Fashion’s overlords are feeling some type of way about the early 2000s.
Taking stock of everything that went down at Fashion Month (see: over-hyped collaborations, Batman sneakers, and runway gatecrashers), one trend has clearly infiltrated the industry’s ruling class: Y2K wear.
The revival of Y2k fashion has long been brewing, thanks to Gen Z-driven platforms like Depop and TikTok, where users peddle velour tracksuits and videos hash-tagged #Y2KFashion boast a collective 210 million views. In August, Olivia Rodrigo — music’s breakout darling — released a music video that dripped with Y2k references, from butterfly clips to rimless shades.
Now, labels are “luxurifying” the early aughts, transforming some of the decade’s most ridiculed trends (dresses over pants, anyone?) into covetable status symbols.
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Blumarine, a brand that’s resurged in popularity thanks to its embrace of all things Y2k, showed a collection that can only be described as an early ’00s fever dream. Slathered in body glitter, models walked the runway in butterfly-shaped crop tops, low-rise daisy dukes, and Pepto Bismol-colored cargo pants.
Also in Milan, Kim Jones and Donatella Versace presented a “Fendace” mash-up full of slinky, diamanté looks (one even had a gold belly chain!) pulled right from the pages of Paris Hilton’s party days.
And of course, there was Miu Miu, which dragged the waistbands of micro-minis and pleated trousers to dangerously low depths.
Earlier in the month, Sandy Liang showed low-slung trackpants and Collina Strada styled flowing frocks over equally liquid pants, elevating a style move pulled by many a Disney child star back in the day. Back in August, Hedi Slimane resurrected JNCOs, the super wide-legged jeans that reigned supreme from the ’90s until 2001, when its showroom shuttered.
Personally, I’m all for Y2k-inflected fashion. Reminiscing on the era brings me back to my childhood, a simpler time during which my singular life goal was to collect every Bratz doll outfit imaginable.
Still, it’s somewhat surprising that luxury labels have embraced the trend, given the preponderance of Y2k essentials being churned out by fast fashion giants such as SHEIN — the bottom of the trickle-down barrel.
Evidently, the early ’00s aren’t going anywhere — so break out your old Sidekick and settle into the nostalgia of it all.