Planning our 20th Year Class Reunion had its twists, turns and detours but ultimately it was decided we would do an 80s and 90s party. As someone who was born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s I planned to go crazy and if I may say so myself: 🗣️ SHE EXECUTED!
I wanted a fully custom sweatsuit so I checked Etsy and there was some cute stuff but not printed all over like I wanted. So I went on Instagram and did a search and ran across this guy named Greg from Detroit and one other guy from Florida. I called them both but Greg picked up on the first call and I’m so glad he did.
I told him what I wanted which was frankly every-fckn-thing(KML) and he quoted me. I trusted him instantly & paid for it after we ironed out the details the next day. I had to order the sweatsuit separately on Amazon and had it shipped to his business. I thought it might end up being too big(and it was) but I figured people wore oversized clothing in that era anyway so better it be too big rather than too small 😅
I later scribbled up the worst drawings for placement and he went above and beyond what I asked of him. Glitter and rhinestones? Oh yes he went OFF!
I was excited when the 90s party decision was discussed in our class reunion committee meeting. I wasn’t thrilled about it later changing to 80s & 90s bc 95% of the focus & promo things shifted to 80s & no longer even mentioned the 90s but without the 80s there would be no me so I decided to have my way regardless and focus mainly on the 90s with a few 80s shoutouts.
Some details of the custom design:
- 80s made me, 90s raised me
- The giant rope chain with my childhood nickname “Nechie” on it. When I rapped temporarily I said “Nechie Baby” on a few songs & my homeboys started calling me that so I wanted to spotlight that.
- The giant portrait of me. The photo I used was one that was heavily reshared by the ppl in my hometown after I made it into a meme to be petty after a big umm.. smackdown lol! It was originally supposed to go on the front but he explained why he’d need to put it on the back and it came out amazing. My homegirl Tiaunn told me to straighten it out for the photos she was taking of me so I wouldn’t look like Condoleeza Rice lmao! I don’t think I managed to straighten it out enough on a single picture to not look like I have down’s syndrome. 😅
- Clueless. Arguably one of my favorite movies from the 90s. I wanted to pay homage to that & I had him to remake the movie logo & draw out the “whatever” hand gesture. The pink pager also says “whatever” on the screen.
- Lisa Frank. I sent him the logo and his recreation of it was SPOT. ON.
- A boombox with the Tevin Campbell/Can We Talk cassette tape. I was obsessed with Tevin growing up and I still stan! Greg later brought up putting the boombox on the ass cheeks which would’ve been INSANE like “boom” but he ended up not doing it LOL! WHY NOT, GREG??! 😂
- Fresh Prince..ss. I saw some of the Fresh Prince airbushing he’d done before and told him if he needed to fill any space just throw me in one of those and yeah… so good!
- Music scales. Music is a MAJOR part of my life. I have music scales tattooed on my lower back. I asked him to incorporate them somehow and he made the magic happen.
- East Side. That’s my high school and it was our class reunion so that needed major placement so I told him to put that down the legs.
- Everything else was all his doing.
For shoes, I knew I’d be purchasing L.A. Gear sneakers. I absolutely loveddd their light-up sneaks when I was a kid and have the most vivid memory of coming home from church with my mom & dad opening a fresh new pair in the backseat of the car.
I checked their website and they had THE CUTEST gold-based light-ups that would’ve been perfect. Upon closer inspection, I saw that they said “coming soon” so I reached out to them via email to see how soon was soon. They told me that it was actually no time soon bc they were limited edition so I asked why they even had them online. They apologized then immediately took them offline which I thought was pretty funny lol. I ended up buying the red ones bc they were the only ones on the website in my size that had the lights and what’s LA Gear without the lights?!
Coincidentally, Angel also bought LA Gear sneaks(I legit didn’t think anyone else would go there!) so when I say my class didn’t come to playyy? We bodied this event, baby!
When me and my girl Cookie arrived at the party everyone was like “ok YOU WON” lol! I ended up exactly matching the decor all the way down to the brick print on our photo back drop since brick print was a part of the design Greg put together for me. I don’t think I even asked him to do that! 🥰
My classmates really were festive and put effort into it as well & everyone looked sooo good! As I looked back over the pictures I realized just how much detail I missed while there but we did that!
I’m pretty sad that I really can’t wear it anywhere else especially since it cost so much but it was def worth every penny! I suppose I can always wear it around the house but for now I’ve repackaged it and put it up to pull out and just admire as an artpiece every now & then!
Until next time, class dismissed!
