Y2K Fashion Has Taken Over. And Gen Z Is Loving It

Yasmeen Bekhit, a 22-year-old graduate student, holds her Y2K-inspired bag while posing for a photograph near her home in Manheim, Pa., Tuesday, June 27, 2023. (AP)
Yasmeen Bekhit, a 22-year-old graduate student, holds her Y2K-inspired bag while posing for a photograph near her home in Manheim, Pa., Tuesday, June 27, 2023. (AP)
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Y2K Fashion Has Taken Over. And Gen Z Is Loving It

Yasmeen Bekhit, a 22-year-old graduate student, holds her Y2K-inspired bag while posing for a photograph near her home in Manheim, Pa., Tuesday, June 27, 2023. (AP)
Yasmeen Bekhit, a 22-year-old graduate student, holds her Y2K-inspired bag while posing for a photograph near her home in Manheim, Pa., Tuesday, June 27, 2023. (AP)

First came the supposed death of skinny jeans. Then, the resurgence of cargo pants, halter tops and baby tees.

If there’s one thing retailers can agree on, it’s that Gen Z is hot for the early 2000s fashion trends now booming in popularity.

College interns and young workers are donning wide-legged slacks at the office. The claw clip, a retro hair staple, is back; as are mesh tops, miniskirts and a host of colorful apparel that can make consumers look like they stepped out of a Disney Channel show from 2004.

Fueled by social media platforms including TikTok, the so-called Y2K trend resurfaced as consumers began attending parties and going out after pandemic lockdowns. What began with hair accessories like butterfly clips and the comeback of straight-leg jeans has expanded to all-denim garments, cargo and flare pants and everything shiny, among other looks.

Casey Lewis, a New York trend analyst, noted so many micro trends — often tagged with the suffix “core” — cranked up in the past few years that she created a newsletter about them.

Think “Barbiecore” and “mermaidcore,” which highlight the hot pink reminiscent of Mattel Inc.'s Barbie doll or sheer materials with ocean-like hues and sequins. There's also “coastal granddaughter,” the youthful update that evolved from the “coastal grandmother” trend featuring oversized cardigans and linen sets.

“Gen Z is not even close to being done revisiting these old trends,” said Lewis, whose “After School” newsletter documents youth consumer behavior. “They are going to dig into every weird trend from way back when and bring it back.”

Retailers from high-end Nordstrom to discounters and fast fashion outlets are pushing the styles in campaigns and on shelves. And consumers seem to be eating it up.

Sales of women’s cargo pants jumped 81% from January to May, the latest month of available data, according to Circana, which tracks retail purchases. Low-cost fashion chains H&M and Zara say they’re seeing success with biker jackets, denim garments and crop tops. And Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein, which markets to young women, said its baby tee sales have tripled this year, making them by far the hottest t-shirt style of 2023.

The company also is seeing a big jump in sales of flared pants, corset tops, metallic-colored clothing and women's track suits, which are often made from bright velour fabric reminiscent of some wardrobe choices by socialite Paris Hilton at the height of her popularity.

Style watchers classify it as part of the McBling era, which overlaps with Y2K but emphasizes flashier items personified by brands like Juicy Couture and Baby Phat, the iconic streetwear line by TV personality and designer Kimora Lee Simmons, which relaunched in 2019.

As always, trends are fueled by celebrities like model Bella Hadid, whose outfit choices are analyzed by fashion magazines and other on-lookers. Style also bubbles up directly from consumers via social media, challenging retailers accustomed to runway shows setting the tone.

“There’s not a year advanced notice that these trends are going to trickle down,” said Kristen Classi-Zummo, an analyst who covers fashion apparel for Circana.

Retailers, including Macy’s and Walmart, said they are paying closer attention to what pops up on social sites and analyzing topics searched by users. But it can be challenging to recognize the difference between trends that just generate attention versus those shoppers will actually buy, said Jake Bjorseth, who runs trndsttrs, an agency helping companies reach young consumers.

Alison Hilzer, Walmart editorial director for fashion apparel, said she's also seeing a lot of micro trends. Some have more longevity than others, making it challenging to figure out when to jump on them.

The discounter, which is marketing Y2K inspired cargo pants and Barbiecore, has been speeding up development to get trends to market faster, though the company declined to offer more specific details. Walmart also is following key influencers such as Alix Earle, who has collaborated with A-listers including Selena Gomez.

Despite retailers catering to young consumers, many aren't really buying. Instead, they are wearing items from each others' closets, helping fuel a resale market that has tripled since 2020, according to research by Boston Consulting Group and Vestiare Collective, a French luxury resale site. Affordability was the primary driver, but shoppers also bought used items to be more planet-friendly.

Yasmeen Bekhit, a 22-year-old graduate student in Manheim, Pennsylvania, said she frequents a local thrift shop almost every week and shops at resale sites like Depop, which offers Y2K-heavy options such as baguette bags and baggy jeans.

Bekhit typically gravitates toward looser, flowy pants, flare-legged jeans and tighter shirts like mesh tops, which help her stay cooler in the summer while wearing a hijab. She's inspired by the way former Disney Channel stars like Gomez and Hilary Duff used to style themselves, she said.

Popular TikTok influencer Aliyah Bah, who amassed more than 2.5 million followers showcasing her Y2K-inspired look known as “Aliyahcore,” also inspires Bekhit. The look is a bit more alternative, often featuring miniskirts or shorts matched with crop tops, fishnet stockings and furry knee-high boots.

“I really love her way of styling outfits,” Bekhit said.

But for everyday, Bekhit said she typically looks up outfit ideas on social media and puts her own twist on them.

Retro hair also is making a splash. Tahlya Loveday, a master stylist at the The Drawing Room New York Salon, said she has seen a lot more '90s and Y2K trends, like spiky updos and space buns, bouncy blow-dried looks and block coloring, where sections of hair are colored in contrasting colors. Gen Z clients embrace those looks more than millennials, she said.

“For Gen Z, this is all new to them,” Circana’s Classi-Zummo said. “They’re really not reliving it. So while we might see it as something that’s cyclical and coming back, they’re kind of getting it for the first time.”



As Fast Fashion's Waste Pollutes Africa's Environment, Designers in Ghana are Finding a Solution

Attendees at a thrift and an upcycle show pose for a photograph in Accra, Ghana, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Attendees at a thrift and an upcycle show pose for a photograph in Accra, Ghana, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
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As Fast Fashion's Waste Pollutes Africa's Environment, Designers in Ghana are Finding a Solution

Attendees at a thrift and an upcycle show pose for a photograph in Accra, Ghana, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Attendees at a thrift and an upcycle show pose for a photograph in Accra, Ghana, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

In a sprawling secondhand clothing market in Ghana’s capital, early morning shoppers jostle as they search through piles of garments, eager to pluck a bargain or a designer find from the stalls selling used and low-quality apparel imported from the West.
At the other end of the street, an upcycled fashion and thrifting festival unfolds with glamour and glitz, The Associated Press reported. Models parade along a makeshift runway in outfits that designers created out of discarded materials from the Kantamanto market, ranging from floral blouses and denim jeans to leather bags, caps and socks.
The festival is called Obroni Wawu October, using a phrase that in the local Akan language means “dead white man’s clothes.” Organizers see the event as a small way to disrupt a destructive cycle that has made Western overconsumption into an environmental problem in Africa, where some of the worn-out clothes end up in waterways and garbage dumps.
“Instead of allowing (textile waste) to choke our gutters or beaches or landfills, I decided to use it to create something ... for us to use again,” said Richard Asante Palmer, one of the designers at the annual festival organized by the Or Foundation, a nonprofit that works at the intersection of environmental justice and fashion development.
Ghana is one of Africa's leading importers of used clothing. It also ships some of what it gets from the United Kingdom, Canada, China and elsewhere to other West African nations, the United States and the UK, according to the Ghana Used Clothing Dealers Association.
Some of the imported clothes arrive in such poor shape, however, that vendors dispose of them to make room for the next shipments. On average, 40% of the millions of garments exported weekly to Ghana end up as waste, according to Neesha-Ann Longdon, the business manager for the Or Foundation’s executive director.
The clothing dealers association, in a report published earlier this year on the socioeconomic and environmental impact of the nation’s secondhand clothing trade, cited a much lower estimate, saying only 5% of the items that reach Ghana in bulk are thrown out because they cannot be sold or reused.
In many African countries, citizens typically buy preowned clothes — as well as used cars, phones and other necessities — because they cost less than new ones. Secondhand shopping also gives them a chance to score designer goods that most people in the region can only dream of.
But neither Ghana's fast-growing population of 34 million people nor its overtaxed infrastructure is equipped to absorb the amount of cast-off attire entering the country. Mounds of textile waste litter beaches across the capital, Accra, and the lagoon which serves as the main outlet through which the city’s major drainage channels empty into the Gulf of Guinea.
“Fast fashion has taken over as the dominant mode of production, which is characterized here as higher volumes of lower-quality goods,” Longdon said.
Jonathan Abbey, a fisherman in the area, said his nets often capture textile waste from the sea. Unsold used clothes “aren’t even burned but are thrown into the Korle Lagoon, which then goes into the sea,” Abbey said.
The ease of online shopping has sped up this waste cycle, according to Andrew Brooks, a King’s College London researcher and the author of “Clothing Poverty: The Hidden World of Fast Fashion and Second-hand Clothes.”
In countries like the UK, unwanted purchases often end up as charity donations, but clothes are sometimes stolen from street donation bins and exported to places where the consumer demand is perceived to be higher, Brooks said. Authorities rarely investigate such theft because the clothes are "seen as low-value items,” he said.
Donors, meanwhile, think their castoffs are “going to be recycled rather than reused, or given away rather than sold, or sold in the UK rather than exported overseas,” Brooks said.
The volume of secondhand clothing sent to Africa has led to complaints of the continent being used as a dumping ground. In 2018, Rwanda raised tariffs on such imports in defiance of US pressure, citing concerns the West's refuse undermined efforts to strengthen the domestic textile industry. Last year, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said he would ban imports of clothing “from dead people.”
Trade restrictions might not go far in either reducing textile pollution or encouraging clothing production in Africa, where profits are low and incentives for designers are few, experts say.
In the absence of adequate measures to stop the pollution, organizations like the Or Foundation are trying to make a difference by rallying young people and fashion creators to find a good use for scrapped materials.
Ghana's beaches had hardly any discarded clothes on them before the country's waste management problems worsened in recent years, foundation co-founder Allison Bartella said.
“Fast forward to today, 2024, there are mountains of textile waste on the beaches,” she said.