Cal men in their crushed "plug" hats, which were all the rage around 1900. (Photographs courtesy of the University Archives and the Blue & Gold yearbook)

BERKELEY -- Battered hats and dirt-encrusted brown corduroy pants might scream 1990s grunge. But these shabby fashion statements were all the rage at UC Berkeley in the late 1890s and early 1900s. "The more disgusting they were, the higher status they held," said William Benemann, curator of a new campus exhibit "From Plugs to Bling: A Century of Cal Student Fashion."

See the slideshow and read more at: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/03/03_fashion.shtml.