On nostalgia and Y2K fashion in a pandemic-ridden world

 In the last few years we've seen a rise in Y2K or in other words early 2000s fashion. People embracing the aesthetic are more often in their late teens or early twenties, thus far to young to have worn these styles in their respective eras. So why is it that these people, or should I say we?, feel a sense of nostalgia for that era?

Besides social media apps like TikTok amplifying the trend cycle, which might be responsible for more 2000s fashion trends coming back, I think there is another factor at play, nostalgia.

A few weeks back I had a conversation with a friend of mine about how live felt easier as a kid. No obligations, no work or uni, school ended so early that you could play with your friends after you finished homework and most importantly no pandemic causing constant stress. 

The 00s are the decade that started with our birth and ended with finishing elementary school. Naturally we romanticise them. These are the years where we were given pocket money to spend for the first time, learned to read and sang popsongs in gibberish because we didn't knew English yet. 

In a world that is ridden by a pandemic for close to two years now, while we, gen Z are trying to figure out our place in the world, it's only natural to romanticise the past and look at these much simpler times back in the dat. uii Times where we were to young to understand politics, times that were in fact imperfect but are dipped in the gloss of nostalgia, a deceptive glimmer of the past.

People my age who were basically children dressed by their moms during this decade are now embracing these, dare I call them vintage, styles. Through that lens, 00s fashion isn't just a trend but an expression of nostalgia and a longing to relive these seemingly simpler times. Dressing ourselves in the styles inspired by the ones teens and tweens wore back then is taking control of something small when the current situation has stripped the sense of control from all of us. 

Back then it was functionality over fashion for me. Clothes I could grow into and that could be given to my younger sibling once I'd grown out of them. These days I notice myself reaching for low rise denim, something I hadn't even worn at that time, and form fitting black long sleeves that expose just a sliver of my stomach adorned with unnecessary zippers and lettering. I listen to 00s and 90s kpop and boybands. TVXQ are now in my daily rotation and like style icons to me, when the only Korean group I knew back then was SNSD, and that was in the late 2000s. I didn't even have a computer back then and looked through iTunes on my dad's computer buying more or less what looked good or what I knew was on the radio. But I'm rambling...

The fantasy of the early 2000s have given me, and dare I say a big chunk of gen Z, an escape from the pressure and stress the current situation puts on us. I'm curious if it's the same with millennials and the 80s.