Written By: Mary Brady

NineteenNikey, a mood board on Instagram curated by Andie Bain, displays the late 80s/ 90s nostalgic vintage aesthetic inspired by 90s Nike ads. It has recently gained popularity with almost 30,000 followers on Instagram including some celebrity fashion names giving the board even more validity in the fashion world. Andie has recently expanded the brand into an online store that sells both vintage Nike clothes as well as some of her own vintage 90s inspired designs. 

Andie on why she started the mood board: “I just graduated Uni for my masters, so I have two law degrees and I was working in a shoe shop selling trainers, or sneakers, and I was just like, fuck, this is depressing haha. And I’ve always loved vintage pictures I guess, or like, branding. I used to collect stuff just like magazines, postcards, even like stamps, and I would stick them everywhere and it just got to the point, like being really Nike focused and working in the shoe shop as well I was just like oh I’m just going to make an Instagram, just like a finsta, like one that no one follows. I was posting images like 27 times a day because I was finding things and was like where can I store it all. So, yeah, I started it that way it’s not really, it’s not that exciting. And then it started to randomly brew and all these celebrities started following me and I was like ‘what the fuck’ hahaha”

Although the mood board seemed to start almost randomly, Andie notes that it does connect both her creative side and the subject she chose to study in school, law. While she was always creative growing up, she never really thought to pursue a more creative field of study. Andie studied trademarks in school, which inspired her to write her thesis on branding and sneakers. Even though people seem confused about how she went from law to this creative Instagram, Andie notes that a focus on branding has always been there both creatively and within her studies, but now “it has just emerged.”

Andie’s interest in the 90s stems from a feeling of nostalgia and being excluded from a decade that she was born in, and technically a part of, but too young to really enjoy and participate in during its time (she was born in 1995). Taking part in this notalgia almost validates her identity as being born in a certain decade as it allows her to understand references and appreciate the popular culture that you missed being so young. She notes that even when she listens to certain songs now she will think, “this [song] would literally be like if I was in my own 90s film like this song would be playing blah blah blah… It sounds really moist but... hahaha.”

Andie on 90s movies:  “I love them, but I love them because they are just so shit hahaha [...] They’re terrible but it just makes you feel… I don’t know just so warm and fuzzy.”

While the color scheme of NineteenNikey is always changing, the mood board always centers around the late 80s/90s theme. Andie particularly likes when the board focuses on red, blue, yellow, and green because these colors remind her of Benetton (a popular brand at the time). The first-ever image she posted, which is now the NineteenNikey Instagram profile picture, is a Nike sneaker advertisement with a bold yellow, blue, and green color scheme. The rest of the images she posted around that time then followed a similar color scheme. Andie notes that while now the board flows between different themes of color, at the beginning the color coordination was very strong. Even now when Andie does a wave of bold vintage red, blue, yellow, and green on her board, “I get so many people like ‘this reminds me of Benetton this is so cool and they’re right, it is.”

Andie decided to expand the NineteenNikey brand to selling clothes online after she got laid off due to COVID-19. Because she had experience selling vintage clothes on Depop and is focused on ethical fashion and sustainability, she decided to sell her favorite unique vintage Nike pieces as well as some limited self-designed NineteenNikey tote bags and t-shirts. Both the vintage Nike and her designs sold out quickly and many people are hoping for another drop.