If you look at fashion history, it’s no coincidence that velour, Von Dutch, and all things low-rise have made their triumphant return.
Perhaps the reintroduction of low-rise jeans shattered people. Every major aughts fad, from UGGs to Juicy Couture sweatsuits, had already experienced a high-fashion moment—the former partnering with “It” brands like Telfar and Molly Goddard, while the latter saw a rebirth on the Vetements couture runway and collaboration with Parade. TikTokers are even delving into Ed Hardy’s voluminous output. And this season, Koché collaborated with Von Dutch on trucker hats, bowling bags, and T-shirts. (Christelle Kocher, the designer, stated that she was influenced by the look of Britney, Justin, and Paris, without mentioning their surnames.)
However, denim that skims the pelvis proved more difficult to sell. On Twitter, one user stated that she was reacting to their resurrection “the way a vampire reacts to a tanning booth.” Carly Aquilino’s viral three-part TikTok series depicts a distressed lady mourning, with operatic vocal fry, “the absurdly wide belts” and “the layering” that defined Y2K style, while photos of Gwen Stefani and Christina Aguilera in low rider-clad ensembles flash behind her. The strange appearances of the era are less of an uncanny valley than they are a pit we fear plunging into.
And yet, little can be done to combat it. With Gen Z adopting trucker caps for the first time and Gen X’ers such as Kim Kardashian returning to the velour sweatsuit fold for her SKIMS collection, everything unfashionable has resurfaced as chic. It’s difficult to think of a 2000’s fad that hasn’t wowed us as much as a crystal-encrusted Razr. (For what it’s worth, those have been reinstated as well.) While no one is obliged to wear something they dislike merely because it has been reintroduced as fashionable, believing we can halt the tide of these revivals demonstrates a fundamental ignorance of how fashion works. This is usually the case: each age reintroduces objects we had relegated to our metaphorical donation bin. Freud would be ecstatic.
Even ’10s style appears to be regaining popularity, defying the adage that anything must be 20 years old to be deemed “vintage.” In June, the popular Isabel Marant wedge shoe was revived, as interest in the original Gossip Girl design sparked by the show’s reincarnation. (Silk gowns with balloon hemlines and round-toed Mary Jane shoes may be the next repurposed items to appear.)
For people discovering these fashions as adults, their novelty appears to be the major draw: when Addison Rae wears a trucker hat, she is unlikely to be aware of the item’s Kitson-era origins. However, those looking at it from a distance may see part of the concern as a result of the time period’s less-than-enlightened body standards (low-rise jeans were frequently associated with the expectation of Britney’s abs), the inherent classism of some of the trends (such as trucker hats, worn by celebrities and fashion people as a sort of working-class cosplay), or even their association with gang culture. Our connections are not with the garments themselves, but with the environment in which they are worn.
Then why The Return Of The Repressed Is Coming For Fashion? The time many people spent during the epidemic indulging their nostalgia and re-evaluating what they used to love explains why current fashion has an everything-old-is-new-again aspect, where, just like in Hollywood, a time-tested remake frequently triumphs over anything brand-new.
However, this tendency is not only motivated by nostalgia. It is our unresolved relationship with the period in its entirety. When something reappears on the horizon in this manner, it is frequently an indication that we did not deal with it correctly the first time around, which is why these patterns are not random recurrences. It is no accident that they are floating back up at a time when so much about this era is being re-examined. The Depression-period fashions of the ‘30s found an unexpected new resonance in the recession-stricken ‘70, and when old, regressive notions of femininity gained traction in the Backlash ‘80s, they brought with them a slew of ’50’s revivals that evoked another suppressed age. Now, as we reflect on a period that witnessed the birth of reality television and social media in its modern form, we’re wondering how that era influenced and, in some cases, hurt us. And, because the past is so freely available, only a Netflix stream, a Google search, or an Instagram rabbit hole away, it’s never truly gone.
To reconcile with The Return Of The Repressed, and maybe even enjoy, these garments again, we must confront what they previously meant and what they represent to us today. As designer and LVMH Prize winner Conner Ives explained to me earlier this year, the Y2K references in his work are complemented by a new, less restricted approach to fashion, “the shedding of the entire notion of what we can and cannot do.” Perhaps we can all emulate a TikToker and embrace them as if it were the first time.