5 trends that Trainspotting anticipated Back in 1996 There is much more to the film than the famous Helmut Lang tank top

Of all the films that defined the '90s — and there are many — Trainspotting by Danny Boyle holds a special place. From the opening monologue "Choose Life" to the famous toilet scene and the baby crawling across the ceiling, the film is far more than a story about drug addiction. And, let's be honest, if that were all it was, it wouldn't have had the impact it did. Trainspotting is really about a disinherited generation that wanted to reject the conformism of a hypocritical society by chasing the impulse of the moment and, in doing so, chasing only its own ruin.

But the philosophical message isn't the most important thing. The impact of the film — its aesthetic, the fascination it exerted on the minds of the Millennial generation (with David Fincher's Fight Club serving as an excellent companion piece) — stems from its ability to capture the spirit of the times, the desire for rebellion of a cohort of young people who were under the illusion that they were living at the end of history. In short, Trainspotting's impact is more aesthetic than moral. And within that dimension, fashion plays its part, through Rachel Fleming's costumes, which included the now-iconic Helmut Lang t-shirt as well as numerous other pieces drawn from both the vintage world and sportswear.

That's why we've identified the 5 trends that Trainspotting anticipated. Here they are.

Indie Sleaze

Indie Sleaze is perhaps the trend most clearly anticipated in Trainspotting. The film is known for promoting the raw version of the '90s heroin chic aesthetic, and in terms of clothing — particularly the character of Mark Renton — we can see that curious mix of punk elements, skinny jeans and cropped tees paired with trainers and beaten-up ankle boots that remain central to the Indie Sleaze revival, which peaked between 2021 and 2022 and has since entered the contemporary aesthetic canon.

In the film, we see Renton wearing worn leather jackets, mohair jumpers, white Converse, and even, in the famous opening scene, a shirt tied at the waist — something that at the time wasn't a deliberate styling choice, but has since become one. Other elements of Renton's wardrobe echo pieces that are popular today, such as the green ringer tee he wears in one scene, or the normcore aesthetic of his look with a teal jumper. But it was that ultra-skinny silhouette that anticipated, by years, both Hedi Slimane's Dior Homme and the hipsters of the early 2000s.

The Mod Revival

If we look at the film as a panoramic survey of styles, the revival of the Mod aesthetic couldn't be absent. Representing this look — even if within the story it reads as a nod to the past — is the character of Sick Boy, who is also the most image-obsessed, with a style that draws openly from the mod world and '60s dandyism: tailored-cut shirts, slim jackets and suits with narrow shoulders, polo shirts and fine knitwear, slim ties, bleach-blond hair with a sharp cut.

Trainspotting was released at the height of Britpop, when the mod revival — modernised by the Cool Britannia movement — was already making a comeback, and it helped make that aesthetic appealing to a wider audience. Today, that style has survived in recurring elements both on the runway and in everyday life, from the Mod Cut for men to ties worn with casual looks, and across the entire scene dominated by musicians like The Dare and European Vampire.

Britpop

Here the right word is synchrony rather than anticipation. Trainspotting was released in 1996, when Britpop was at its peak, and the film shares both its sound (the soundtrack features Blur, Pulp and Elastica alongside Iggy Pop and Underworld) and its wardrobe. That wardrobe was born from the meeting of English terrace culture and the mod repertoire mentioned above: Fred Perry polo shirts, track jackets, adidas Gazelles and Sambas, Dr. Martens, and so on.

In the film, this vocabulary is practically everywhere, though it wouldn't be called the dominant style. But what matters is that this aesthetic — and more broadly that entire mood — came back into fashion in the new millennium, both with the terrace/casual wave that arrived with the Oasis reunion, and with the recent success of the adidas Samba — and, of course, with blokecore, its direct descendant.

Porno Chic

Although it was released in '96, Trainspotting was set at the end of the 1980s. So the deliberately dated wardrobe of Spud, inspired by the previous decade, is a kind of parody of that disco-era aesthetic — one that would find unexpected popularity at the time of the film's release, and that during the era of Tom Ford's Gucci came to be known as porno chic. That very style was taken up by Tom Ford, particularly in Gucci's menswear: wide collars, shirts and tops in earthy tones, structured jackets, flared trousers.

In the film, Spud's character is more awkward than elegant, though the overall atmosphere shares with porno chic the same visual sensibility: grimy lighting, squalid interiors, bodies exposed without glamour, raw and unromantic sexuality. This is why the anticipation concerns porno chic primarily as a mainstream fashion imaginary: the same repertoire of warm colours, wide collars and retro silhouettes that would sweep through the runways in the decades that followed, including Ford's own house — from the Gucci of 2003 with its provocative campaigns to his eponymous line.

Preppy Streetwear

Today, pages like @throwingfits have turned the menswear guy into a meme: the type of performative male who wears workwear and vintage tailored pieces, blending a retro sensibility with cropped jackets and oversized trousers, somewhere between Aimé Leon Dore and the grandpa core of Tyler, The Creator. In the film, the character of Begbie has a similarly composed wardrobe: one iconic look features a denim jacket, tailored trousers and loafers; another includes a very preppy Pringle of Scotland jumper.

Contemporary preppy streetwear (much like what Ralph Lauren has begun staging with his Milan shows) works on the same tension between collegiate codes and streetwear proportions. Begbie represents a Scottish, working-class version of that game: formal order used as armour for a masculinity that is anything but refined.