OG Brooklyn Hipsters: The Fashion of Ghostwriter

Ghostwriter aired on PBS from 1992 to 1995. It was an educational show that taught kids the importance of reading, writing, vigilante justice, and communicating with ghosts.

Every week, the multi-ethnic, middle-school-age crew would traipse around the streets of Brooklyn unsupervised (not unlike the kids from Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold), sticking their little Ghostwriter noses in everyone's business and killing it with their cutting edge outfits. 

Jamal, the leader of the group, loved his Cross Colours. But even when he wasn't wearing "post hip hop nation academic hard wear" he stuck to the brand's green-yellow-red-black color scheme and urban aesthetic. Sometimes he'd put on a Malcolm X shirt or some chunky ethnic beads because he was in touch with his heritage. Other times he'd carry around a baseball glove because he was in touch with his boyness. His flattop was high enough to be fly but not so high as to be unsophisticated. 

Jamal also had some kind of futuristic word processing program that turned his computer screen totally blue.

Latchkey kid Lenni Frazier was not only the most fashion forward girl in Fort Greene but was by far the most fashion forward kid of the '90s. (Clarissa Darling wished she looked this fresh.)

She was a budding musician and had that kind of bold, artsy, singer-songwriter, I-live-above-a-bodega style. Lenni, who was definitely the coolest member of the group, owned the sickest green Dr. Martens.

If I ever stop being poor, I'm going to buy a pair of these, for sure. Just look at the reaction they get from the fellas!

Humunuh, humunuh, humunuh boner!

Alex (or Alejandro) usually just threw on some over-sized tee and called it a day but from time to time he'd dip into his silk, printed button-down collection. Once he wore one of these super classy numbers while sitting in an incredibly natural position and decoding a message written on blue paper. (Blue paper and blue computer screens were all the rage among preteen detective necromancers.)

I can't even begin to explain how much I loved this kid. He was cute, tall, wore a gold chain--basically, he had everything I wanted in a boyfriend when I was 9 years old.

Gaby was Alex's little sister and, of all the Ghostwriter kids, her style was most in line with the kind of stuff I was wearing to elementary school back in the day. For Gaby--and also for me--1992 was all about gigantic shirts and spandex. She, however, rocked her spandex with a lot more panache than I did. What I appreciate most about Gaby's style is that there wasn't anything pretentious about it--she was a genuine around-the-way-girl. I also really appreciate her enormous, backwards sleep shirt.

 I'm thinking about wearing one of these out and about. IT LOOKS THAT GOOD!

Tina, Gaby's BFF and Alex's crush, dressed liked a Cosby kid. If I could raid the closet of any member of the Ghostwriter team it'd be Tina's--her button-downs are the stuff of dreams. Oh, and these shoes...

yeah, I used to have, like, 15 pairs of these.

Rob, the sensitive transfer student, wrote poetry and palled around with homeless peeps. The bandannas that he loved so dearly covered a gorgeous '90s-boy-center-part.

If we don't count the time Jamal wore this wonderful ensemble...

Rob was probably the best dressed guy on the show.

Ghostwriter Season 1 fashion highlights

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Vintage Amber: The AT&T commercial that bore absolutely no resemblance to life as I knew it in the mid to late 90s

This was one of my favorite commercials when I was in high school because it depicted my romantic ideal as well as my technological ideal. 

As I've mentioned before, (non homeless/non elderly) guys didn't show any interest in me until I was in my 20s, so the back and forth between Larisa Oleynik and her romeo--with his perfect '90s-boy center-part--was totally foreign and almost unfathomable to me. I didn't get the internet or a halfway decent computer until I was a sophomore in high school, so all of the technology in this commercial seemed very futuristic and confusing. Though I now have a boyfriend and a pretty sweet MacBook, I still have some trouble relating to/understanding this commercial.

So maybe things are different when you're younger (or super cute), but as an adult, if I were to send a guy an "I miss you soooo much" email right after seeing him not only would he not email me back but he would never talk to me again. Also, this font is soooo large. Is this what all emails looked like in the '90s? 

I like that their font choice correlates to their gender. Hers is cursivey and girly while his is bold and masculine. I'm glad that we've made so much progress when it comes to fonts and gender roles.  

I don't think I could pull this off. Wait, let me try.

I was wrong. Nailed it.

 Is this a scanner? A fax machine? Do fax machines work like scanners? I actually think this commercial would be very erotic if they were just faxing each other all night long.  

What is this face? I think that he thought that he was going to get a naked pic. I do remember hearing that email in the olden days was primarily used for sending naked pics.

Did computer screens used to go black right after you sent an email (by pressing the "send email" key)? 

So this is what guys like. I'm starting to understand why I failed so horribly with the opposite sex. 

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Best picture ever?

Former U.S. prez Bill Clinton and former U.S. vice prez Al Gore are like the patron saints of Democrats. Remember that time Clinton went to North Korea and got American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling out of prison by serenading Kim Jong-il with some smooth, jazzy sax playing? Or what about the time that Al Gore told us about global warming and we were all like, "whoa, Al, that's a really inconvenient truth, thanks for sharing your wisdom with us"? Clinton and Gore are also a couple of dreamboats. If there's a picture on the internet more provocative than this, I certainly haven't seen it. After staring at Clinton's thighs for 45 minutes, I understand why Monica Lewinsky couldn't resist him. 


Billy, billy, billy, can't you see? Sometimes your thighs just hypnotize me. And I just love your flashy ways. I guess that's why they broke and you're so paid. 

(photo)

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