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The New Zealand Herald

Lifestyle

Jenni Mortimer

Throwback Thursday: The best school stationery from the 90s

The 90s ruled. Everything was bigger and brighter and you were more inclined to think things were cool because you and your friends decided they were. They were the blissful days before Instagram made you question otherwise.

And unlike the fast fashion world we now find ourselves in, "new" stuff in the 90s felt legitimately new, and for quite some time.

When it came to stationery in the era, the 90s kid rolled sans laptop so stationery was considered an important accessory to your school coolness status.

Your pencil case and its belongings needed to showcase to your fellow peers exactly what your vibe was. So getting the contents right was crucial.

For a stationery item to really be considered cool and coveted, it needed to be:
1. Scented
2. Multi-purpose
3. Sparkly
4. Inflatable

With these key features in mind, here are the best stationery items of the 90s.

Blow pens

Admit it, at some point you made the mistake of inhaling rather than blowing on a blow pen.

While you could create some real interesting works of art with these, more often than not you just created a mess.

Crayola Stampers

The original emojis, these were a great way to show affection for your friend or crush and were without a doubt the coolest way to decorate the pages of your 1B5.

Stamp choices were limited but boy oh boy could you create some serious works of art with these.

Faber Castell connector felts

Faber Castell connector pens. Photo / Amazon

These were your "good felts", not to be messed with.

You only loaned them out to good friends and would keep a close inventory of the colours making sure each one was returned in perfect, never random, order.

Duraseal book covers

Self adhesive book cover. Photo / Arts Creating

Choosing the right Duraseal for your books was a really big deal in the 90s, as was ensuring it didn't have any "bubbles" in it.

Holograms were in along with anything that featured cool cartoon words such as "WHAM" and "KAPOW".

Stackable pens and crayons

The point of these remains uncertain, but if you lost one of these precious links, it was game over.

You could try and stuff something else in there to hold its place but it never really worked.

Multi-colour click pens

While really too fat to write with well, these were a stationery revolution. They started with four colours and quickly went up to six, then eight.

The more colours you could write with the better. Each line of your story could be a different colour, and in the 90s that meant everything.

Flamingo pens or any pen with fluff

via GIPHY

While the multi-colour click pen reigned, it was just the beginning of the novelty pen and pencil boom, which continued to rock into the early 2000s.

A pink fluffy pen or pencil, just like Cher's from Clueless was a must for any 90s fashionistas.

Mini notebook key rings

Green fluffy notebook key chain. Photo / Etsy

In the 90s things didn't need a purpose, they were just cool because they were cool.

Mini notebook key rings were the perfect example. They were too small to write in and too precious to you to even try. But you needed one, you needed one really bad.

TROLL PENCIL TOPPERS

Troll pencil toppers were the real MVP.

While they served no real purpose except to decorate the top of you pencil with a naked troll, these things were iconic.

They came in a variety of colours, including rainbow and looked great however you chose to style their hair.

WHITE OUT TAPE

White out fluid, or twink, was great for painting your nails, yes, but it also made making mistakes fun, but it did take a while to dry.

So when white out tape came out, it was a real revolution. The idea of being able to instantly write on it, plus the cute roll-on dispenser was a true 90s game changer.

Gel pens, glitter gel pens and milky pens

The gel pen's power was such that it could really bring your homework to life. And it made writing on a black piece of paper finally possible.

It was a dark day when your pen stopped working for no apparent reason and even drawing on glass couldn't revive it.

Pencil case made from wetsuit material

Surf brands like Roxy, Billabong and Rusty made wetsuit pencil cases cool.

They were strong and sturdy, so your parents were on board with buying you one and they always ended up covered in drawings from your friends.

Drawing the super cool "S" on these was a must.

The must have art set

This art set was everything. The range of crafty goodies enabled you to make such amazing creations that if The Castle's Darryl were to see them they'd go "straight to the pool room".

Yikes pencils

They were bright, metallic, textured and quite possibly the first brand name you coveted as a 90s kid.

They came in different shapes and sizes and made you feel like an absolute super star when doing your spelling test.

Stencil sets and Spirographs

When you weren't drawing bubble letters, you were using your stencil set to create cool words.

The Spirograph became a trend around the same time and meant not only could you draw cool letters, but you could create cool shapes too. Winning!

Blow up backpacks

If something was inflatable in the 90s, its cool factor went up massively.

An inflatable backpack was a dangerous move though: Should one of your pointy Yikes pencils wiggle out of your wetsuit case, the show was over for your school bag.

But it was a risk you were willing to take because icons such as Lizzie McGuire had one, so you needed one too.

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