't old enough to truly live it.
The return of the series in October will hopefully mean a return to the connection between individual style and the gritty reality of the fashion and music world. What's ironic is that today's digital world is jam-packed with 'reality'--we follow Kim Kardashian and Miley Cyrus like news hungry hyenas--and yet it is common knowledge that reality TV shows are scripted and that celebrities are styled by professionals even on their free time.
By bringing "House Of Style" back, MTV seems to be signaling that there should be a return to what is actually going on behind the closed doors of today's huge music/fashion/media industry. We can't wait to see Miranda Kerr putting on zit cream à la Naomi Campbell or watch Karlie Kloss (ok, maybe...) make mistakes on screen while interviewing Kanye West.
MTV has not only made the archives of "House Of Style" available, they've chronicled them and made commentary on them so that people my age (and Tavi's) can understand the significance of Cindy Crawford taking Duran Duran to Sears and what Fame magazine was (an eerie foreshadowing of the crisis that today's traditional media face).
The new "House Of Style" will be shown online on MTV's website and on several TV-airings. We eagerly await the MTV Video Music Awards on September 6 when the new host of the online show will be revealed.
Watch below for some of our favorite clips from "House Of Style"!
