- [Narrator] Remember when your room was
a blend of half deflated furniture
and pin-ups of boys?
Great Big Story remembers.
(magical music)
- [Group] The Inflatables.
- [Narrator] There was a time in history
when an inflatable chair in the corner
of your bedroom meant something,
but that time is long gone.
This is Evangelos,
he's an architectural historian.
We found him through the MoMA.
He knows everything about design.
- So, one of the first named engineers
that we know who experimented
with inflatable structure that large
in the '40s was Walter Bert
who created enclosures and ray domes for the military,
all the way to structures
that would cover open air pools.
In the 1960s,
there is a moment
where inflatable furniture really takes
the world by storm.
And ultimately in the '90s,
they become part of a commercial landscape
in companies like Sears,
Hot Topic, Target,
and ultimately into everybody's closet.
- [Narrator] Right, because let's be honest.
They were not that comfortable.
Fashionable, you better believe it,
but practical?
Absolutely not.
- [Group] Cool clothes.
- [Woman] When I think back to
the height of the Delia's in the nineties,
you know,
it was the bump toe lace up shoe peaking out
of a wide leg,
fabric pants paired with like a little baby T
with like something printed on it.
- [Narrator] If you've never heard of Delia's,
it was a mail order catalog meets fashion Bible
for most teen girls in the '90s and 2000s.
And this is Galadriel,
She was Delia's very first stylist.
- [Woman] '90's, iconic time.
It was ball chain,
ball chain,
ball chain.
Let's wrap at once around her neck.
Now let's wrap it twice around her neck.
Okay, let's wrap it six times around her wrist.
Okay guys,
can she wear it like a wallet chain?
I mean we just used ball chains for everything
- [Narrator] In 2014,
Delia's filed for bankruptcy,
but as we all know,
fashion always makes a full circle
because guess what?
They're back.
- [Group] The pin-ups.
- [Narrator] A staple
in most girls bedrooms was the collage wall full
of cut-up boy crushes.
And it's likely that most
of those images came tenderly cut
from the magazine called J-14.
- [Richard] My name is Richard Spencer
and I was the founding editor in chief.
I created the magazine.
- J-14 had a very specific formula.
- [Richard] The main image is the hottest teen star
at that moment.
When a new band is starting,
you put them smaller on the cover.
If you look back at old issues,
you would see that
'N Sync and Backstreet boys were main image,
but then you would start seeing insets of O-Town
or 98 Degrees.
- [Narrator] There is a common theme here,
and that is boys with tight shirts on,
with no shirts on. - We had focus groups
and the girls talked to us
and they didn't like to see any body hair.
They didn't want to be armpit.
So that was 20 years.
So that's changed a bit. - And we can't finish
this section without talking about
the pullout centerfold. - It's perfect
for decorating a girl's room
because those posters are wallpaper.
- [Narrator] Pin-ups, posters,
tomato, tomato.
From the original crowd of Tiger Beat,
Teen Dream and the rest,
J-14 is
the only teen magazine still left today.
So clearly,
they're doing something right.
And there you have it.
Pieces that at one time defined a teen girl's bedroom
and some knowledge from those who knew about them.
(upbeat music)
(bell dinging)