An ode to the scrunchie, an ’80s fashion innovation we’ll never forget.

Scrunchies have come in and out of fashion since their first heyday in the 80s. In the year In a 2003 “Sex and the City” episode of Carrie Bradshaw, a beautiful woman in a scrunchie in midtown Manhattan criticizes her fictional boyfriend, saying, “A woman who works at W magazine and lives on Perry Street is not hip.” Downtown restaurant,” she exclaimed, “A scrunchie!” Thankfully, the creator lived long enough to see it triumphantly emerge in the late 2010s and swing into fashion (as well as Vogue). At the time of Revson’s death, the red-hot fashion label Balochistan was selling an “XXL” silk scrunchie on its website for $275.

But the scrunchie’s legacy is split: at some points in history it was fashionable, while at others it was just a household comfort item — like a bathrobe or a pair of slippers worn outside only to the mailbox. . Its usage is not indicative, its widespread appeal is less consistent.

Our lives are full of inventions that we use to protect our hair – and others – for some reason. We wear swimming caps to protect against pool chlorine, and oil them on top to protect against our blow dryers; A few generations ago, elegant women tied scarves under their chins to protect their hoods while riding in convertibles. Scrunchies, for many, are just one more way to make the world a little safer for our pillows: Earlier this year, a Vogue editor wrote in a collection of staff members donning “can’t live without” hair products. -Removal time At the end of the working day, she always reaches for a silk screenie that is harmless from Intimissimi. Frustration and frustration, go! “

Los Angeles-based hairstylist and head of hair on HBO’s “Euphoria,” Kim Kimble wears her hair in braids. So silk scrunchies are more at-home: “They don’t pull or shake,” like other hair elastics do, she says. “For me, this is comfort.”

However, Kimble has been doing hair for more than 30 years, and she sees the scrunchie as a statement piece that she can deploy to directly evoke the late 20th century. She knew, for sure, that it was trendy again. But in the show “Euphoria”, with a deep understanding of the amazing fashion and current beauty trends, she put the screen on the screen only once: on the actress Maud Apatow, in a flashback to the 1990s.

Another LA-based hairstylist, Ted Gibson, who has shaved the heads of the likes of Angelina Jolie, Serena Williams, Priyanka Chopra and Ariana Grande, was amused. (and glad) to see scrunchies making a comeback as a fashion statement. Gibson’s niece is a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, “and she only talked about it last year. Scrunchies”

Gibson has placed scrunchies in models’ hair for runway shows at New York Fashion Week and elsewhere over the years. Sometimes it’s because I want to add a splash of color or a pattern code to the top of a set and say, “Sometimes I want a little more volume in the bun.”

There were out-of-work models, so the story goes, that served as the bellwether for the latter-day comeback of scrunchies: In 2017, scrunchies were popping up behind runway scenes, and in 2019 they were a runaway trend. year. That same year, Jason Momoa wore a pair of matching skinnies with a pink velvet Fendi Oscar tuxedo (this writer also shared twin tiger-print velveteen skinnies with her then-7-year-old niece. Both parties were equally concerned). The following year, Serena Williams coordinated her court attire at the US Open with colorful braids in her hair.

Gibson started styling hair 34 years ago in the late 1980s – and has seen other outfits that people first wore with scrunchies come back into style. “Fashion and hairstyles pass each other, and right now, they’re in extreme shoulder pads. Double-breasted dresses. Wide-leg pants.

In other words, maybe a little bit of bubbly, bubbly happiness was just waiting for the right conditions to materialize. And now, again, it’s everywhere. “What I love about the scrunchie is that it has those. moments, Not only in editorial, but also in films and television. It can cross all those pop culture genres,” says Gibson. “I think a very good job was done.”