[Woman in Blue Denim Button Up Vest Holding a Walkman. Photo Credit to Pexels]

While the majority of the world's  major industries including technology and the sciences are constantly taking great strides forward, the fashion industry has taken a step backward into the year 2000.

Today, millennials can easily find the youth wearing items that they once wore in their 20s, such as bedazzled denim, vintage warmups, and cargo pants. 

The term for this nostalgic trend is “Y2K”, an abbreviated term for the “Year 2000.” 

One of the biggest factors in the surge of popularity of the “Y2K” fashion trend has been the influence of the pandemic. 

When the Coronavirus struck in 2020, the younger generation was left with no choice but to stay home and endlessly scroll through their phones to distract themselves from the confusion and chaos in the real world. 

Most of them resorted to TikTok, a social media platform that allows users to post short videos which has been the origin of many global trends such as lip syncs and dance challenges.

Fashion quickly adapted to this platform as many teens expressed their styles through trends such as “The Fit Check”.

Soon, everyone started wearing trendy fashion items they saw online such as the “Panda Dunks” and “Yale” hoodies that recently trended in Korea.

The term “Musinsa smell” which translates to having a typical fashion style that consists of clothes from low-priced online clothing stores emerged as well.

It was mainly used as a derogatory term describing  a person’s lack of individuality and character expressed through style. 

As such, the generation started seeking a uniqueness that they were not able to  find in simplistic modern fashion trends. 

The yearning for uniqueness eventually allowed an older age of fashion to cycle back.

Teens could easily access vintage clothing through  their parents who often kept them as reminiscences of their past.

Finding these nostalgic items unique, the younger generation soon started creating “vintage content”.

The trend quickly became viral and the demand for the bold, bright, and comfy fashion items of the 90s and 2000s surged. 

The Y2K trend specifically spread to Korea when K-pop idols started to hop onto the trend as well.

A 5 member all-girl group under the Hybe label, New Jeans has been deemed the symbol of the Y2K look.

The group's success was largely attributed to the strong Y2K identity expressed in their concepts.

Consisting of members as young as 14, the group itself has not actually experienced the 2000s; however, this did not stop them from becoming icons of the look of that time.

In fact, the group’s young age fueled the explosion of the trend as the member’s innocence and youthful energy added to the nostalgia and the yearning for the retro look in both Korean and international audiences.

However, as lasting as Y2K fashion may seem, the trend is ephemeral.

Fashion is one of the most diverse and creative industries where new ideas are introduced constantly.

The impressionable nature of fashion makes trends die and new ones emerge quickly.

It is human nature to crave “uniqueness” and possess the desire to find something new that differentiates them from others.

All in all, fashion trends are continuously changing and when the majority catches on there will always be the emergence of another trend.