Nostalgia rules the fashion cycle but each generation is different; while Millennials hang onto '90s trends, Gen Z finds comfort in the not-too-distant styles of the early 2000s.

<a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/on-the-cusp-of-adulthood-and-facing-an-uncertain-future-what-we-know-about-gen-z-so-far/">Born between 1997&nbsp;and the early 2010s</a>, Gen Z&nbsp;grew up with cell phone in hand, and have&nbsp;been quick to adapt to new technology and trends. The selfie generation,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/artists-to-follow-tiktok">TikTok</a> teens, or whatever you call them are accustomed to consuming entertainment, social media, fashion, and more at the push of a button. With that sense of immediacy, young people celebrate and discard trends at lightning speed, accelerating the cyclical nature of fashion. Now, Y2K trends are once again in style thanks to Gen Z&ndash;just as Millennials helped usher in the '90s nostalgia that has dominated fashion in recent years.&nbsp;
Both&nbsp;generations have latched onto their respective nostalgia-fuelled trends, displaying how&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/best-online-vintage-shops">vintage-inspired fashion</a> and its celebration of the past have evolved into a source of escapism and comfort. For Millennials, who grew up in the wake of 9/11 and came of age during 2008's Great Recession, looking back to their adolescence in the '90s and the aesthetic cues of those times offers a sense of familiarity as the world shifts uncertainly around them. <a href="https://sourcingjournal.com/denim/denim-trends/nostalgic-fashion-millennials-retro-vintage-80s-90s-172152/">Studies have shown</a> that Millennials are particularly risk averse, and for fashion, that means they would rather return to a tried and true trend rather than create their own.

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For over half a decade, '90s style has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/90s-outfits-celebrity-fashion-making-comeback">dominated&nbsp;runways</a>. Hedi Slimane's <a href="https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/fall-2013-ready-to-wear/saint-laurent">Fall/Winter&nbsp;2013</a> collection for Saint Laurent leaned into the moodiness of '90s youth culture.&nbsp;In 2018, <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/9k45dy/marc-jacobs-90s-grunge-redux-1993-spring-perry-ellis">Marc Jacobs reissued his Perry Ellis Grunge collection</a>, and the next year, <a href="https://www.crfashionbook.com/fashion/a26478310/versace-fallwinter-2019-show-bondage-dress/">Versace brought back its bondage dresses</a>. Now, up-and-comer Sandy Liang&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/sandy-liang-vans-collaboration">late &lsquo;90s-inspired looks</a> have officially made her a go-to cool-kid label. The decade that brought grunge and minimalism is reflected in the street style&nbsp;of Millennial influencers. On social media, the '90s also&nbsp;live on. An Instagram archive of style and celebrities in the 1990s, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/90sanxiety/?hl=en">@90sanxiety</a>&nbsp;account shares 25-year-old images of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/politics-culture/richest-women-america-list-2020-rihanna-beyonce-jennifer-lopez">Jennifer Lopez</a> going to the gym to 2.3 million followers. But, even as @90sanxiety grows, another account is growing too. Following suit, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/2000sanxiety/?hl=en">@2000sanxiety</a> has over 360,000 Instagram followers and counting.

While Millennials may not want to don frosted eyeshadow and recreate high school yearbook photos, the aesthetic of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/y2k-2000s-hair-trend-tiktok-celebrity">early aughts</a> has found a home with Gen Z. <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/y2k-2000s-hair-trend-tiktok-celebrity">Butterfly clips</a>, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop%20culture/kim-kardashian-assistant-paris-hilton-2000s-skims-instagram">velour sweatsuits</a>, and <a href="https://www.lofficiel.at/en/fashion/the-2000s-have-returned-paris-hilton-39-s-favorite-sunglasses-become-mus">tinted sunglasses</a> are taking over TikTok. <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/dua-lipa-new-ruler-reign-music">Dua Lipa</a>&mdash;admittedly born one year too soon to technically be a member of Gen Z but a Gen Z icon nonetheless&mdash;rocks bleached bangs reminiscent of <a href="https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2067986105699/christina-aguilera-scorches-lofficiel-italia">Christina Aguilera&rsquo;s</a> chunky highlights. Even aspects of the early 2000s scene kid look have returned. <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop%20culture/what-is-soft-boy-aesthetic-harry-styles-timothee-chalamet">E-boys</a> (and e-girls) are rocking painted nails, waffle-knit tees, and crop tops with such confidence that Celine named its recent <a href="https://www.lofficielarabia.com/Men/celine-homme-summer-2021-the-dancing-kid-e041f00f-241b-4890-a135-d44e86155570">&ldquo;The Dancing Kid&rdquo;</a> collection in their honor. Meanwhile,&nbsp;viewers can relive the awkwardness of middle school by&nbsp;streaming Hulu's popular&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hulu.com/series/pen15-8c87035d-2b10-4b10-a233-ca5b3597145d">Pen15</a>, which&nbsp;centers on two teens in the year 2000, complete with a number of cringe-worthy fashion moments, from pedal pushers and baby tees to cargo pants and <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/tooth-gem-celebrity-trend-interview-diamond-dentist">bedazzling</a>.

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Gen Z&rsquo;s embracing of early 2000s style, however, is not just a case of looking to the past for aesthetic inspiration. For those that grew up on the edge of the pre-iPhone, pre-social media era, the early 2000s represent a nebulous period of barely memorable, blissful ignorance. When <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/kim-kardashian-west-givenchy-thong-fashion">Kim Kardashian West</a> is <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CGm2ee8g7tH/">pictured on @90sanxiety</a>, it's&nbsp;easy to marvel at the film-developed images. But when <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CGcfSppgtow/">she's on @2000sanxiety</a>,&nbsp;it's hard not to be amused at how recently she was <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop%20culture/kim-kardashian-assistant-paris-hilton-2000s-skims-instagram">Paris Hilton's sidekick</a>.&nbsp;

While personal memory drives a love for &#39;90s fashion among Millennials, for Gen Z, it&#39;s more an appeal of aesthetic tastes. The &lsquo;90s represents a far-off fashionable fantasy depicted in film photos and polaroids for the younger generation, whereas&nbsp;the 2000s are a distant but recognizable reality.

Every generation faces new struggles, but the introduction of social media, the smartphone, video games that track your body, and other technology has dramatically changed the experience of childhood at an unprecedented and, frankly, terrifying rate since the late 1990s. In these changing times, designers like <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion-week/marine-serre-climate-apocalypse-runway-2019">Marine Serre</a>, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/hermes-balenciaga-loewe-spring-2021-trend-paris-fashion-week">Balenciaga</a>, and <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/gucci-epilogue-collection">Gucci</a> have used fashion to express a simultaneous <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/l-editorial-retro-space-travel">nostalgia for the past and an escapist future</a>.&nbsp;Gen Z&rsquo;s incorporation of early 2000s pieces into their contemporary outfits is a similar effort.&nbsp;Longing for the early 2000s is less about the political realities of the era, and more about the period presented in shows quite literally named The Simple Life.

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Today, Gen Z is known for <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/2020/01/31/sustainable-retail-how-gen-z-is-leading-the-pack/?sh=1058ab2f2ca3">valuing sustainability</a> and social change, but for those without massive budgets, the perceived need to consume both ethically and quickly has led to a burgeoning online vintage and resale market.&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/06/depop-a-social-app-targeting-millennial-and-gen-z-shoppers-bags-62m-passes-13m-users/?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGIuTXWatw1-DVJb0oQ5dASppq5O3xrSMlJkKDq8JHOrn391RJXUMFBW6yLLIqVdle1oYYO5fAGgUGMc3K7WOV1nKx0n0V5q3KrxWt1pAQGQG72_o2_CCgc7E64Bgrs_LMblEPIiriEfrP7dC5IW2OYIFTbhbyIzU6z7ln4gHSZk">90 percent percent of Depop&rsquo;s users are under 26</a>, and about one-third of people aged 16 to 24 in the UK use the app. "Y2K" has become a popular <a href="https://www.depop.com/search/?q=%23y2k">hashtag on Depop</a>, indicating the market for early 2000s trends. Calling the era Y2K, the predicted, feared, and eventually imagined digital apocalypse feels like&nbsp;a coping mechanism for our current situation.&nbsp;The irony is, however, that Gen Z users claiming Y2K styles are too young to remember the genuine concern over the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/Y2K-bug/">Y2K bug</a> and the possibility of computers failing at the turn of the millennium&ndash;but they do remember the Juicy Couture tracksuits, low-rise denim, and bedazzling that subsequently dominated fashion in the early 2000s.&nbsp;

Nostalgic fashion is not by any means a new phenomenon, but Gen Z&rsquo;s growing fascination with the early 2000s is more than just a case of everything old becoming new again. In our love of belly chains, terry cloth, and velour is a hidden yearning for a time when the biggest threat of the era ended up being nothing at all. The obsession with Y2K fashion is not unlike the Millennial obsession with the &lsquo;90s, or even <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion-week/tom-ford-fall-2020-runway-show-los-angeles-hollywood">Tom Ford&rsquo;s</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/mar/21/tom-ford-im-an-equal-opportunity-objectifier">love of the sensuous &lsquo;70s</a>. It&rsquo;s cliche to point to 2020 as chaos, but with the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/politics-culture/celebrities-react-2020-election-social-media">U.S. election</a>, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the climate change crisis, it&rsquo;s hard not to wish for the not-too-distant days when adolescence and early adulthood were all about going to the mall.

Why is Gen Z So Obsessed with Y2K Fashion?

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