Fashion

Delia*s Is Officially Back!

by Tyler Atwood

After months of dramatic, and indeed traumatic, speculation about the fate of cult favorite '90s retailer Delia*s, there may finally be satisfying answer. According to Racked.com, Delia*s will be sold online only, reincarnating the brand as an e-tailer come August 2015. Though true disciples of the brand will miss the tactile and sartorial thrill of thumbing through page after page of the company's catalogue and browsing the store's physical locations, an online shop is better than a world without Delia*s.

Those who grew up with Delia*s in the '90s and early aughts have likely outgrown the brand's prom attire and high school-appropriate digs in the intervening years, during which time the company's fashion has evolved with the times. Gone are the baby T-shirts and slit maxi skirts that once dominated the pages of the Delia*s catalogue, replaced by modern Millennial staples including taupe booties and circle scarves. In fact, many of the staples that once brought great joy to the Delia*s tween consumer are now defunct — but any former Delia*s fan would be bluffing if they claimed to have forgotten the items once so near and dear to their heart. Read on for 9 Delia*s classics that should be resurrected on the brand's new website this year.

1. Drawstring Cargo Pants

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No item of clothing was simpler to slip on — or more desperately unflattering — than Delia*s' roomy drawstring cargo pants. Nevertheless, owning a pair was a rite of passage.

2. Platform Sandals

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Adding clunkiness to every stumbling, pre-teen step were the ubiquitous Delia*s platform sandals, which were so incredibly covetable during the '90s that an array of Hollywood's most beloved romantic comedies are an ode to the style.

3. Impossibly Narrow, Tinted Shades

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Whether rendered in crimson, aqua, or orange, slim sunglasses were all the rage in the '90s and early aughts, and Delia*s was a trusted retailer of the style. The expression, "Seeing through rose-tinted glasses" accurately — and literally — described the bizarre rainbow hues Delia*s sunglasses lent to the world.

4. Floral Slip Dress

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Grunge adherents and couture addicts alike flocked to the floral slip dress trend in the '90s, a style Delia*s provided in countless iterations for its clients.

5. Slit Maxi Skirt

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A maxi skirt was simply incomplete without the addition of a yawning slit in the early aughts. Thankfully, Delia*s provided consumers with floor-grazing skirts in every pattern, hue, and material imaginable.

6. Tropical Print Anything

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A bold hibiscus pattern or pineapple print once lent novelty to an ensemble, especially in the form of Delia*s' strapless dresses in turquoise and white.

7. Pleather Anything

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In hindsight, pleather pants, skirts, and tops seem like a crucial sartorial misstep, but the material was absolutely inescapable for a time.

8. Multi-Layered T-Shirt

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A T-shirt simply wasn't up to snuff without another T-shirt layered beneath it in the late '90s. Blessedly, Delia*s removed all effort from the trend by providing pre-layered T-shirts to its customers.

9. Drawstring Peasant Top

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Lackadaisical style at its finest, the drawstring peasant top ruled the late '90s and early aughts, provoking thousands of tweens to save their hard-earned babysitting profits for one of Delia*s' sought-after renditions of the product.

Image: delias/Instagram; Getty Images