From skinny jeans to bedazzled everything, the 2000s were truly a time. We’ve stayed with these trends for the past few years after we reached 2020 and officially went back in the fashion cycle and repeated trends from this time period.
The 2000s featured fashion-forward celebrities like Paris Hilton, star of “The Simple Life” popularizing trends such as velour tracksuits and moon boots, Beyonce from “Destiny’s Child” inspiring trends such as fringe and logos, and Ashley Tisdale dawning her iconic dresses over jeans and overly chaotic outfits. It’s interesting to see how these trends have evolved for modern-day.
From 2019 to 2020, there was a transition from people online mocking celebrity red carpet moments such as Tisdale’s very camp piano purse, to people in 2020 obsessing over crop tops and screenshotting movie scenes from 2004 and saying how cool everything looked. But why did ‘00s fashion last so long?
In the past five years, trends from the 2000s have continued to be sold in stores, worn by fashion influencers. With “micro-trends” becoming a thing around 2021, it’s hard to figure out what is “popular” and what is “trendy.” Online shopping and social media became more a thing for everyone since we were stuck inside. This constant exposure to new media led to a constant change in opinions. Especially when fast-fashion brands like Shein, Romwe, and Fashion Nova would be uploading new items on a daily basis and tik tokers would post updated videos with the trends.
Back in the day, fashion inspiration would come from teen magazines such as “J-14” and “Seventeen,” movies, and photos from celebrity red carpets. The coolest clothes would be found in malls and boutiques.
But with the low prices from fast-fashion brands in 2020, fashion became accessible for everyone. Sounds great, right? Wrong. Creating new clothing at this rate used problematic labor practices and disrupted the climate. Influencers would film “hauls” in which they would only increase this rate. The clothing would have mistakes, the fabric would be low-quality, and the designs would be stolen from small businesses.
Contrary to online shopping, real-life stores are able to restock on a week-by-week basis. In 2022, this slowed down the trend cycle as did being in work and school in-person and seeing people wearing similar clothes each day and maintaining their personal style.
It has been five years since the 2000s trends made a resurgence but the question remains: why? How did they stay popular for this long? It could be because of its versatility. Skinny jeans can apply to any style despite the hatred, the camp attitude from 2000s red carpets contributed to the sense of whimsy we needed through a dark time that we as people continue to experience. Baby tees can have any print and also be placed with any style. The flexibility of these fashion trends represents the fashion cycle, us trying to have fun in the past five years, and a fresh take on the previous time period.
