The History of Y2K - Exploring 2021’s Hottest Trend

As times change, we tend to look back on the past with either longing or ridicule. Popular culture regularly finds itself in the intersection of both, a source of positive and negative nostalgia. We wonder why we wore those outfits, or we long for a time when music ‘used to be good’. Ironically, whatever our stance, pop culture has a way of making us bite our tongues - enter the 20-year cycle. The 20-year cycle describes the phenomenon of trends from the past being revived, revered, and remixed 20 years on. The 1970s were full of 1950s nostalgia in the form of Grease and Happy Days just like the 90s were full of 70s nostalgia in the form of Dazed and Confused, and flared jeans. Now up are the 1990s and early 2000s - Whether it's through Rina Sawayama and Normani channelling the musical stylings of Britney and Aaliyah respectively, or the return of crop tops and baggy jeans we have dived into a nostalgia pool and don’t seem to be coming up for air anytime soon.

2021’s Y2K ‘revival’ is an apt example of this; from the For You pages of TikTok to the runways of Fashion Weeks, Y2K has deeply infiltrated the fashion consciousness, leaving its mark and making it arguably the biggest fashion trend of the year.

Vogue, Blumarine SS22

I put quotes around the word revival because the Y2K we know today is worlds away from the Y2K of the past. So, as we end the year and look back on its fashion , we also look back on the history of the years most influential look. What was Y2K? How did it start, what did it entail and how has it changed into this current iteration?

The phrase Y2K, meaning Year 2000, initially referred to a computer bug but was co-opted for the aesthetic. Soon to be away from the threats, doom and seriousness of the previous millennium, the new millennium was only at arm’s length and Y2K was a visual manifestation of the fun, technologically advanced and utopian 2000s that mid - 1990s societies were excitedly and optimistically envisioning. People following the trend escaped into an imagined future full of “tight leather pants, silver eyeshadow, shiny clothing, Oakley’s, gradients, and blobby electronics” with technology and futurism as the guiding themes.

Icy blue, silver, white and black were the colours to have, present in the metallic eyeshadows and translucent, shiny materials used for clothing à la Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century. The Matrix both embodied and influenced the look of time too, reflected in Neo and co’s sleek black leather looks and signature sunglasses. Utility wear was also big in the form of baggy, cargo trousers. Coupled with these fits were some cute, techy accessories to finish it off. Architecturally, inflatable materials, bubbles and curved, rounded ‘blob’ architecture was all the rage. Unconventionality was key.

Videos in order: TLC - No Scrubs, Missy Elliott - The Rain, Blaque ft NSYNC - Bring It All To Me, The Notorious B.I.G - Mo Money Mo Problems, Britney Spears - Oops, I Did It Again

The Y2K aesthetic also flourished in music. Music Director Hype Williams redefined the Hip Hop visual, using the now iconic futuristic cheese grater-esque sets of Bad Boy music videos, shiny latex clothing courtesy of June Ambrose and fisheye lens to inject the genre with the Y2K bug. The girls of the 90s and 00s in particular utilised Y2K to its fullest extent, with Missy Elliot’s The Rain, Blaque’s I Do, TLC’s No Scrubs, Britney Spears’ Oops, I Did It Again and Aaliyah’s More Than A Woman being key examples. TLC’s FanMail album showed a heavy utilisation of futurism – from the technology infused beats to the silver looks and binary code present on the album cover, TLC encompassed the style.

The original run of Y2K faded out by the early 2000s due to the socio-political climate of the time. 9/11 and the Iraq War shook society awake from its utopian dreams and forced it to face the truth that the next millennium may be as serious as the last. Y2K’s first iteration was very much a product of its time – the social, cultural, and historical circumstances collided together to create an aesthetic guided by optimism. Once this optimism was dashed, Y2K was forced to depart, cowering in the shadows of the more realistic future that the world was really entering. Until it re-emerged as an aesthetic 20 years later in 2021. Except…not so much. Whilst certain trends from the original Y2K aesthetic did re-emerge in the form of baggy cargos, and Matrix-esque mini glasses, the only real resemblance the old Y2K holds with the Y2K we recognise now is the name. Y2K’s initial Year 2000 aesthetic was futuristic, forward-thinking, technological whereas now it refers to an amalgamation of general early 2000s fashion. This return to 2000s fashion started around 2019 but really shot off in 2020, shocking many older generations who had regarded the 2000s as one of the worst fashion periods in history. Remember what I said about that 20-year cycle?

The current Y2K can more accurately be described as another 2000s aesthetic – McBling. Low rise jeans, velour tracksuits, bandanas, mini handbags, short skirts, the colour pink, rhinestones on everything. Juicy Couture, Baby Phat, Mean Girls, Tom Ford’s Gucci. An aesthetic guided by nihilistic luxury, aspirational materialism and popularized by society’s newfound obsession with reality tv and the daily lives of celebrities. Though Paris Hilton and a realm of other white celebrities are now labelled the faces of Y2K/McBling, the Black American influence and appropriation within the era is strong. Logomania for example, one of the aesthetics’ biggest trends, can be credited to Dapper Dan who took designer logos and created his own looks, which were worn and spread by hip-hop artists who also popularized the bandanas and bling. McBling’s downfall came similarly to Y2K’s – a side effect of the social climate of the time; the economic crash of 2008 brought everyone down to earth with overtly blingy clothing now being viewed as offensive and garish.

No longer a representation of futurism, Y2K is now a handy catch-all phrase used by Gen-Z to describe the 2000s fashions they missed out on and are bringing back. A fusion of McBling and modern styles of dress if you will. Though the two iterations seem worlds apart, a similar vein runs through both: escapism. The current socio-political landscape is looking rough and bumpy – between contentious elections, Brexit, climate change and now a global pandemic people are are again looking to escape from their current times into a better one. This time it has gone from a utopian future to an idealistic past. A past viewed through rose-tinted lenses sure, but hey what’s nostalgia without a bit of glorification. Personally, I prefer the OG Y2K: shiny eyeshadow, inflatable furniture, and sleek black leather – now that’s a future I want to live in!