There were so many incredible beauties during the ‘90s that it’s hard to know where to begin, but some of these famous faces were impossible to escape.
A face made for the camera
Michelle Pfeiffer’s face had something about it that looked completely different, depending on the movie. She could be soft in one. She could be pretty intimidating in another. It’s all thanks to her blue eyes and sharp cheekbones, along with her blonde hair.
They made her pretty well known by the start of the ’90s, and it was after Batman Returns that she got a slightly colder look. No matter how much makeup she put on as Catwoman, she still looked unmistakably like Michelle Pfeiffer.
The curls and that famous smile
Pretty Woman put Julia Roberts on the map in the ‘90s. Her enormous auburn curls really made her stand out, and her smile only helped. It was wide enough to become almost a trademark by itself.
Even Vogue magazine described it as one of her defining beauty features. What set her apart from other women in the ‘90s was that she wasn’t polished in the stiff old-Hollywood sense either. No, she looked as glamorous as she did approachable.
Cool blonde glamour took over
Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct was one of the defining moments in the ‘90s. She had a simple look about her, with those pale clothes and short blonde hair, that made her really stand out. Let’s not forget her cool makeup, too. It made her even more striking.
Stone’s angular features and icy blue eyes suited the character of Catherine Tramell so well that they became part of Stone’s own public image. It was the role that turned her into a star. No need for giant hair, and no need for piles of jewelry. Stone could do it all herself.
One haircut changed the whole look
The main reason that Halle Berry cut her hair short in the ‘90s was that she was tired of walking into auditions and seeing women who looked similar to her. It worked in her favor. She ended up booking the first job she auditioned for after cutting it, and the crop put all the attention on her eyes and cheekbones.
It became her signature look during the decade. She’d been a beauty-pageant contestant before acting, and it’s not hard to see why. But Berry had a much sharper, less pageant-like appearance that made her so unique.
Fashion loved the symmetry
There was no need for makeup when it came to Christy Turlington. She naturally looked like she’d been carefully assembled for the picture. It was mostly down to her strong brows, dark hair, and full lips, all of which helped to point out her balanced features.
She modeled for Calvin Klein and Chanel during the ‘90s. Turlington became a leading member of the ‘90s supermodels that ruled the decade, and it’s pretty easy to see why. She was just that stunning.
The Bardot comparison followed her
People made comparisons between Claudia Schiffer and Brigitte Bardot quite early in Schiffer’s modeling career. But even before that, she had the kind of blonde hair and blue eyes that photographers loved. There were also the full lips, slightly heavy brows, and very European bombshell look.
Guess leaned into the comparison by presenting her as a kind of modern ‘Baby Bardot,’ and Karl Lagerfeld brought her to Chanel shortly after. She was practically everywhere during the early ‘90s. Every glossy fashion campaign made her hair bigger and her styling richer. How ‘90s.
Nobody walked quite like Naomi
One reason that Naomi Campbell really stood out as a model was that she didn’t disappear into the clothes. No, her almond-shaped eyes and long legs helped her seem different from the crowd. Her glossy dark hair was the cherry on the cake.
That’s not even mentioning her runway walk, where she worked for Versace, Fendi, Ralph Lauren, and other major houses. She became one of the era’s biggest supermodels and helped define what modeling would be during the decade.
Hollywood suddenly had Salma
Salma Hayek was pretty different from the Hollywood image of the ‘90s, and it worked in her favor. She had long black hair and dark eyes, for one. She had strong brows and a curvier figure, for another. Desperado came in and pushed her onto American movie screens in a very big way.
Her beauty styling tended to lean on the simple side afterward too, with a focus on her glossy hair and defined eyes. This was a woman who didn’t need much decoration because her face did plenty already.
She could change everything and still look like Demi
The ‘90s was a decade when Demi Moore really changed her appearance. Most remembered the long dark hair from Ghost, yet that was hardly the whole story. She was pregnant and nude on Annie Leibovitz’s famous 1991 Vanity Fair cover, then shaved her head for G.I. Jane in 1997.
But there was something through all of that which stayed the same. Maybe it was the dark eyes, maybe it was the heavy brows. Maybe it was her wide smile. Either way, she stayed recognizable, and that was one of the reasons she looked so incredible.
Then everyone wanted the haircut
It’s kind of hard to separate Jennifer Aniston in the ‘90s from that haircut. That’s probably why she said she disliked it. ‘The Rachel’ came from her role as Rachel Green in the TV sitcom Friends, and it quickly became one of the decade’s most copied styles.
There aren’t many women who can say that their hairstyle defined the ‘90s, but Aniston certainly can. She was a ‘90s beauty icon. To this day, she still looks amazing, yet it was during the ‘90s that Jennifer really came alive.
The blonde look became instantly recognizable
There was no sense of subtlety in Pamela Anderson’s ’90s look. She wasn’t going for that, anyway. With platinum hair, pencil-thin brows, dark eye makeup, and glossy lips, it was clear that she was a beautiful woman.
Her role as C.J. Parker on Baywatch carried that image around the world. Her magazine appearances only made her even more recognizable. She later transitioned to avoiding makeup entirely during the 2020s.
One black dress was enough
It’s funny to think that Elizabeth Hurley wasn’t the star of Four Weddings and a Funeral. She ended up becoming one of the biggest stories at its 1994 premiere. It’s mostly down to her black Versace dress, fastened at the sides with oversized gold safety pins.
Hurley had the long dark hair and tall, slim figure that seemed like something so old-Hollywood. She was able to carry off some pretty striking looks without disappearing inside them. No matter how many Versace looks she wore, the first dress was the one people remembered.
The nickname practically explained itself
‘The Body.’ It’s a pretty confident nickname, but for someone like Elle Macpherson, it was very fitting. She stood around six feet tall and had an athletic build, with very long legs and thick brown hair.
She had the kind of huge smile that worked very well in magazine photography. Then there were the covers, such as her appearance on Sports Illustrated in 1994. She was incredible in every sense of the word.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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