Rommy Hunt Revson, inventor of the enduring scrunchie, died on September 7.
Mhari Shaw/NPR
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Mhari Shaw/NPR
The scrunchie is in all places. And though its acceptance in popular culture and style has ebbed and flowed since its invention in 1986, the scrunchie has refused to go away.
It has been hailed by some as a genius product that is each useful and trendy, whereas derided by others as an adjunct that screams “suburbs.” Regardless, the previous singer and pianist extensively credited with inventing the fabric-wrapped elastic, Rommy Hunt Revson, left her mark on style historical past. She died on September 7 on the age of 78.
In a 2016 interview with Discuss Enterprise & Politics, Revson stated she invented the scrunchie as a substitute for plastic and steel hair ties. On the time, she was home sitting within the Hamptons. Though as soon as married to inheritor of the Revlon cosmetics empire John Revson, she stated she had no declare to any of the fortune, so needed to generate income the place she may.
“I went to South Hampton and acquired some material and located a $50 used stitching machine,” she advised Discuss Enterprise & Politics. “That was a fairly large buy for me on a home sitter price range, however I purchased it and took it house.”
Inside weeks, she had taught herself methods to sew and had a working prototype. Impressed by the design of the elastic waistband on her sweatpants and named after her canine, the “scunchie” (pronounced SKOON-chee) was born. It might solely later develop into generally known as the scrunchie.
Revson patented the design, and as soon as she received the product into retail shops, it took off. Whereas some accounts credit score Philips Meyers for designing an analogous product in 1963, it was Revson’s model that we’re all conversant in.
The rise and fall (and rise) of the scrunchie
Sara Radin, a self-described scrunchie fanatic and briefly the web’s unofficial scrunchie historian, wrote in a 2019 Teen Vogue article the design solved an issue for girls within the Nineteen Eighties.
“In a time when large hair was in, the scrunchie provided girls a strategy to pull it again with out damaging it, in contrast to customary rubber bands, whereas taking primary hair ties to the subsequent degree,” wrote Radin. “On prime of that, it was simply one other strategy to decorate their already over-the-top appears.”
Within the 2019 season of Stranger Issues, Eleven (portrayed by Millie Bobby Brown) pulls a half-pony with a yellow scrunchie.
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Within the 2019 season of Stranger Issues, Eleven (portrayed by Millie Bobby Brown) pulls a half-pony with a yellow scrunchie.
Netflix/Netflix
In years to come back, popular culture and leisure icons – from Madonna to Paula Abdul to Full Home‘s Michell Tanner – elevated the scrunchie to common stardom. NASA astronaut Pamela Melroy wore a blue scrunchie to area, which is memorialized within the Smithsonian even right now.
However like all developments, the scrunchie period got here to an finish.
“Traits are likely to go away after they develop into tremendous en masse, and develop into related to a singular kind of individual,” stated Patrick Michael Hughes, a style and ornamental arts historian at Parsons Faculty of Design.
In a single significantly iconic turning level within the scrunchie saga, Intercourse and the Metropolis‘s Carrie Bradshaw delivered an emphatic condemnation of the accent.
Bradshaw, who’s relationship author Jack Berger, tells Berger it is unrealistic {that a} lady character in his e-book would put on a scrunchie in public. “No lady who works at W Journal and lives on Perry Avenue could be caught lifeless at a hip downtown restaurant sporting a scrrrruunchie!”
“It was very humorous as a result of it was very true,” Hughes stated in regards to the scene. “New York [in the ’90s] was form of glamorous and issues had been actually surging within the metropolis when it comes to nightlife, and going out and being dressed up and playful … And there was a particular search for the New York lady. And a scrunchie was not a part of it.”
A scrunchie was a certain signal of a suburban transplant within the metropolis, Hughes stated. “Form of like UGG boots.”
So the accent fell out of favor, its glory days within the style mainstream misplaced to the early 2000s.
Lizzo, in a bejeweled scrunchie, poses with Lil Nas X on the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards.
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Lizzo, in a bejeweled scrunchie, poses with Lil Nas X on the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards.
Kevin Mazur/WireImage
However quick ahead 20 years, and the early 2000s look was again. And using this wave of nostalgic revival proper again to its former glory: the scrunchie.
“There’s [been this] revival of kind of Y2K style, and it has been coming by way of the pipeline for quite a lot of years,” Hughes stated. “We begin to see celebrities on the purple carpet sporting a scrunchie, however not essentially of their hair, generally on their wrist or one thing like that. It turns into kind of cool once more.”
Scrunchies are again on TV too, making an look in Stranger Issues, for instance. On the identical time, the rise of athleisure solidified the scrunchie’s place in many individuals’s on a regular basis put on, Radin stated.
Hughes is skeptical the scrunchie is again to remain. And Google search knowledge present curiosity in scrunchies spiked in 2019, however has remained at the next common than pre-2019 ranges.
Nonetheless, Revson leaves behind a long-lasting affect on style.
“I believe it holds a really vital place within the sense that’s actually a development,” Hughes mirrored. “It’s one thing that popped up in widespread style and in widespread tradition, similar to skinny denims, and had a extremely robust second.”
“She was a genius who got here up with an invention that actually modified how girls gown,” Radin stated.
