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A 2000s Fashion History Lesson: Logos, Low-Rise, and It Bags

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If one moment sums up early-2000s fashion, it was February 2000: Jennifer Lopez wore a chiffon Versace dress to the 42nd Grammy Awards, and the world was never the same. With a neckline that plunged all the way below her belly button, the world was in a tizzy— but how did it stay on? And what did it look like from the side? Everyone wanted to see the dress ! So much so that it inspired the idea of Google Image Search. And so began a decade of digital fashion consumption.

Dubbed the aughts and the naughts (the former used in the US, the latter in the UK), the decade was ruled by celebrity: a proliferation of reality TV , blogs filled with paparazzi shots, and 2006’s Twitter, which gave fans a front-row seat into the lives and musings of their favorite celebrities—often without a publicist’s intervention.

Regarding mainstream fashion, it was a decade of taste so bad it was almost good— almost . Think Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears in matching denim getups , Juicy Couture sweatsuits galore, Von Dutch trucker hats, and Ed Hardy tattoo tees.

On the runways, logomania ruled, and designers sexed it up with Tom Ford, Donatella Versace, Roberto Cavalli, and Hervé Léger infusing heady doses of sultry into their collections. A whirlwind look back at the in-your-face trends of early-2000s fashion, below.

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Women’s Trends of the 2000s

If eyes are the window to the soul, by the time the 2000s rolled around so too were handbags. Thanks in part to a certain Ms. Carrie Bradshaw , bags became the focal point of an outfit. After the launch of Fendi’s Baguette in 1997 (as fashion lore goes, the bag, designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi, was initially unpopular among the Fendi design team, who feared it had too much personality during a minimalist-fashion era), it skyrocketed to handbag stardom and is often considered fashion’s first It bag . Bradshaw, of course, famously carried multiple iterations of the Baguette throughout Sex and the City ’s fabulous six-season run.

In the 2000s each brand had a white-hot bag (or two) that fashion folk clamored to carry. As mentioned, Fendi had its carb-inspired Baguette; Balenciaga had its slouchy Motorcycle City Bag , introduced in 2001 by then creative director Nicolas Ghesquière ; Chloé had its boho Paddington bag , created by then creative director Phoebe Philo in 2005; Galliano debuted the Saddle bag at Dior’s spring-summer 2000 show. And over at Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs was cranking out It bag after It bag with clever collaborations. Artists were invited to make interventions with Vuitton’s storied monogram: In 2001, it was Stephen Sprouse’s graffiti collection; in 2003, it was Takashi Murakami’s smiley flower-and-cherry collections. These bags were not to go unnoticed: statement making, eye-catching, and the center of attention!

In 2002, Sarah Mower charted the rise of the It bag in Vogue ’s October issue : “In about 1993, fashionettes everywhere wanted the identical item at the same time (a Kate Spade shopper, a sporty Prada knapsack). Then came the great Baguette hunt for exotic hide and fabric varieties (a standard shape, but now in individualistic surface patterns). Before long, thanks to Gucci, Prada, Fendi, Dior, we were buying entire bag wardrobes, toting them as up-to- the-split-second status trophies.”

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“Fashion is pushing its love affair with logos to the limit. If you’ve got it, flaunt it!” wrote Vogue in its March 2000 issue .

All the aforementioned It bags were typically brandished with a logo—but that didn’t stop there! Dior’s bikinis featured their Oblique monogram; Burberry checked just about every object that could be checked; Gucci’s double Gs festooned belt buckles; and Marc Jacobs even painted his naked body with the neon pink Louis Vuitton logos inspired by LV’s collab with Stephen Sprouse in 2008 for an ad campaign. If early-2000s fashion had a square inch to spare, it was filled with an alphabet city of letters.

Tongue-in-cheek nods to this super-trend were made; in the brilliant March 2000 editorial “Branded” for Vogue, Helmut Newton took model Angela Lindvall and decorated her string-bikini-clad body with a smattering of logos belonging to all the mega fashion houses—a mishmash of monograms and icons where Chanel’s double Cs intermingled with Fendi’s double Fs to create a nonsense of logos. And Dapper Dan, all the way back in the late 1980s, was cutting up Gucci garment bags and transforming them into jackets in a brilliant reclamation of luxury.

All this emphasis on the bag you carried spawned a growing market of counterfeit bags—and with it a new industry of authenticators. In May 2001 Vogue reported on the issue: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, not the chicest. When you’ve dished out big bucks for the latest leather logo bag but suspect it’s a fake, who ya gonna call? David Colman meets fashion’s new crime fighters: the Authenticators.”

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We can thank (or point the finger at) Alexander McQueen for the low-rise trend . Though it reached its zenith in the aughts, the designer debuted tailbone-revealing bumster trousers in his 1993 Taxi Driver collection—his first collection after graduating from Central Saint Martins—and notably again in his 1995 spring-summer collection.

Five or so years later, the trend had gone full-on mainstream. (In 2001 even Levi’s introduced a Superlow jean silhouette.) It was the default rise of all jeans and pants. Britney Spears was a notable proponent of the belly-baring trend.

The low-rise trend also coincided with the rise of jeans for any occasion. Though it was the 1970s that gave us designer denim, brands continued to offer denim: bedazzled with diamatés, distressed to smithereens, painted with floral motifs.

“Designer jeans: Can we count the ways we adore them now?” wrote Sarah Mower in Vogue ’s September 2001 issue . “They’re rocking. Posing and pirouetting. Diving off into a zillion cuts, rinses, and textures, while simultaneously gate-crashing into unheard-of echelons of society. Jeans can be street, ladylike, dressed up, dressed down. They’re cool for everyday. They do black-tie. They’re fantasy and reality.”

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Twin forces helped to craft a new trend by the mid decade. Stateside, it was Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen . Retired from their teenybopper flicks (their last, New York Minute , came out in 2004), the pair was busy crafting a new, unique look that spawned dozens of copycats. Over in the UK, Sienna Miller was making waves for her take on boho : more festival chic, fewer layers.

The sum of the look was greater than its parts—fashionably speaking. It was a movement more to do with styling than individual pieces: peasant dresses over puddle jeans layered with a bolero; a functionless belt (preferably perforated); and a skinny scarf spun with metallic threads for flair.

In addition to the Olsens and Miller, there were Kate Moss , Mischa Barton, Nicole Richie , and other famous adopters. It’s said the force of this look, operating behind the curtain like Oz, was not a fashion designer (though Phoebe Philo did send out superfluous spaghetti-thin scarves for Chloé’s spring-summer 2005 collection) but the LA-based stylist Rachel Zoe .

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Though the decade was dominated by denim and It bags, there was room for a few trends born on the runway—especially for women needing something more sophisticated than denim and boho. Enter the bodycon dress.

At his spring 2006 collection, Roland Mouret debuted his Galaxy dress, and without the help of TikTok or Instagram—this was pre–social media, after all—the look went viral.

“You hadn’t been able to open a newspaper or magazine without seeing another young Hollywood A-lister wearing that hot-damn curvy dress: Scarlett Johansson, Cameron Diaz, Rachel Weisz, Keira Knightley, Nicole Kidman—so many, it was verging on a joke,” wrote Mower in Vogue ’s October 2007 issue. “You put it on, and you looked like an icon,” added the designer.

With as many colors as a book of Pantone swatches, the dress came in a double wool crepe that gripped the body like a second skin. The silhouette was below or at the knee and waist cinching, with a square neckline and sculptural cap sleeves. Like the jeans in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants , it was universally flattering.

Mouret wasn’t the only designer delivering bodycon dresses. At this time, Hervé Léger (which, in April 2007, had been relaunched by Max Azria) was binding women up like metropolitan-chic mummies in his bandage dresses. No red carpet was complete without at least one bandage dress.

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In the aughts, magazines (and tabloids) were still the predominant form of fashion news, along with budding blogs and news websites. All of these were filled with snaps of celebs circulating in the starry constellations of Hollywood. Paris Hilton and her Simple Life costar Nicole Richie were frequent tabloid fodder; so too were Britney Spears, Cameron Diaz, Lindsey Lohan, and newcomer on the block Kim Kardashian.

These off-duty looks produced head-scratching trends adopted by the masses: Juicy Couture velour tracksuits with script on the derrieres, ragged-edge miniskirts paired with Ugg boots , and baby tees emblazoned with words like angel . Page-boy caps, It bags, and a Starbucks Frappuccino finished off the look.

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Top Designers of the 2000s

Chloé, Hervé Léger, Roland Mouret, Balenciaga, Burberry, Yves Saint Laurent, Juicy Couture, Marc Jacobs, Versace, Prada, Miu Miu, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen, Calvin Klein, Fendi, Tom Ford, Gucci, Martin Margiela, Dries Van Noten, Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, John Galliano, Chanel, Oscar de la Renta, Kenzo, Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Michael Kors, Moschino, Alaïa, Lanvin, Roberto Cavalli, Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolf, Pucci, Gareth Pugh, Christopher Kane, Rodarte, Phillip Lim, Jason Wu, Jimmy Choo, Christian Louboutin, Nina Ricci, Raf Simmons, Isabel Toledo

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Men’s Trends of the 2000s

The top of the decade was dominated by the stage looks of boy bands: frosted trips and leather jackets with a metallic sheen. For teenagers, Abercrombie & Fitch’s elitist Americana prep ruled; the more polos the better. Hip-hop and the styles worn in music videos on MTV were chock-full of fashion like Air Jordans, iced-out chains, and baggy jerseys.

By the mid decade, a new look was taking hold thanks to the runways of Dior Homme, which appointed Tunisian-Italian designer Hedi Slimane as creative director. For Dior, Slimane churned out ultra-skinny pants, ties, and jackets inspired by rockers with waifish frames like Pete Doherty. If Kate Moss’s arrival in the 1990s signaled the heroine-chic era for women, Slimane passed the baton onto menswear in the 2000s. It was a look that carried over into the early 2010s and has since been dubbed indie sleaze . A crop of garage rock and post-punk bands (The Strokes, The Killers, The Libertines) epitomized the look.

For men who didn’t dabble in the mall-based or music-video-inspired trends of the aughts, the tailoring of Giorgio Armani remained the height of fashion.

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In the Culture

The decade started off with the 9/11 terrorist attack, which left the world reeling. It ended on an optimistic note with the arrival of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States. And when his wife Michelle Obama stepped out at the inauguration gala in a white Jason Wu dress , she launched the young designer into the spotlight. In 2001 Apple changed the game with the introduction of the iPod, and then six years later, on June 29, 2007, Apple released its first-generation iPhone, making a leap in technology with the first smartphone.

The decade also saw the rise of reality TV: Survivor aired in 2000, America’s Next Top Model in 2003, and Keeping Up With the Kardashians arrived in 2007.

The first Harry Potter film arrived in 2001, Twitter launched in 2006, and that same year the world got its first Taylor Swift album. In 2007 the first episode of Gossip Girl aired, and Beyoncé and Jay-Z tied the knot in 2008.

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Vogue World: Paris will pair select sports—cycling, gymnastics, tennis, tae kwon do, fencing, and breakdancing, among others—with French fashion from every decade since 1924. The show will highlight French designers, current and past, as well as houses that historically present their collections in Paris.

For front-row tickets, email [email protected]

2000s fashion essay

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2000s fashion: the best trends of the decade.

Joanna Elizabeth

Updated July 31, 2023

2000s Fashion

As the new millennium dawned, the 2000s fashion landscape transformed alongside evolving societal changes. This period echoed a bold defiance of convention, individualism, and an exploration of eclectic styles. 

From the futuristic Y2K trend to the comfortable yet chic athleisure, fashion was a vibrant blend of nostalgia, reinvention, and innovation. Retro revivals coexisted with daring new trends, leading to a creative surge that shaped the decade. 

2000s Fashion Overview

Destinys Child 2000s Fashion

Stepping into the 2000s, the fashion world embarked on a thrilling journey of innovation and transformation. The dawn of the new millennium signaled the advent of the Y2K fashion phenomenon, a bold exploration of futuristic aesthetics marked by a metallic color palette and techno-inspired designs.

As the decade progressed, fashion trends evolved and diversified. The mid-2000s saw the prominence of skinny jeans, UGG boots, and statement accessories like chunky belts, asserting their place in women’s wardrobes globally. Celebrities and style icons popularized these trends, lending them a sense of casual chic and elegance.

By the late 2000s, the focus had shifted towards comfort and versatility, leading to the rise of athleisure wear, the omnipresence of leggings, and the layered look of dresses over jeans. These trends celebrated fashion’s ability to adapt and resonate with the changing lifestyle and attitudes of the time.

Crop Tops: The Midriff Revolution

Julia Stiles Crop Top 2000s Fashion

Crop tops, which exposed the midriff, were a staple of the 2000s. The trend was popularized by a host of celebrities, from pop stars like Britney Spears to actresses like Lindsay Lohan. 

Paired with low-rise jeans, crop tops were a testament to the decade’s embrace of bold and daring fashion choices. Despite being replaced by longer camisoles in the late 2000s, crop tops left a lasting impact.

Tank Tops: The Casual Chic Staple

Jennifer Aniston Tank Top 2000s Fashion

Tank tops were a casual chic staple in aughts fashion, often worn with cargo pants or low-rise jeans. They were popular for their versatility, comfort, and ease of styling. From basic monochromatic tank tops to ones with graphic prints or logos, they were an essential part of every woman’s wardrobe. 

Scarf Tops: The Boho Influence

Scarf Top 2000s Fashion

Bohemian influences in 00s fashion led to the popularity of scarf tops. Often adorned with intricate prints and patterns, these tops were a favorite among those who preferred a more boho-chic aesthetic. 

Scarf tops were typically paired with flared jeans and platform sandals, embodying the decade’s free-spirited and unconventional fashion ethos.

Velour Tracksuit: The Rise of Athleisure

Velour Tracksuit 2000s Fashion

The popularity of velour tracksuits marked the rise of athleisure in the decade. Brands like Juicy Couture popularized these comfortable and stylish tracksuits, often worn with sneakers or flip-flops. 

The trend was a blend of sportswear and casual wear, reflecting the 2000s’ emphasis on comfort and functionality in fashion.

Jean Styles

Skinny jeans: a new denim reigns.

Heidi Klum Skinny Jeans 2000s Fashion

In the realm of 2000s fashion, skinny jeans reigned supreme. They would get popular in the mid-2000s. They were a wardrobe staple for women across the globe, and their versatile nature allowed them to be paired with virtually any top, making them a must-have for any fashion-conscious woman. 

Distressed, light-wash, and acid-washed skinny jeans were particularly popular, often paired with sneakers, ballet flats, or heels, depending on the occasion. The skinny jeans trend reflected the decade’s penchant for comfort and style.

Bootcut Jeans: The Denim Dominance

Shannon Elizabeth Bootcut Jeans 2000s Fashion

Bootcut jeans were another popular denim trend during the 2000s. These jeans, characterized by a slight flare from the knee downwards, were a fashionable alternative to the reigning skinny jeans. 

Often paired with fitted tops and platform sandals, bootcut jeans underscored the 2000s’ fascination with reinventing classic styles.

Flared Jeans: The Retro Revisit

Flared Jeans 2000s Fashion

Flared jeans, another revival from the 70s, held their ground in noughties fashion. With a flare starting from the knee, these jeans offered a stylish alternative to straight-leg and skinny styles. 

Paired with platform sandals and peasant tops, flared jeans demonstrated the decade’s fascination with merging past fashion influences into modern trends.

Bandage Dress: The Body-Con Icon

Lindsay Lohan Bandage Dress Herve Leger 2000s Fashion

The bandage dress, a testament to the 2000s’ love for body-conscious fashion, wrapped the body in form-fitting strips of material, mimicking a bandage. It was popularized by designer Hervé Léger and worn by countless celebrities such as Victoria Beckham and Lindsay Lohan. This trend would go from 2006 to the early 2010s. 

Babydoll Dress: The Girly Glamour

Babydoll Dress 2000s Fashion

Babydoll dresses characterized the youthful, girlish side of naughty fashion. With their short, A-line silhouettes and often embellished designs, they were the epitome of playful femininity. Worn with knee-high boots or ballet flats, babydoll dresses reflected the decade’s affinity for fun, flirtatious fashion.

Embellished Slip Dress: The Sparkling Sensation

Embellished Slip Dress 2000s Fashion

Embellished slip dresses marked a high-glam trend in this decade’s fashion. They combined the simplicity of a slip dress with added embellishments like sequins or beads, resulting in a striking contrast.

These dresses captured the decade’s balance of minimalism and maximalism, exuding effortless elegance on the red carpet or at dinner parties.

Leggings: The Comfort Craze

Leggings represented the 2000s’ emphasis on comfort and versatility in fashion. They were not just workout attire but a fashion-forward choice for everyday wear, often paired with oversized tops or dresses. 

Leggings were a testament to the rising trend of athleisure, marking the blend of comfort, functionality, and style during the decade.

Dress Over Jeans: The Layered Look

Carmen Electra Dress Over Jeans 2000s Fashion

The layered look of a dress over jeans was a distinctive trend in 2000s style. Combining the femininity of a dress with the casualness of jeans, it epitomized the decade’s experimental fashion. 

Suit Vest: The Versatile Essential

Victoria Beckham Vest 2000s Fashion

For women, suit vests played a crucial role in the era’s fashion, exemplifying versatility and ease of styling. Worn over dresses, t-shirts, or even formal shirts, they epitomized the decade’s love for layering and versatility in fashion.

Ripped T-Shirts: The Creative Canvas

Shania Twain Ripped T-Shirt 2000s Fashion

Ripped shirts made a distinctive mark in the decade. Intentionally distressed and torn, these shirts exuded a rebel spirit and non-conformist attitude. 

Whether subtly ripped or dramatically shredded, they brought a raw, edgy vibe to casual outfits. 

Cargo Pants: The Utilitarian Trend

Christina Aguilera Cargo Pants 2000s Fashion

Cargo pants, known for their multiple pockets and loose fit, were a staple during the decade. Women would wear more fitted styles for a sleeker aesthetic. Initially a symbol of the military and outdoor labor, cargo pants transitioned into casual wear. Paired with simple tees or camisoles, they highlighted the decade’s interest in functional styles.

Corset Tops: The Victorian Throwback

Amy Lee Corset Top 2000s Fashion

Corset tops, reminiscent of Victorian fashion, reemerged in the 2000s with a modern twist. Often worn with jeans or skirts, these tops highlighted the waist and created a distinct silhouette. 

The corset top was a prime example of the era’s love for reinventing past styles, creating a fusion of vintage glamour and contemporary fashion.

Fitted Blazers: The Classy-Casual Fusion

Jessica Alba Fitted Blazer 2000s Fashion

Fitted blazers were a stylish bridge between formal and casual wear. Worn with jeans, these blazers lent a touch of sophistication to a traditionally relaxed outfit. Compared to the oversized fits of today, the blazer brought a sleek silhouette to the forefront. 

Accessories & Shoes

Ballet flats: the timeless touch.

Ballet Flats 2000s Fashion

Ballet flats were footwear essential during the late 2000s. Inspired by traditional ballet shoes, they offered a balance of comfort and elegance. These timeless pieces were a staple paired with anything from jeans to dresses.

Hoop Earrings: The Circular Statement

JLo Hoop Earrings 2000s Fashion

Hoop earrings made a significant comeback in 2000s style. These circular adornments ranged from small and subtle to large and dramatic, catering to various fashion moods. 

They added a touch of stylish simplicity to any ensemble, underlining the decade’s penchant for accessories that effortlessly balanced minimalism and statement-making aesthetics.

Colored Lenses: The Tinted Trend

Halle Berry Colored Sunglasses 2000s Fashion

Colored lenses in sunglasses brought a splash of color to the accessories realm. From vibrant pinks to cool blues, these tinted lenses added a fun and whimsical touch to any ensemble. 

Worn by celebrities and trendsetters alike, sunglasses with colored lenses epitomized the decade’s playful approach to style.

Bucket Hat: The Retro Revival

Bucket Hat 2000s Fashion

The bucket hat, a nod to the 90s, resurfaced in the decade. Initially a functional fishing hat, it became a beloved trend that music artists and fashionistas embraced. Whether plain or printed, the bucket hat showcased the decade’s propensity for reviving retro trends and injecting them with a fresh, modern twist.

Chunky Belts: The Statement Accessory

Chunky Belt 2000s Fashion

Chunky belts emerged as a statement accessory in 2000s fashion. Worn over dresses or to cinch in oversized tops, these belts were functional and added a touch of edginess to any outfit. 

From studded leather belts to ones with oversized buckles, chunky belts were a testament to the 2000s’ love for accessories that stood out.

Platform Sandals: Height of Fashion

Platform Sandals 2000s Fashion

Platform sandals were a footwear staple during the era. They added height without compromising comfort, making them a preferred choice for many women. 

Women often paired platform sandals with flared jeans or maxi dresses. The trend highlighted the decade’s preference for styles that combined fashion with comfort.

UGG Boots: The Footwear Fad

Ugg Boots 2000s Fashion

No recounting of 2000s fashion would be complete without mentioning UGG boots. Originally designed for warmth and comfort, UGG boots quickly became a fashion sensation, often paired with skinny jeans or denim miniskirts. 

Their popularity surged in the early to mid-2000s thanks to endorsements from celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson. Despite their divisive appearance, these boots enjoyed considerable popularity, highlighting the 2000s’ emphasis on comfort and functionality in fashion.

Final Words

The era of 2000s fashion was a fascinating time defined by a tapestry of contrasting styles and trends. From the early part’s futuristic style to the relaxed yet chic athleisure, the decade reflected a fashion scene as diverse and multifaceted as the era itself. 

As we navigate through the 21st century, the decade’s legacy continues to echo in the fashion trends we see today, standing as a testament to a time when fashion pushed boundaries and embraced change.

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2000s Fashion Trends for Men and Women

Updated: May 24, 2023 | BY Alexandra Feiam

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2000s Fashion Trends For Women And Men

From the Y2K bug to the late 00s, this decade had some interesting and iconic outfits. From the fashion inspired by R&B to the cultural impact of pop punk, there are many instantly recognizable style choices. Whether you are heading to a party or you want to mix up your closet, this guide will teach you everything about the aughts. Here are the 2000s fashion for men and women that you should know.

  RELATED: How to Wear Y2K Fashion

Early 2000s Fashion?

Fashion during the early ’00s saw a lot of residue from fashion in the ’90s. Coming off the back of grunge, the focus on hyper-feminine and exaggerated silhouettes ruled supreme. For guys, it was all about oversized and baggy t-shirts, jeans, and leaning into street style. However, women’s style was all about showing skin, experimenting with color, and venturing towards tacky. Trousers were often worn slung low on the hips, showing the bottom half of the midriff. Both loved bright, sparkling accessories like necklaces, earrings, wide-leg and flared trousers, and designer labels – each worn in their own way.

What Is Early 2000s Fashion?

2000s Fashion for Men

2000s rapper.

From Nelly to Pharrell to Jay-Z, the rap scene entered a new era in the ‘00s. The hip-hop genre was all about prioritizing street style and showing off your riches. With oversized singlets, baggy basketball shorts, and sparkling jewelry, the aesthetic was rebranded in the early years of the decade. To get this look, find your favorite basketball player’s jersey, sneakers, and a pair of baggy pants. A bandana or cap is a great accessory to add – or try both if you’re feeling a bit extra. Don’t forget large chains and diamond embellishments.

2000s Fashion Rapper

2000s Pop Punk

During the 2000s, the rise of rock and punk-influenced more than just music. The pop-punk era was prominent throughout the early stages of the decade, and its fashion was instantly recognizable. Bands like Blink-182 and Good Charlotte pioneered the fashion, with baggy cargo shorts, print t-shirts, and studded belts becoming part of the uniform. Other major accessories included layered short and long-sleeved shirts, skater shoes, sweatbands, and plenty of hair gel.

2000s Fashion Pop Punk

2000s Skater Dude

The ‘90s and ‘00s saw a resurgence of skateboarding. The fashion stayed somewhat the same throughout the decades and is easy to rock for any occasion. Start with an oversized shirt, either with a band print on the front, a skate brand, or your favorite cartoon. Add a pair of baggy and oversized jeans – JNCO was the most popular brand of the decade that look the part perfectly. Add a pair of Vans sneakers and your board, and you’re ready to go.

2000s Fashion Skater Dude

2000s Preppy Aesthetic

Another trend that made a huge comeback in the 2000s was the preppy aesthetic. With polo shirts in multiple colors (pink and blue were the most popular), white trousers, boat shoes, and rugby jumpers, it was the uniform of the era. To capture the essence of this decade, layer multiple polo shirts on top of each other, with the collars popped in an upward direction. Add a sweater over your shoulders and a pair of Wayfarers for the finishing touch.

2000s Fashion Preppy Aesthetic

2000s Double Denim

In 2001, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake reignited the trend of double denim, making it one of the most iconic looks of the decade. Also known as the Canadian Tuxedo, this look is as controversial as it is recognizable. To nail the look, begin with as much denim as you can. But be sure to keep them all in the same color – this will create unification for maximum impact. If you can find it, add a denim cowboy hat and a pair of gradient sunglasses for an authentic feel.

2000s Fashion Double Denim

2000s Trucker Caps

Accessories were largely popular in the ‘00s, but the tracker cap is one that is instantly identifiable. Whether it’s Von Dutch or a NY Yankees logo, this hat is a great way to pay homage to the decade without looking like you’re in a costume. To ensure it’s authentic, make sure it has a mesh backing and a two-toned front. You can choose something with a colorful brim, such as yellow, red, or blue.

2000s Fashion Trucker Caps

2000s Indie Sleaze

Moving to the later half of the ‘00s, the indie sleaze movement took over the music scene. This moment in time was particularly popular in the UK and the US, worn by bands and musicians such as the Arctic Monkeys, Pete Doherty, and MGMT. The style is eclectic, with patterned shirts in all colors, leopard print coats, colorful cardigans, and skinny jeans. Make sure your hair is messy, and add a few layers of infinity scarves in purple, red, or black for an authentic feel.

2000s Fashion Indie Sleaze

2000s Metallics

With every style that made it through the ‘00s, one of the core trends is all things metallic. From oversized jewelry, large sunglasses, layering chains, and shiny fabrics, it is a staple in dressing Y2K. During the earliest part of that decade, the techno boom helped contribute to its popularity. You don’t have to go head-to-toe in silver or gold but throw in a few elements such as a necklace, rings, or a jacket to give an authentic feel.  

2000s Fashion Metallics

2000s Colorful Pants

During the peak of the scene and indie sleaze, colorful jeans were the perfect way to experiment with fashion. From gray to dark red, bright blue, and crisp white, you can style the look with a polo shirt, blazer, and a pair of Converse high tops. Despite the era being famous for its baggy jeans, there was also a wave of super skinny styles that dominated the decade. If you want to channel the latter half of the ‘00s, stick to a pair that appear sprayed directly onto your skin.  

2000s Fashion Colorful Jeans

2000s Printed Shirts

No matter the genre of music you loved in the ‘00s, a printed shirt was a staple of them all. Whether it’s a band, sports team, or designer logo, there are endless ways to show off your bold clothing choice. For an RnB feel, choose something that is larger in size and hits below your butt. If you want to stick to a Lenny Kravitz aesthetic, keep it tight and cropped with a pair of straight-leg jeans. Casual button-downs can be worn over the top, or if the weather calls for it, try a patterned cardigan or denim jacket.

2000s Fashion Printed Shirts

2000s Fashion for Women

2000s pop star.

From Britney Spears to Destiny’s Child, fashion for pop stars was off the charts. During the early stages of the decade, the style choices mostly consisted of low-rise pants and crop tops, usually in bubblegum colors like pink and blue. Showing as much skin as possible was key, so if you’re planning to recreate these looks, opt for something that exposes your arms and midriff. Experiment with accessories, too – layering long necklaces and skinny scarves will add to the authenticity.

2000s Fashion Pop Star

2000s Mini Skirts and Uggs 

One of the staple outfits in the ‘00s was the humble mini skirt and a pair of Ugg boots. While the mini became popular in the ‘60s, the Y2K era took them one step further by keeping them in a micro length. Worn by the likes of Beyoncé, Lindsay Lohan, and Britney Spears, the look was so popular that it was often seen on the red carpet. Today, it’s all about wearing platform and low-top Uggs with a micro mini skirt. Try it with a blazer, sweater, or cardigan, all in the same shade. You can lean into ballet core by throwing a pair of leg warmers over the top for a snug feel.

2000s Fashion Mini Skirts And Uggs

2000s Velour Tracksuits

It wouldn’t be a 2000s look without a velour tracksuit. Made famous by Juicy Couture, the look was exclusively for the rich and famous. The most popular choices were pink, green, and blue, often worn low-slung on the hips with a pair of sneakers and oversized sunglasses. Another key to nailing this look is the color uniformity – a true ‘00s set will be the same shade on top and bottom. Keep the jacket zipped up without anything underneath, and add a few necklaces and a mini shoulder bag for the ultimate Y2K aesthetic .

2000s Fashion Velour Tracksuits

2000s Low Rise Everything

During the 2010s, it was all about high-waisted everything, but ten years before, it was the complete opposite. In fact, the lower the waist, the better. Whether it was Paris Hilton or Keira Knightly in their extremely hip-hugging jeans, it was the ultimate way to show off some skin. These days, the look is coming back bigger than ever, and it’s easy to recreate the trend. Start with a pair of low-slung trousers, and add a mid-length or crop top.

2000s Fashion Low Rise Everything

2000s Layering

No matter if it was multiple t-shirts or a skirt over jeans, layering was an essential step in nailing the 2000s aesthetic. The most popular choices are long sleeve shirts with a singlet over the top, showing different colored fabrics such s black, white, pink, or green. If you want to go all out, why not try wearing a mini skirt and a pair of trousers? Back in the ’00s, it was all about flowing fabric over jeans – but today, you’re more likely to see matching shades and textures for a more cohesive look.

2000s Fashion Layering

2000s Barbiecore

Technically Barbiecore wasn’t a ‘thing’ in the 2000s, but the sentiment remains the same two decades later. This trend is all about pink, hyper-feminine, and pretty garments and accessories. Whatever you would imagine Barbie wearing 20 years ago is what is trendy today. This means all-pink clothing, accessories, and footwear – whether it’s fuschia, dusty rose, or blush, all look fantastic in a monochromatic ensemble.

2000s Fashion Barbiecore

2000s Corsets

Corsets have been a major trend for some time now, but it was the ’00s when the style had its heyday. They were worn in endless ways, such as by Christina Aguilera in a sheer lace number with a pair of pinstripe jeans. Often worn with a pair of regular trousers and nothing else, they encompassed the saying ‘jeans and a nice top’. However, you can also see it layered with a peasant or lace shirt, which gives the outfit a bit of extra emphasis. Thanks to the complexity of the design, you don’t have to wear it with much jewelry – but don’t forget a classic ’00s smokey eye.

2000s Fashion Corsets

2000s R&B Star

In the same vein as the rap star in the ’00s, R&B fashion was hugely influential in this decade. While menswear was distinctively oversized, the opposite could be said for women. Tight, cropped, and sexy clothes were all the rage, with an emphasis on showing plenty of skin. Some of the biggest trends during this era were low-rise jeans, crop tops or bandeau bralettes, and cardigans. The biggest influences you should pay attention to are Eve, Destiny’s Child, and Rihanna. Denim and white fabrics were wildly popular, but you couldn’t make it a Y2K outfit with rhinestone embellishments, metallic fabrics, and a pair of hoop earrings .

2000s Fashion Rnb Star

2000s Supermodel Style

Gone from the days of the ’90s supermodel was the ’00s supermodel. Walking Victoria’s Secret runways and starring in endless campaigns, stars like Giselle Bündchen, Natalia Vodianova, and Devon Aoki dominated the scene. Their street style was equally as iconic, creating a fresh take on the ‘off-duty model’ look. The most popular choices include a pair of low-rise black jeans, a white t-shirt or black corset, and minimal makeup. This fashion was all about showing off your natural beauty and keeping your outfit reminiscent of a blank canvas. And don’t forget an oversized back bag to carry your modelling essentials.

2000s Fashion Supermodel Style

2000s Accessories

The ’00s were all about tacky, kitschy, and colorful accessories. Be it a pair of tiny round sunglasses, butterfly clips, or pointless belts, the point of these pieces was far from practical. They added complexity to an already colorful outfit and often elevated a somewhat casual ensemble. Some of the most popular choices were bandanas , sequin skinny scarves, and oversized hoop earrings – mood rings, dangly earrings, and ombre rimless sunglasses were also dominant during the era. Bonus points if you get your hands on a colorful Louis Vuitton Murakami monogram bag.

2000s Fashion Accessories

2000 Fashion FAQs

What was popular fashion in 2000.

Some of the most popular fashion choices for women in the 2000s were low-rise jeans, midriff-baring t-shirts, mules, and anything covered in rhinestones or studs. For guys, it was all about oversized clothing, such as jeans, t-shirts, and jackets. The street scene helped influence a lot of the style for men and women, which continued into the latter half of the decade.

What is the biggest fashion trend in the 2000s?

There is no single biggest fashion trend of the 2000s, but the most recognizable pieces include a micro mini skirt, handkerchief hem dresses, ombre sunglasses, and low-rise jeans. For guys, it was skater sneakers, baggy trousers (often worn without a belt), and a t-shirt with a large logo on the front.

What was popular in the 2000s?

The start of the '00s saw the rise of new technology, such as Apple Macs, iPods, and mobile phones. This influenced fashion, with much of the style influenced by futuristic themes such as leather, metallic, and see-through plastic. R&B and rap remained largely influential, too, with Destiny's Child and Nelly helping carve out street style.

Why was early 2000s fashion so bad

Some regard the fashion from the '00s as terrible because it was loud, experimental, and kitschy. The elements of each garment were exaggerated in some way - either oversized or showing as much skin as possible. Other trends worn by Paris Hilton and famous women were often compared to Barbies and Bratz dolls, which had famously feminine and sexy attire. Some claim the era was "tacky", but today it represents maximalism and empowers the wearer in a new way.

Ally Sonja Feiam

Alexandra Feiam

Alexandra Feiam is an experienced fashion writer who holds a degree in journalism. She has an impressive portfolio and expertise working as the Editor at Power Retail and Commercial Content Editor at Newscorp. Ally has been writing for The TrendSpotter since 2018, and her work has been featured in notable publications such as The Herald Sun, Arirang TV South Korea, Kidspot, The House of Wellness, and The Daily Telegraph.

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the trend spotter

It's a Y2K World, and We're Just Living in It: 12 Trends That Defined the Iconic Era

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If you grew up in the 2000s , you'll probably be surprised to hear that the decade's fashion trends are once again popular. I was born in 1994 , and if you ask me, the decade still feels like it happened just yesterday. I grew up watching Britney Spears music videos and vying to get my hands on basically everything Paris Hilton wore. For me, 2000s fashion trends are more nostalgic than those of the '80s or '90s .

Yes, I'm talking about the teeny-tiny handbags and even tinier strappy sandals that defined the decade's aesthetic. I won't lie, though. I'm thankful that not everything we wore in the 2000s is making it into the 2020s because, well, styles like ultra-low-rise jeans are best left in the past (in my opinion). But if you're as ready as we are to embrace the best of noughties fashion once again, see all the 2000s fashion trends that are still going strong ever since their initial resurgence.

2000s-fashion-259511-1702046971990-image

WHO: Naomi Campbell and Iman, 2004

Whether logo-filled or embellished with buckles, baguette-shaped bags were considered the 2000s It trend to own. It was during this era when the Dior Saddle, Louis Vuitton Pochette, and Fendi Zucca bags all featured prominently on the arms of the A-list set.

Louis Vuitton + Monogram Pochette

WHO: Rihanna, 2005

Now, would it even be an early aughts story without a mention of low rises? They were as iconic a silhouette during the decade then as they are now, and it was all about pairing them with a crop top for an exposed midriff moment. Daring? Yes. Nostalgic? Absolutely.

Abercrombie + Low Rise Baggy Jean

WHO: Nicole Richie, 2006

Shield sunglasses are the accessory trend that's still popping up everywhere from Miu Miu to Le Specs. The good news is that you don't have to spend a fortune to nail this trend.

Miu Miu + Rimless Shield Sunglasses

WHO: Paris Hilton, 2003

Everything about 2000s fashion was defined by a more-is-more mentality: more embellishments, more layering, and showing more skin. Skirts were hemmed high to show off as much leg as possible, while waistlines were slung ultra low to maximize an exposed midriff, which brings us to the epitome of early 2000s silhouettes: the micro miniskirt.

Apure Skirt

WHO: Jessica Alba, 2003

Ready or not, this divisive outfit trend is bubbling back up again—except that 2024's versions are much more refined and forward.

Striped Tunic Dress Zw Collection

WHO: Sarah Jessica Parker, 2001

Soft ruffles are still having a major moment today, and we're thanking icons like Carrie Bradshaw who made the asymmetric silhouette look so good.

LPA + Jess Flounce Mini Dress

WHO: Destiny's Child, 2000

One thing we'll always remember this decade for was how committed everyone was to achieving a standout look. No embellishments were spared when getting dressed, and that means we saw all manner of glitz and glam throughout the decade's most memorable ensembles, but especially the popularity of crystal dressing. Whether it was a crystal mesh dress à la Paris Hilton at her 21st birthday or the coordinating crystal bra tops Destiny's Child wore at the 2000 Hip-Hop Music Awards, more is more when it came to this shimmery trend.

Rhinestone Crystal Body Necklace

WHO: Britney Spears, 2002

Love them or hate them today, there's no denying that bootcut jeans were the ultimate denim trend of the 2000s with their slim fits and flared-ankle shape.

Citizens of Humanity Vida Bootcut Jeans

WHO: Mariah Carey, 2000

If you grew up in the early 2000s, you know all about the "going-out top" (looking at you, Millennials). They were an entire category of our closets back then defined by statement colors, asymmetric necklines, cropped hems, and pretty embellishments. Mariah Carey's sequin butterfly top is the blueprint here. Essentially, the going-out top was the only thing you needed to own to make an outfit look good—pair one with jeans and you're good to go.

Beaded Flower Top

WHO: Christina Aguilera, 2000

Say what you will, but the 2000s were nothing if not one big experiment in taking fashion risks. And boy did celebs embrace a risqué look. When Christina Aguilera showed up to the MTV VMAs in 2000 in a G-string skirt, it sparked an entire movement of purposefully showing off your thong straps via hip cutouts or built-in straps.

Low Waisted G-String Trouser

WHO: Meagan Good, 2003

Trucker hats are continuing to be relevant, but the Von Dutch styles will always be reminiscent of the era. Everyone and their mother sported the iconic brand.

Von Dutch + Pink Crush Velvet Trucker

WHO: Kate Moss, 2005

Skinny scarves were a micro-trend that fashion people adored adding to their outfits throughout the Y2K era, and now, people are yet again draping themselves in this trend. Buy into it before it sells out.

Tube Top With Skinny Scarf

This story was published at an earlier date and has since been updated.

Anna is an editor on the fashion team at Who What Wear and has been at the company for over five years, having begun her career in the Los Angeles office before relocating to New York, where she's currently based. Having always been passionate about pursuing a career in fashion, she built up her experience interning at the likes of Michael Kors, A.L.C., and College Fashionista before joining the team as a post-graduate assistant editor. Anna has penned a number of interviews with Who What Wear's cover stars over the years, including A-listers Megan Fox, Issa Rae, and Emma Chamberlain. She's earned a reputation for scouting new and emerging brands from across the globe and championing them to our audience of millions. While fashion is her main wheelhouse, Anna led the launch of WWW Travels last year, a new lifestyle vertical that highlights all things travel through a fashion-person lens. She is passionate about shopping vintage, whether it be at a favorite local outpost or an on-the-road discovery, and has amassed a wardrobe full of unique finds. When she's not writing, you can find her shooting street imagery on her film camera, attempting to learn a fourth or fifth language, or planning her next trip across the globe.

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Published: 2023-04-12

Fashion of the 2000s

The 2000s will go down in fashion history as the decade of mash-ups. Retro styles from past decades collide with trends from music culture. Globalization also plays its part, not only bringing Asian fashion to Europe, but also paving the way for fast fashion through worldwide supply chains.

The early 2000s (2000-2002)

The transition from the 90s to the first decade of the new millennium is gradual. Many fashion trends continue. However, events such as 9/11 quickly leave their mark on the fashion world. At the same time, the Internet, as a ubiquitous new technology, sets new accents in both the design and consumption of fashion.

Y2K fashion - futuristic, metallic, sexy

As the decade begins, fashion is also influenced by new technologies. Monochrome, futuristic garments in shades of gray, shiny black or metallic colors aim for a dark and technical look - with maximum sex appeal, of course. Mesh tops, rectangular sunglasses with metal frames, boxy skirts, leather skirts, rhinestones or halter necklines are common. Y2K, the acronym for the year 2000, which is actually a computer problem, fits perfectly with this tech-inspired trend.

80s revival - first part

By the end of the '90s, the first '80s revival was underway, building on the early '80s. In addition to tracksuits, the trend is towards the opulent use of denim fabrics, trench coats and polo shirts. The velour tracksuits of Paris Hilton and others are unforgettable. This trend will be replaced by the second wave in 2008, when the fashion of the late eighties will be in the focus of the it-girls and -boys.

Casual and leisure wear- casual and sexy

Many trends from the 90s continued into the 2000s due to the continued influence of pop stars like Britney Spears. Starting around 2001, low-rise pants, bell-bottoms, silk or satin cargo pants, or even white jeans paired with crop tops or hoodies became popular. Belly-free outfits add a lot of sex appeal. Women often wear skirts over pants, wrap dresses with floral patterns, rugby shirts and even functional jackets enter everyday life.

Sex and the City - empowerment and fashion trends

The US series "Sex and the City" has had a significant impact on women's consumer behavior. As self-confident shoppers, they no longer buy what is imposed on them, but follow their own individual style. Of course, the series also sets its own fashion trends - high-heeled stilettos and designer handbags are just two examples.

Fast fashion - the rise of disposable fashion

In the early to mid-2000s, mass consumption of cheap fast fashion spread throughout the industrialized world. In rapid succession, manufacturers adapted fashion from the catwalks of haute couture to be produced as cheaply as possible in third countries. After a journey that often takes the product once around the globe, the articles arrive at H&M, Zara and Co. to supply fashion-conscious consumers with cheap mass goods.

Puffy jackets - not just for hip hoppers

Padded puffer jackets in oversized sizes are no longer just popular with hip-hop followers. In bright colors, the warm down jackets combine functionality and fashion consciousness. They are everywhere at the beginning of the decade.

Jeans - return to denim

After 9/11 and the financial crisis, classic jeans are back in fashion. The working-class fabric is suitable for virtually any occasion. Throughout the decade, trends change in both waist height and leg width. At first, low-rise, flared jeans are in vogue, before super-tight skinny jeans are rediscovered in the middle of the decade. Even denim overalls are often seen on the red carpet. In the end, denim jeans may be one of the decade's few consistent fashion trends.

Clean chic - simple and discreet

Simple cuts and muted colors characterize this look, which is a clear contrast to the 80s revival with its bright colors and artificial materials. The matching outfit is a sleek look hairstyle or a short haircut and, of course, subtle makeup.

Fashion Mid 2000s (2003-2006)

By the middle of the decade, the trend toward a retro look was unmistakable. Above all, the chic of the sixties made a comeback on the catwalks of haute couture - and later on the mass market. Sex appeal is not neglected either. Figure-hugging jeans, thongs and waterfall shirts show a lot of skin.

60s revival - the boho chic

The boho look is a departure from the grunge look of the 90s. Britpop and garage rock bands from the UK bring fashion culture into the mainstream, sparking a fashion revival of the sixties. This includes, for example, light bootcut jeans, vintage shirts, military uniforms, velvet sports jackets, parkas, tweed jackets or western shirts, as popularized by the White Stripes. These days, however, vintage items are no longer bought cheaply in oversize at thrift stores, but in exclusive boutiques. No wonder the style in Paris is called bobo, short for bourgeois-boheme. The high-priced vintage look is often complemented by exclusive designer pieces.

Thong Underwear, Waterfall Shirts and Crop Tops

Low-rise jeans are a perfect match for belly-free shirts. A daring thong underwear is often seen peeking out from under the waistband. Jennifer Lopez and other pop stars make a fashion statement with the chain-shaped waterfall shirt with a plunging neckline and narrow fabric trim at the back. Lots of bare skin is certainly the trend here.

Military Clothing and Pirate-Style – Protest and Pop Culture

This trend has been seen in the UK since around 2005 and will continue until the end of the decade. The preference for military clothing is not only driven by the retro trend of the 80s, but also by movies like Pirates of the Caribbean. This includes harem pants, hussar jackets, uniforms, and even riding boots. But also forms of protest like the Palestinian scarf find their way into the fashion world as a rejection of the war in Iraq, while Che Guevara's clothing style is celebrated as an icon of alternative youth and young adults.

Polo Shirts and Basics - Simple and Stylish

Brands like Abercrombie & Fitch are flooding the market with stylish polo shirts. To really be on trend, the collar is important. Alternatively, the V-neck is spreading through American Apparel and other brands that make affordable basics available everywhere. After all, monochrome basics can be combined with any extravagant outfit - and should be a part of every wardrobe.

Retro Movies - Even More Revivals

Movies from the 60s and 80s also set new fashion trends in the 2000s. The stars of Top Gun and Midnight Cowboy are the role models for the renewed popularity of muscle shirts and hooded sweatshirts, cargo pants and pilot jackets.

Blazer and Shirt - Casual in Everyday Life

The combination of a casual blazer and a simple T-shirt is perfect for any occasion. Even bold all-over prints or the ever-popular Ed Hardy shirts seem made for this style. As an alternative to the T-shirt, hoodies can be worn under a blazer for the perfect combination of casual and chic.

Business Suits and Their Alternatives

In addition to classic business suits in muted colors or pinstripes, Nehru jackets and shirts with choker collars, as popularized by the Beatles, James Bond, or films like The Matrix, become increasingly popular as an alternative to suits. In the U.S., however, the casual look dominates in the middle of the decade, with subtly striped shirts and chino pants, wool sweaters, or sporty jackets.

The Late Years of 2000s Fashion (2007-2009)

Most of the trends from the early and mid-2000s are still wearable at the end of the decade. These include boot-cut jeans, tank tops, cargo pants, boho chic and denim miniskirts. In addition, the fashion world rediscovers India as a source of fashion sophistication, and nerdy geek chic takes hold.

80s Revival - Part Two

While the first revival of the eighties took place at the beginning of the decade, the trend now goes to the bright colors of the late eighties. Headbands, knit sweaters, denim skirts with tights or the Wonderbra are back. XXL shirts, spandex leggings, cuffs and crop tops are back, as are Hawaiian shirts, V-neck sweaters and black leather jackets.

Asian Fashion - Harem Pants and Mangas

Ethnic fashion from India and the Middle East is back in style for summer 2007. This includes harem pants, sarongs, saris and even the kurta. This trend is not only inspired by Bollywood movies, but also by pop stars like Shakira, who has achieved international success with her belly dancing. Younger women, in particular, are also inspired by Japanese pop culture with manga and J-pop, wearing sailor dresses, Lolita outfits and petticoats with knee socks.

Slim Fit Suits

Toward the end of the decade, the cut of the classic suit changed almost everywhere in favor of a slimmer, more body-hugging fit, while in the U.S. the broad-shouldered power suit made a brief comeback.

DIY Fashion - Handmade is in

As an evolution of the vintage look into boho chic, and fueled by the financial crisis of 2008, there is a growing trend toward DIY. Handknit sweaters are all the rage, but scarves and homemade clothing are also in.

Geek Chic - Grandparents' nerdy look

This look is a bit nerdy and always looks as if the wearer has raided their grandparents' wardrobe. Big glasses, horn-rimmed glasses are just as trendy as buttoned-up cardigans and loose-fitting corduroys.

Beauty Trends in the 2000s

Of course, the devil is in the details when it comes to creating the perfect outfit. You have to make sure that your hairstyle is up to date and that your shoes and accessories are a hit or a miss when it comes to joining the elite circle of trendy it-girls and -boys.

Hair - versatile with colored streaks

In the early 2000s, women tend to wear their hair long and straight, with lengths between the ears and the shoulders. Streaks provided a sunny look before Kelly Clarkson started a trend in 2002 with much more visible streaks. Clips and barrettes complete the look. Farrah Fawcett's feathered hairstyle is still seen at the beginning of the decade, while stars like Jennifer Lopez set trends with ballet-inspired updos. Rihanna, Alicia Keys and Janet Jackson are confidently sporting cornrows, dreadlocks and shorter versions of the "afro. The bob is absolutely en vogue in the mid-2000s - from around 2007, mainly in deep black and, towards the end of the decade, with a side parting rather than the out-of-date center parting.

In the early 2000s, men often wear short haircuts, some in the style of pop punk and boy bands, some in spiked styles, some in Iroquois cuts, and some with bleached ends, until natural hair colors come back into fashion at the end of the decade. From 2003 to 2006, the hairstyles of the mods and the long hair of the surfers became more common. By the end of the decade, British men were increasingly using pomade to hold their stylish short haircuts in place. Sideburns and goatees are also popular as a counter-movement to the metrosexual look of previous years. And, of course, there is the iconic Justin Bieber hairstyle, which has been an absolute statement hairstyle since 2008.

Make-up - as versatile as the decade

At the beginning of the new millennium, the glittery makeup of the 90s still dominates as part of the futuristic and bizarre Y2K trend. As an alternative, brown and purple shades are more likely to be combined with lip gloss than lipstick. After the glittery Y2K makeup disappears from the scene around 2004, the bold styling with bright red lips and cat eyes from the 1940s makes a comeback. Soon, however, the smoky eye disappears in favor of eyeliner, mascara and eye shadow. Toward the end of the decade, Lady Gaga heralded a new trend toward more artificiality with false eyelashes, which were further enhanced by eyelash extensions and tinting.

In addition, the demand for self-tanning products skyrocketed during this period, a trend that will continue until about 2009. Botox and waxing for both men and women also reflect the desire for the perfect body.

Jewellery and Accessories - Details for the Party Outfit

Popular accessories include mini shoulder bags (called baguette bags), aviator or other oversized sunglasses, and oversized earrings. Livestrong silicone wristbands are popular, as are trucker baseball caps, preferably Von Dutch. Crosses and rosaries, as well as shutter shades - sunglasses with striped plastic instead of lenses, which Kanye West made into an absolute trend - complete the party styling.

Necklaces and bracelets made from shells are perfect for the summer look. Wide decorative belts are reminiscent of the '70s, while eye-catching necklaces are the perfect complement to elegant evening wear. A slender chain belt also works well.

Trends from the '90s, such as the G-Shock, which was a must-have at the beginning of the decade, continue. Wristbands and headbands are no longer limited to the fitness context, but are worn by hip-hop stars such as Nelly and by the emo scene as a fashion accessory.

Tattoos and piercings - a trend that began in the 90s continues into the 2000s. Tribal motifs remain as popular as donkey antlers, but by the end of the decade, Chinese characters, Sanskrit, and, finally, an old-school Ed Hardy look have replaced the large motifs.

Fedoras - felt hats with wide brims that fold down slightly at the front - fit both men and women, judging by Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and company.

Tn the 2000s, practical messenger bags became popular in parallel with fixie bikes. Carried over the shoulder on one side, these bags replaced the classic backpack, only to be replaced by it.

Originally designed to protect against the cold, scarves have found their way into everyday styling and are often part of a skinny jeans, blazer and shirt outfit. They also serve as headwear to keep hairstyles in place.

Shoes - Mostly Flat and Comfortable

Flip-flops in every imaginable color and shape are undoubtedly one of the enduring fashion trends of the 2000s. Sneakers by Nike, Adidas or Reebok are still in fashion as part of the 80s revival. Ugg boots in suede with lambskin lining and PVC ballerinas are also popular. The high heels that were so in at the beginning of the decade are replaced by flat ballerinas, pumps with small heels, gladiator sandals, boat shoes or chucks, and opulent platform shoes. Angular toe tips often provide that certain something.

Men in the 2000s wear Budapest, sneakers, Converse All Stars or pointed Winklepickers. In any case, the choice of the right brand is very important to be really "in". It is not uncommon for the entire outfit to match the color of the shoes and not vice versa.

Fashion Icons of the 2000s - Popstars Instead of Models

While supermodels like Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer set the fashion trends in the 90s, in the 2000s it is music, film and television stars who are setting the style. The following list is just a small selection of the most fashionable trendsetters.

  • Gisele Bündchen
  • Paris Hilton
  • Britney Spears
  • Avril Lavigne
  • Chloë Sevigny
  • Nicole Richie
  • Lindsay Lohan
  • Amy Winehouse
  • Hillary Duff
  • Sarah Jessica Parker
  • Kirsten Dunst
  • Kim Kardashiann
  • Jennifer Lopez
  • Christina Aguilera
  • Pharrell Williams
  • Liya Kebede
  • Miranda Kerr

The Most Popular Designers of the 2000s

High fashion provides the role models that soon reach the mass market through fast fashion. At the same time, the phenomenon of collaborations between the world's top designers and renowned fashion brands such as Puma, Diesel and even H&M appears for the first time in the 2000s.

Christian Audigier – Ultimate Trendsetter of the 2000s

The French designer made his breakthrough as head designer of the Von Dutch brand, setting a fashion trend with trucker baseball caps that didn't even stop at Hollywood stars and celebrities. Even more popular in the 2000s, however, was his collaboration with tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy, which resulted in the Ed Hardy label, which seems to have become omnipresent this decade with its large, colorful prints.

Karl Lagerfeld – Entry into Fast Fashion

Karl Lagerfeld has not only been making a name for himself since the 2000s, as he has been head designer at Chanel since the 1980s. But in 2004, the sought-after eccentric became the first top designer to launch a collection at H&M, crossing the line between the expensive, exclusive designer fashion of haute couture and the cheap, mass-produced goods of fast fashion. No wonder the first collection sold out in no time.

Marc Jacobs – Revival of the Eighties Dresses

In 2009, the designer brings the party dresses of the 80s back to the runway. But as creative director of LVMH, he no longer just dresses celebrities, he also develops his own lines, making him a celebrity in his own right. As a result, he was able to recruit personalities such as Stephen Malkmus and M.I.A. for his campaigns.

Alexander McQueen – On Stage with Lady Gaga

The British designer broke through with his own fashion label in the early 2000s. In 2006, he began a sports collaboration with Puma, but it was his stage outfits for Lady Gaga that made the biggest splash. In 2010, the world-famous designer, one of the most important icons of his time alongside John Galliano and Vivienne Westwood, took his own life.

Diane Von Furstenberg – Comeback of the Wrap Dress

The designer's wrap dress made a comeback in 1997. Celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Jade Jagger wore it on red carpets before it returned to stores in 2003 due to its growing popularity.

Fashion Trends of the 2000s - A Continuation of the Nineties

As is often the case, music cultures influence fashion trends beyond their own scenes. In the 2000s, the hip-hop style is still present in the mainstream, and the distinctive ravers are still making a statement. In addition, indie and emo are revitalizing the fashion world.

Rave Culture - Tattoos, Piercings and Plastic

The fashion trends of the 1990s rave culture continue into the 2000s. Bright colors and spiky hairstyles, colorful dreadlocks or even bald heads are still popular. Piercings and tattoos, midriff-baring tops and latex pants that emphasize the toned body and bare skin are still characteristic.

Indie and Emo - A Continuation of Brit-Pop Plus Hipness

Indie pop from England and North America has been conquering the charts - and the fashion world - since the mid-2000s. The stars of the scene are inspired by the fashion culture of the 1960s, as well as by second-hand clothes or clothes from the Salvation Army. Band shirts with blazers, skinny jeans and narrow ties are just as much a part of the indie style as black-painted nails and cardigans. Closely related is the hipster fashion that developed in the USA at the end of the 2000s. Here, vintage clothing is more an expression of an ironic statement than a symbol of counterculture.

Hip Hop - Biker Jackets, Sneakers and Tracksuits

Hip-hop culture made its fashion mark in the 90s by entering the mainstream. In the 2000s, the culture experienced a retro trend with baggy jeans, basketball jackets, sneakers, sweatpants and tracksuits, baseball caps, down jackets and quilted jackets, and trucker baseball caps. White youth, in particular, imitate the gangsta lifestyle with expensive designer clothing, gold jewelry, and dark jeans, but they rarely achieve the street credibility of real gangsta rappers.

What started out as a continuation of the 90s quickly turns into a much more conservative look with 09/11. With the advent of new technologies - first and foremost the Internet with platforms like MySpace and YouTube - the importance of celebrities in spreading new fashion trends increases enormously. And with the constant availability of online stores, shopping habits are also changing - fashion is becoming faster, cheaper and more global. As a result, hardly any trend of the body-conscious decade lasts longer than two years, always with a nod to past fashion decades.

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The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of 2000s Fashion

The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of 2000s Fashion

Jarett Greenstein

January 7, 2021

Platform flip flops. Gaucho pants. Baby tee. If you don’t recognize the names of these fashion staples from the 2000s, you would definitely recognize pictures of them. Besides the strange memories that resurface from upwards of twenty years ago, what else do you think?  When you imagine someone with frosted tips, an Ed hardy tee and embroidered jeans, what do you feel?  If you are anything like the typical consumer, these fashion staples have faded into the past along with the TV shows they were worn on and the bands they were sung in.  After enough time on the rack, these products went from an “I gotta get me one of those,” to a resounding “No.” But why?

In fashion theory, the idea of the fashion life cycle has historically prevailed and derives from sociologist Everett Roger’s diffusion of innovations theory. According to George Sproles, in the Journal of Marketing , there are two time frames for fashion cycles.  The longer-term time frame is referred to as secular because it only occurs once in an age or century and ranges from 30 to 50 years.  In this time span, it is thought that fashion will go from one extreme to another and back again as the fashion of a certain time is improvised upon. While a longer-term approach is important in understanding fashion, the shorter-term approach is more important in understanding the life span of a specific style/improvisation and can last for as long as a decade.  

This shorter cycle is shaped by a whole host of things, but according to the Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion (ECF), in the twentieth century, it was shaped most definitively by the tensions between the older and younger generations that started with the birth of the baby boomers, as well as an increased focus on leisure rather than work.  

The tension between generations is what got people thrifting for outdated fashions or fashions that their parents weren’t wearing.  In an interview with Newsweek , fashion-history professor Beth Dincuff Charleston discusses how the mid-60’s made “vintage” a thing.  They did this because they were the first ones to not just take inspiration from previous styles, but instead actually wore the garments. This revolutionary action is what paved the way for the transition from thrifter to trendsetter.  

But why are clothes from the 90s becoming more and more popular while clothes from the 2000s are seen as out of style by most people who grew up in the 2000s?  Well, as is discussed in the ECF entry by Marilyn Revell Delong, fashionability is a matter of taste and this taste “requires an awareness of change in forms of dress within one’s lifetime.”  Hence, “the older consumer who has experienced that look before may not participate.”  This is why you’d be hard pressed to find a person who grew up in the 70s wearing 70s fashion while their child might be on the lookout for the things that the parent may have given away. 

On the flipside of that coin, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when the fashion of the 2000s inevitably gets recycled, especially since it is already starting to happen.  Amanda Krause for Insider seemingly used Urban Outfitters and Fashion Nova as a litmus test for what 2000s fashion staples were making the comeback among the youth of today. Some of those staples include Steeve Madden sandals, velour tracksuits and seashell necklaces, no thanks to the VSCO girl. So, go forth and donate your clothes to the corner thrift store, but do it knowing you might just be inspiring the next trendsetter.  

Jarett Greenstein is a junior double majoring in professional and public writing as well as English with a concentration in creative writing. He is currently the Assistant Managing Editor at the Red Cedar Review and you can find him on Twitter @JarettWrites.

32 '00s Trends We Love

It wasn't all bad!

00s trends we love paris hilton destiny's child

The 2000s were pretty maligned as a fashion decade. That's not to say that there weren't some tough sartorial moments—in the late '90s, stars were starting to use the red carpet as their personal runway, and the '00s really upped the ante for shock value. But leaving aside some of the barely-there minis with Uggs and other strange combos we favored, there are some fun style pieces we can lift out of the decade. In fact, the "dressing like it's Y2K/the 2000s" aesthetic came back into popularity in the early 2020s, with people picking the best, most iconic pieces from that decade and giving them a modern spin. I realize this might sound ridiculous—but some '00s fashion trends really can become a part of our classic capsule wardrobes.

Below, 32 '00s trends that we love.

00s trends we love britney spears

There were a few notable "red carpet hat trends" in the '00s, including the newsboy hat, beret, and trucker hat, but none was more popular—at least as far as Britney Spears was concerned—as the humble fedora. And, if we're being totally honest, she rocked it.

00s trends we love hilary duff

Leaving aside the fact that the low-rise pant isn't for everyone, the '00s took our '90s love of flare pants and took it up a notch—usually with a wider, longer length at the bottom. We've loved flares since the '70s, but this version is a particularly nice update on a classic.

Pants as an Under-Layer

00s trends we love heidi klum

This trend is, in a word, divisive: Plenty of the "'00s worst trends" lists include the mandatory "formal dress over a pair of jeans" look. But it doesn't mean this trend is impossible to achieve; As with Heidi Klum here, the trick is to pick two pieces that look intuitive together, like this shirt dress worn open.

Shorts and Wellies

00s trends we love kate moss

Was there anything more iconic than Kate Moss attending the Glastonbury Festival in short shorts and wellies? In the '00s, this was the fashion girl look. There's a particular context for this outfit (it's not something you'd wear to a nice dinner), but for mud or grass, this is perfect.

00s trends we love mariah carey

The crop top existed long before the '00s got ahold of it, but this was the crop top decade. We have some...interesting deployments of it, but we also have Mariah Carey looking adorable here in a color blocked outfit. Whether that particular item of clothing is "in" or "out," the '00s has plenty of inspo if you like it.

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Cropped Jackets

00s trends we love katie holmes

The '00s were often about layering in interesting ways, including a short jacket with a longer top underneath. A more modern iteration of this look would be to layer a crop top under a cropped jacket and then utilize some high-waisted jeans, then keep the accessories and pumps.

Chunky Belts

00s trends we love jennifer lopez

Frankly, I love this heart belt on Jennifer Lopez and would wear this look tomorrow. (Rhinestones: Another '00s trend we like!) A statement belt is a classic element for your everyday wardrobe, but when it's whimsical or silly, you just want to keep the rest of the look neutral.

Long Scarves

00s trends we love ashlee simpson

The scarf as accessory, instead of warm weather staple, was a '00s mainstay. We love the edgy skull pattern here, and the only update to make would be to wrap it around your neck a couple times and match it with something else that's orange in your look—your shoelaces, nail polish, or similar.

Chunky Jewelry

00s trends we love alexa chung

Obviously, chunky jewelry has been around forever, but the '00s saw us going with mixed materials—metals with glass, plastic, or crystal, as with Alexa Chung and her skull-adorned necklace here. The big clear drops might look dated, but it's okay to mix silver and gold in one piece.

Graphic Tees

00s trends we love paris hilton

Paris Hilton, rocking this Forrest Gump-esque shirt, is demonstrating how a graphic tee can be a fun upgrade from a classic shirt. Here, Hilton is probably making a snarky comment to paparazzi, but I kind of love rocking this kind of positivity in your everyday wardrobe.

Midi Skirts

00s trends we love jessica alba

The '00s trend everyone loves to discuss is the mini, but the midi skirt got some serious love too. We often saw the '00s skirts end around knee-length, which can be tricky to pull off, but when it was worn below the knee with boots that came up to match, it looks especially fab.

Oversized Sunglasses

00s trends we love kirsten dunst

Oversized shades have been with us almost as long as we've had fashion sunglasses, but the '00s took the look and made it wonky: Weird shapes, bedazzled frames, mismatched with the overall look (as with Kirsten Dunst) here: It was all happening. Pick a "surprising" pair and wear one today!

00s trends we love jennifer lopez

Even though you might associate the romper with the '10s, it began to take hold in the '00s. (After all, if J. Lo wears one, that's usually a sign it's about to become popular!) Thanks to the glittery accessories and sleek hair, the look doesn't have to skew too "youthful."

Bucket Hats

00s trends we love Kelly Hu

Never has there been an item of headgear more discussed than the bucket hat. If you love it, you've been waiting for the right moment to bring it out. If you hate it, you'll never wear it. So let your own preferences be your guide, and just break it out when it's not too cold.

00s trends we love sarah jessica parker

Granted, this is a costume from Sex and the City , which is arguably one of the more fashionable shows in modern history (so this is not your average streetwear look, in other words). But I still love it as a layering option—whether you're matching it to your pants or just throwing it on over a tee.

Handkerchief Skirts

00s trends we love gabrielle union

The handkerchief skirt can be a maxi, midi, and miniskirt all in one garment—but, to keep it from looking dated, make like Gabrielle Union here and keep the hem generally one length. Then, keep the rest of the look simple and neutral, letting the skirt be the standout.

Low-Rise Jeans

00s trends we love sheryl crow

You either loved or hated the low-rise jeans of the '00s (I happen to be in the latter category because I have thin hips). Thankfully, jeans have evolved in the intervening years, and the new low-rise pants won't just slide off your body—and they're not quite as low as they used to be.

00s trends we love rihanna

The pleated mini had a real redemption arc in the early 2020s, especially via influencers on TikTok and Instagram. This look on Rihanna could absolutely work today, but if you'd rather not be so ab-forward, just take a long chunky knit top and layer it over your skirt.

Studded/Patterned Denim

00s trends we love destiny's child

Destiny's Child made it cool to match your outfit with your bffs. Actually, there's not much you'd need to do to update these looks; If you like a longer length on your denim, choose a pair of jeans with a longer inseam and no slits. And you can always go for bedazzling in your tops!

Chunky Boots

00s trends we love gwyneth paltrow

Chunky boots never went out of fashion, per se, it's just about how you wear them. The '00s gave us surprise boot pairings, as with this more feminine, folded miniskirt on Gwyneth Paltrow . To modernize, just make something in the rest of you look bulkier and black, like a blazer.

Cargo Pants

00s trends we love britney spears

This look on Britney is just so cute, and she's actually balancing out top and bottom effectively. Using a faux fur jacket and top that's feminine, then leaning into a chunkier, heavier vibe in the pants, then taking it back to delicate in the shiny shoes is actually cohesive.

00s trends we love kate moss

A shorter jacket and a long top underneath: Peak '00s! There's ways to make this look dated, but there's also ways to make it look classic. Keep the length of the tunic not too long; It should just peek out underneath the jacket. Opt for a pair of pants in a similar color.

Rhinestones

00s trends we love nelly furtado

We really wanted to sparkle in the '00s, ya know? Nelly Furtado here has sparkly nails, eyeshadow, earrings, jewelry, AND outfit. You don't need to do that much (unless you want to!) so pick one or two and really lean in. An easy way is to grab a bedazzled tee and just rock it.

Wallet Chains

00s trends we love britney spears

Much like a chunky belt, the wallet chain is one of those surprising, counterintuitive pieces that, when deployed effectively, can bring a look together. Britney Spears wears hers messily, but the key is to have yours look sleek (and match with your belt, as she does).

Trucker Hats

00s trends we love lindsay lohan

The trucker hat of the '00s was made graphic and feminized so as not to look too jarring with the rest of an outfit (it could still look jarring, tbh, but that's another story). Since it's an unusual shape, match the color to your shoes to tie the look together. Or, go for a heavy baseball cap instead.

00s trends we love kelly clarkson

The tube top was the slightly more conservative older sister to the crop top—like, if you didn't want to show that much stomach, the tube top was your friend. It's a fabulous layering piece; Seriously, put it under a big, heavy blazer and see how great it looks.

Platform Shoes

00s trends we love kate moss

While never "out" of fashion, it felt like we got tired of platforms after wearing them every day in the '00s. But the platform espadrille, as Kate Moss is wearing here, is truly a timeless piece. And if you don't want to lean in on the chunkiness, just opt for a sleeker shape.

Boyfriend Jeans

00s trends we love Sienna Miller

Long, slouchy, tapered, cuffed: The boyfriend jean was everywhere in the '00s. Now, it's basically just considered a classic piece of denim, no different than the skinny or wide-leg, but the boyfriend jeans of today also come in high-rise and more tailored shapes.

Butterflies

00s trends we love scarlett johansson

It didn't really matter where: On tops, pants, shoes, and accessories, butterflies were everywhere. (And we got a little tired of them by the end of the decade.) Now, as with everything else on this list, it's all about moderation. A little butterfly clip is the cutest touch to your look.

Shoulder Bags

00s trends we love paris hilton

Whether sleek and structured or soft and colorful, a shoulder bag was on everyone's shoulder in the '00s. If you like shoulder bags already, you'll know that you can wear them anytime. But if you'd like to dip a toe into the style, go with a big similar to Hilton's: simple, neutral color, sleek.

Chunky Necklaces

00s trends we love kate beckinsale

Why wear one of your necklaces from your jewelry box when you can wear allllll of them? Kate Beckinsale is giving us the blueprint for how to make it work: Have all the pieces kind of go together, and use varying lengths so they look complementary and feel delightfully jumbled.

Column Dresses

00s trends we love jennifer aniston

To a degree, the Calvin Klein-esque column dress of the '90s was replaced by more body-con styles in the '00s and '10s. But the red carpet (and sometimes runway) still gave us some gorgeous iterations of the classic style. You could wear this anytime—just hem it if you don't like the pooling at the bottom.

Katherine’s a contributing syndications editor at Marie Claire who covers fashion, culture, and lifestyle. In her role, she writes stories that are syndicated by MSN and other outlets. She’s been a full-time freelancer for over a decade and has had roles with  Cosmopolitan  (where she covered lifestyle, culture, and fashion SEO content) and  Bustle  (where she was their movies and culture writer). She has bylines in  New York Times ,  Parents ,  InStyle , Refinery29, and elsewhere. Her work has also been syndicated by  ELLE ,  Harper’s Bazaar ,  Seventeen ,  Good Housekeeping , and  Women’s Health , among others. In addition to her stories reaching millions of readers, content she's written and edited has qualified for a Bell Ringer Award and received a Communicator Award. 

Katherine has a BA in English and art history from the University of Notre Dame and an MA in art business from the Sotheby's Institute of Art (with a focus on marketing/communications). She covers a wide breadth of topics: she's written about  how to find the very best petite jeans ,  how sustainable travel has found its footing on Instagram , and  what it's like to be a professional advice-giver in the modern world . Her personal essays have run the gamut from  learning to dress as a queer woman  to  navigating food allergies as a mom . She also has deep knowledge of SEO/EATT, affiliate revenue, commerce, and social media; she regularly edits the work of other writers. She speaks at writing-related events and podcasts about freelancing and journalism, mentors students and other new writers, and consults on coursework. Currently, Katherine lives in Boston with her husband and two kids, and you can follow her on  Instagram . If you're wondering about her last name, it’s “I go to dinner,” not “Her huge ego,” but she responds to both.

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A 2000s Fashion History Lesson: Logos, Low-Rise, and It Bags

By Lilah Ramzi

2000s fashion essay

Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City Photo: Alamy

If one moment sums up early-2000s fashion, it was February 2000: Jennifer Lopez wore a chiffon  Versace dress  to the 42nd Grammy Awards, and the world was never the same. With a neckline that plunged all the way below her belly button, the world was in a tizzy— but how did it stay on? And what did it look like from the side?  Everyone wanted to see  the dress ! So much so that it inspired the idea of Google Image Search. And so began a decade of digital fashion consumption.

Dubbed the aughts and the naughts (the former used in the US, the latter in the UK), the decade was ruled by celebrity: a proliferation of  reality TV , blogs filled with paparazzi shots, and 2006’s Twitter, which gave fans a front-row seat into the lives and musings of their favorite celebrities—often without a publicist’s intervention.

Regarding mainstream fashion, it was a decade of taste so bad it was almost good— almost . Think Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears in  matching denim getups , Juicy Couture sweatsuits galore, Von Dutch trucker hats, and Ed Hardy tattoo tees.

On the runways, logomania ruled, and designers sexed it up with Tom Ford, Donatella Versace, Roberto Cavalli, and Hervé Léger infusing heady doses of sultry into their collections. A whirlwind look back at the in-your-face trends of early-2000s fashion, below.

2000s fashion essay

Women’s Trends of the 2000s

Introducing the it bag: the purse becomes icon.

If eyes are the window to the soul, by the time the 2000s rolled around so too were handbags. Thanks in part to a certain  Ms. Carrie Bradshaw , bags became the focal point of an outfit. After the launch of  Fendi’s Baguette  in 1997 (as fashion lore goes, the bag, designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi, was initially unpopular among the Fendi design team, who feared it had too much personality during a minimalist-fashion era), it skyrocketed to handbag stardom and is often considered fashion’s first  It bag . Bradshaw, of course, famously carried multiple iterations of the Baguette throughout  Sex and the City ’s fabulous six-season run.

In the 2000s each brand had a white-hot bag (or two) that fashion folk clamored to carry. As mentioned, Fendi had its carb-inspired Baguette; Balenciaga had its slouchy  Motorcycle City Bag , introduced in 2001 by then creative director  Nicolas Ghesquière ; Chloé had its boho  Paddington bag , created by then creative director  Phoebe Philo  in 2005; Galliano debuted  the Saddle bag  at Dior’s spring-summer 2000 show. And over at Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs was cranking out  It bag after It bag  with clever collaborations. Artists were invited to make interventions with Vuitton’s storied monogram: In 2001, it was Stephen Sprouse’s graffiti collection; in 2003, it was Takashi Murakami’s smiley flower-and-cherry collections. These bags were  not  to go unnoticed: statement making, eye-catching, and the center of attention!

In 2002, Sarah Mower charted the rise of the It bag in  Vogue ’s  October issue : “In about 1993, fashionettes everywhere wanted the identical item at the same time (a Kate Spade shopper, a sporty Prada knapsack). Then came the great Baguette hunt for exotic hide and fabric varieties (a standard shape, but now in individualistic surface patterns). Before long, thanks to Gucci, Prada, Fendi, Dior, we were buying entire bag wardrobes, toting them as up-to- the-split-second status trophies.”

2000s fashion essay

Logomania: Here Come the Logos!

“Fashion is pushing its love affair with logos to the limit. If you’ve got it, flaunt it!” wrote  Vogue  in its  March 2000 issue .

All the aforementioned It bags were typically brandished with a logo—but that didn’t stop there! Dior’s bikinis featured their Oblique monogram; Burberry checked just about every object that could be checked; Gucci’s double Gs festooned belt buckles; and Marc Jacobs even painted his naked body with the neon pink Louis Vuitton logos inspired by  LV’s collab with Stephen Sprouse  in 2008 for an ad campaign. If early-2000s fashion had a square inch to spare, it was filled with an alphabet city of letters.

Tongue-in-cheek nods to this super-trend were made; in the brilliant  March 2000  editorial “Branded” for  Vogue,  Helmut Newton took model  Angela Lindvall  and decorated her string-bikini-clad body with a smattering of logos belonging to all the mega fashion houses—a mishmash of monograms and icons where Chanel’s double Cs intermingled with Fendi’s double Fs to create a nonsense of logos. And Dapper Dan, all the way back in the late 1980s, was cutting up Gucci garment bags and transforming them into jackets in a brilliant reclamation of luxury.

All this emphasis on the bag you carried spawned a growing market of counterfeit bags—and with it a new industry of authenticators.  In May 2001   Vogue  reported on the issue: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, not the chicest. When you’ve dished out big bucks for the latest leather logo bag but suspect it’s a fake, who ya gonna call? David Colman meets fashion’s new crime fighters: the Authenticators.”

2000s fashion essay

The Rise of Low-Rise: How Low Could They Go?

We can thank (or point the finger at)  Alexander McQueen  for  the low-rise trend . Though it reached its zenith in the aughts, the designer debuted tailbone-revealing bumster trousers in his 1993 Taxi Driver collection—his first collection after graduating from Central Saint Martins—and notably again in his 1995 spring-summer collection.

Five or so years later, the trend had gone full-on mainstream. (In 2001 even Levi’s introduced a Superlow jean silhouette.) It was the default rise of all jeans and pants. Britney Spears was a notable proponent of the belly-baring trend.

The low-rise trend also coincided with the rise of jeans for any occasion. Though it was  the 1970s  that gave us designer denim, brands continued to offer denim: bedazzled with diamatés, distressed to smithereens, painted with floral motifs.

“Designer jeans: Can we count the ways we adore them now?” wrote Sarah Mower in  Vogue ’s  September 2001 issue . “They’re rocking. Posing and pirouetting. Diving off into a zillion cuts, rinses, and textures, while simultaneously gate-crashing into unheard-of echelons of society. Jeans can be street, ladylike, dressed up, dressed down. They’re cool for everyday. They do black-tie. They’re fantasy and reality.”

2000s fashion essay

The Boho Look: Starlets Layered Up

Twin forces helped to craft a new trend by the mid decade. Stateside, it was  Mary-Kate  and  Ashley Olsen . Retired from their teenybopper flicks (their last,  New York Minute , came out in 2004), the pair was busy crafting a new, unique look that spawned dozens of copycats. Over in the UK,  Sienna Miller  was making waves for  her take on boho : more festival chic, fewer layers.

The sum of the look was greater than its parts—fashionably speaking. It was a movement more to do with styling than individual pieces: peasant dresses over puddle jeans layered with a bolero; a functionless belt (preferably perforated); and a skinny scarf spun with metallic threads for flair.

In addition to the Olsens and Miller, there were  Kate Moss , Mischa Barton,  Nicole Richie , and other famous adopters. It’s said the force of this look, operating behind the curtain like Oz, was not a fashion designer (though Phoebe Philo did send out superfluous spaghetti-thin scarves for Chloé’s spring-summer 2005 collection) but the LA-based stylist  Rachel Zoe .

2000s fashion essay

The Bodycon Dress: The Galaxy and the Bandage

Though the decade was dominated by denim and It bags, there was room for a few trends born on the runway—especially for women needing something more sophisticated than denim and boho. Enter the bodycon dress.

At his  spring 2006  collection, Roland Mouret debuted his Galaxy dress, and without the help of TikTok or Instagram—this was pre–social media, after all—the look went viral.

“You hadn’t been able to open a newspaper or magazine without seeing another young Hollywood A-lister wearing that hot-damn curvy dress: Scarlett Johansson, Cameron Diaz, Rachel Weisz, Keira Knightley, Nicole Kidman—so many, it was verging on a joke,” wrote Mower in  Vogue ’s October 2007  issue. “You put it on, and you looked like an icon,” added the designer.

With as many colors as a book of Pantone swatches, the dress came in a double wool crepe that gripped the body like a second skin. The silhouette was below or at the knee and waist cinching, with a square neckline and sculptural cap sleeves. Like the jeans in the  Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants , it was universally flattering.

Mouret wasn’t the only designer delivering bodycon dresses. At this time,  Hervé Léger  (which, in April 2007, had been relaunched by Max Azria) was binding women up like metropolitan-chic mummies in his bandage dresses. No red carpet was complete without at least one bandage dress.

2000s fashion essay

Paparazzi Chic: Sidewalk Becomes Catwalk

In the aughts, magazines (and tabloids) were still the predominant form of fashion news, along with budding blogs and news websites. All of these were filled with snaps of celebs circulating in the starry constellations of Hollywood.  Pari s Hilton  and her  Simple Life  costar Nicole Richie were frequent tabloid fodder; so too were Britney Spears, Cameron Diaz, Lindsey Lohan, and newcomer on the block Kim Kardashian.

These off-duty looks produced head-scratching trends adopted by the masses: Juicy Couture velour tracksuits with script on the derrieres, ragged-edge miniskirts paired with  Ugg boots , and baby tees emblazoned with words like  angel . Page-boy caps, It bags, and a Starbucks Frappuccino finished off the look.

2000s fashion essay

Top Designers of the 2000s

Chloé, Hervé Léger, Roland Mouret, Balenciaga, Burberry, Yves Saint Laurent, Juicy Couture, Marc Jacobs, Versace, Prada, Miu Miu, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen, Calvin Klein, Fendi, Tom Ford, Gucci, Martin Margiela, Dries Van Noten, Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, John Galliano, Chanel, Oscar de la Renta, Kenzo, Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Michael Kors, Moschino, Alaïa, Lanvin, Roberto Cavalli, Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolf, Pucci, Gareth Pugh, Christopher Kane, Rodarte, Phillip Lim, Jason Wu, Jimmy Choo, Christian Louboutin, Nina Ricci, Raf Simmons, Isabel Toledo

2000s fashion essay

Men’s Trends of the 2000s

The top of the decade was dominated by the stage looks of boy bands: frosted trips and leather jackets with a metallic sheen. For teenagers, Abercrombie & Fitch’s elitist Americana prep ruled; the more polos the better. Hip-hop and the styles worn in music videos on MTV were chock-full of fashion like Air Jordans, iced-out chains, and baggy jerseys.

By the mid decade, a new look was taking hold thanks to the runways of Dior Homme, which appointed Tunisian-Italian designer  Hedi Slimane  as creative director. For Dior, Slimane churned out ultra-skinny pants, ties, and jackets inspired by rockers with waifish frames like Pete Doherty. If Kate Moss’s arrival in the 1990s signaled the heroine-chic era for women, Slimane passed the baton onto menswear in the 2000s. It was a look that carried over into the early 2010s and has since been dubbed  indie sleaze . A crop of garage rock and post-punk bands (The Strokes, The Killers, The Libertines) epitomized the look.

For men who didn’t dabble in the mall-based or music-video-inspired trends of the aughts, the tailoring of Giorgio Armani remained the height of fashion.

2000s fashion essay

In the Culture

The decade started off with the  9/11  terrorist attack, which left the world reeling. It ended on an optimistic note with the arrival of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States. And when his wife  Michelle Obama  stepped out at the inauguration gala in a  white Jason Wu dress , she launched the young designer into the spotlight. In 2001 Apple changed the game with the introduction of the iPod, and then six years later, on June 29, 2007, Apple released its first-generation iPhone, making a leap in technology with the first smartphone.

The decade also saw the rise of reality TV:  Survivor  aired in 2000,  America’s Next Top Model  in 2003, and  Keeping Up With the Kardashians  arrived in 2007.

The first  Harry Potter  film arrived in 2001, Twitter launched in 2006, and that same year the world got its first Taylor Swift album. In 2007 the first episode of  Gossip Girl  aired, and  Beyoncé  and Jay-Z tied the knot in 2008.

2000s fashion essay

Vogue World: Paris will pair select sports—cycling, gymnastics, tennis, tae kwon do, fencing, and breakdancing, among others—with French fashion from every decade since 1924. The show will highlight French designers, current and past, as well as houses that historically present their collections in Paris.

For front-row tickets, email  [email protected]

This article was originally published on Vogue.com . 

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10 Early 2000s Fashion Trends We Must Revive

10 Early 2000s Fashion Trends We Must Revive

Over the years, we’ve seen many trends come and go. Sometimes, we see whole eras come back (i.e. ‘80s pop or ‘90s grunge). However, I think now is the time where we need to reflect on what may have been, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest decades of style to ever happen: the early 2000s. Allow me to take you through my top 10 trends of the 2000s and perhaps I can convince you to bring them back with me.

10. Frosted Lip Gloss: Forget the boring matte colors you’re buying from Kylie Jenner; now is the time to embrace all of the shine and shimmer. Extra points if you wear the gloss and then outline with lip liner of a darker shade!

2000s fashion essay

9.  Butterfly Clips: If you’re like me, you might not remember how you actually acquired butterfly clips, but they always sat in a drawer with my multicolored barrettes and extra wide, plastic headbands. Butterfly clips may only hold a grand total of three strands of hair, but those baby hairs will look better than they ever have.

8.  Cargo Pants: Ah, the baggy, pocketed, and somehow trendy cargo pants. A wide variety of colors are accepted, but I would personally suggest an olive green. Pair those with a black top and you might as well call yourself Kim Possible, ready to take on the world with pocket room to spare!

7.  Halter Tops: To the navy blue halter top with a paisley pattern; I miss you. The sort of loose, diamond shape in the front with an airy, open back make it the perfect summer shirt.

6.  Chunky Hair Highlights: Forget trying to reach the perfect ombre blend, throw in a few bleached highlights with your butterfly clips and you’ll feel like Kelly Clarkson when she won American Idol. Welcome to hairstyle stardom.

5.  Dresses Over Jeans: Okay, hear me out; want to wear a dress, but didn’t shave your legs? Throw on a pair of flare or skinny jeans and you’re good to go. If you’re feeling bold, you’ll dig in your closet for those strappy heels to complete the look. See you on the runway!

2000s fashion essay

4.  Crimped Hair: No hair styling tool is as underrated as the hair crimper. Unlike the time-consuming curler or straightener, you don’t even need to commit to styling your whole head! The beauty of the crimp is taking smaller sections to let yourself spice things up for the day in minutes.

3.  Gaucho Pants: Oh the gaucho pants … the soft, flowy fabric gives all the comfort of your favorite pair of yoga pants or leggings, but somehow even lighter and airier. As always, extra points if you pair it with a Lisa Frank or Bobby Jack T-shirt.

2.  Wedge Flip Flops: There is nothing in this world that will make you feel more fierce than wedge flip flops (preferably with rhinestone-covered straps). Running errands or to class, that extra height in the wedge is made of confidence. Get a pair now from your nearest Ross and strut your stuff down Library Walk.

1.  Velour Tracksuits: Hello, Juicy Couture! Alas, some of us couldn’t afford this pricey athleisure wear and settled for the off-brand set from Kohl’s, but that doesn’t make you any less fabulous. From hot pink to sky blue to olive green, these outfits know how to make a statement in comfort. Pair these with your new wedge flip flops and people will be snapping pictures on their Motorola flip phones, wondering if it’s really you or Paris Hilton!

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2000s fashion essay

2000's Fashion

2000s fashion essay

Fashion in the 2000's

The fashion styles of the 2000's are heavily influenced by the entertainment world around them. From the world of sports, music and television the 2000's was a time of great commercial success - especially in the early 2000s. For men the look mimics much of the style trends of bands like NSync and worked to conform to social trends of the time, by the mid-2000's the Yuppie look of the 1980's was back - with a new twist. Rugby shirts and popped collars were heavily in style with an emphasis on name brand apparel to show your wealth. However, by the end of the 2000's the United States was in the midst of a severe economic downturn where the look of men began to become more subdued and refined.

Women's fashion during the 2000's was about emulating the pop stars of the day. Women were no longer looking to the fashion industry for insight, they were looking to the musicians and television stars they watched and listened to every day. Crop tops, short skirts and body jewelry was increasingly popular; however, this look was countered with baggy camo printed pants and jackets that ushers in a more relaxed bohemian look of the 1960's and 1970's. This look also brought with it a new shoe trend - the Ugg boots which became the go to shoe for celebrities and young women alike. Additionally , hair highlights also became increasingly popular.

By the time the 2000's came to an end fashion was in a confused state, it was a blend of the television and entertainment boom and the desire to be like the celebrities we watched everyday.

These trends eventually lead to an explosion of individuality we experience throughout the 2010s.

Task 1: Watch the Introductory Video to this Unit (5 minutes)

Task 2: review the provided images and attached links for fashion during the 2000's (20 minutes), task 3: go to google classroom and respond to the following prompts (25 minutes).

Respond to prompts using complete sentences and appropriate punctuation and grammar

What are TWO (2) similarities and TWO (2) difference you see in the fashion trends of the 2000's compared to the fashion trends from the 1990's

Look at this area of pop culture as a whole

What are the general trends you see from decade to decade

What new trends emerged in this decade that are either completely unique or built off a previous idea/idea/way if thinking

You can list or similarities and differences or write them out using complete sentences.

Why do you think th e similarities you selected carried over from the previous decade

Is it cultural, technological, innovative, something else

Do you think it will last much longer than this decade

What is ONE (1) fashion trend that emerged in the 2000's that you think will continue on to the next decade

You can select anything from this area of pop culture that emerged during the decade

Men's Fashion

Technology and Y2K had a huge impact on fashion in the early 2000s. The color palette was filled with shiny black tones and reflective metallics. While some Y2K trends were worn daily, many of these looks were reserved for going out. For men, Y2K looks usually involved leather jackets, a statement dress shirt, and chunky shoes. If you need inspiration, *NSYNC were the trendsetters of the day . Casual clothing and leisurewear were the other big trends of the early 2000s. Denim became a staple for men and women, going beyond jeans to shirts, jackets, and hats. ( https://www.centralcasting.com/quick-guide-2000s-fashion/ )

Check out more information about Men's Fashion in the 2000's here

Women's Fashion

In many ways, the 2000s were a decade where the celebrity obsession peaked. Instead of models being fashion trendsetters, celebrities as Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie were style icons. The early years of the 2000s saw clothes as: crop tops, vests, blazers, halterneck tops, v-shaped jumpers, low waisted jeans and skirts. Layered tank tops in different colors were popular and should be matched with cargo pants. The flowy life also worked for the bohemian style that was trending and Ugg boots were all the rage. The 2000s w ere the decade of highlights and colored hair. The highlights weren’t to look natural but often contrasting one’s hair color. As in blonde hair and brown highlights or the other way around. ( https://www.thefashionfolks.com/blog/21th-century-fashion-history-2000-2010/ )

Check out more information about Women's Fashion in the 2000's here

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Notes on the Culture

Gaudy and Gleeful, Early 2000s Fashion Is Making a Comeback

In an otherwise restrained era, the return of hot pink, exposed midriffs and more allows for both escape and self-expression.

2000s fashion essay

By Nick Haramis

“BIMBO SUMMIT.” SO read the headline on the front page of The New York Post on Nov. 29, 2006, over a photograph, taken outside the Beverly Hills Hotel in the small hours of the morning, of the heiress Paris Hilton, the actress Lindsay Lohan and the pop star Britney Spears. Their “unholy alliance,” as the corresponding newspaper item called it, was being presented for scorn: Spears had recently given birth to her second child; Lohan, only the night before, had accused Hilton of throwing a drink at her; and yet here were all three women, wedged uncomfortably into a two-seater sports car well after midnight. The article’s final line could easily have been uttered by Lohan in the 2004 film “Mean Girls”: “And regardless of how long these friendships last: Skanks for the memories!”

Antipathy for the decade’s celebrities — particularly the young women, including Hilton, Lohan and Spears, who had only recently been anointed as its idols — was at its peak, with tabloids and gossip blogs making vicious sport of their public drubbings. This “meeting of the minds,” as The Post also described it, marked both the pinnacle and the beginning of the end of this period: the so-called McBling era, an exuberantly trashy coda to the Y2K years that lasted from roughly 2000 to 2008 and was characterized by trucker hats, fake tans and pubis-baring velour tracksuits. If fashion leading up to the new millennium aspired to an iridescent, digitized new day, McBling (its name a nod to the flashy logomania that was then prevalent) came stumbling downstairs the morning after, hung over and hiding behind a pair of pink Baby Phat aviators. The former style — punctuated by cargo pants, strappy tops and white eye shadow — was an optimistic, if superficial, exploration of how the future might look; the latter led, in every direction, toward unabashed bad taste. “Fashion at the time had a sense of humor about itself,” says the British designer Christian Cowan, who was born in 1994 and whose runway shows Hilton has walked in twice. “It was about being perfect, fake and bright. Everyone knew it was kind of shallow.”

But when the stock market crashed in 2008, it took ostentation down with it. Inconspicuous consumption became the goal. The hipster was ascendant, in worn flannel and skinny jeans, and in the mid-2010s, normcore followed with its aim of, as its name suggests, looking as average as possible in everyday sweats and sneakers. Not long after, millennials claimed their own color: a wallflower shade of day-old salmon that was a clear trauma response to the hot pink ensembles worn at the turn of the aughts by everyone from Aaliyah to Reese Witherspoon in “Legally Blonde” (2001).

ENTER GENERATION Z, today’s teens and 20-somethings who have never known life without social media or the internet. To them, as they navigate world-threatening issues such as climate change and the coronavirus, the idea of the millennium bug seems quaint. To them, a teen idol who forgoes underwear, as Spears had done on several occasions, might be yet another TikTok star. To them, pink should pop. And so it does on a new squad of young style icons — including the 22-year-old rapper Lil Nas X, recently seen onstage in a metallic fuchsia crop top with a matching harness and pleated skirt — who have embraced the brazen plasticity of the noughties. “It’s pretty simple,” says Cowan, whose spring 2022 collection featured baby blue sequined bandanna tops and plumed headpieces in, yes, neon pink. “We want to feel hot, even full of ourselves. It’s the kind of energy we need, especially after two years of boredom.”

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20 fashion trends from the 2000s that we wish would come back

  • Discussions of 2000s fashion trends often leave people who lived through the decade divided.
  • Some of the decade's notably cringe-worthy styles were low-rise jeans , platform flip flops, Crocs , dresses worn over jeans, and chunky highlighted hair.
  • Not all trends from the 2000s were bad, though. From embroidered denim to velour sweatsuits and iconic hair accessories, the '00s brought rise to plenty of fashion gems that deserve to be revived.
  • Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories.

Insider Today

Many people who grew up in or lived through the 2000s remember the iconic fashion trends it inspired, including (but not limited to) cargo pants, spiked hair, platform flip flops, and denim of all sorts . And while memories of 2000s clothing , accessories, and hairstyles aren't always pleasant to think about, the decade also brought about styles with merit.

From scarf headbands to halter tops and many looks in-between, some things we wore in the 2000s could — and should — be brought back today.

Here are 20 of the best 2000s fashion trends we would actually wear again.

Velour tracksuits

2000s fashion essay

Comfortable and color-coordinated, the iconic velour sweatsuit, or tracksuit, was made famous by Juicy Couture. The two-piece tracksuits of the 2000s could definitely find a happy place in the current style landscape marked by luxury loungewear , or " athleisure ." 

Scarf headbands

2000s fashion essay

The 2000s saw a variety of ways to wear scarves (they were popular accessories), so it's no surprise that the scarf headband was prevalent. This look is more comfortable than wearing a plastic or metal headband, and it's a whimsical way to keep hair flyaway-free.

Actually, headbands in general.

2000s fashion essay

From scarves to sophisticated, beaded bands, hair accessories from the 2000s were the best. 

The side bun

2000s fashion essay

Complete with wispy flyaways, the side bun was truly a staple of the new millennium. This elegant hairstyle was Taylor Swift's signature hairdo  for many years on the red carpet, and we think it's one of the best trends from the '00s.

Embroidered denim

2000s fashion essay

Denim pieces clad with appliqués, studs, and other embellishments were wardrobe staples during the '00s. Today, embroidery on jean skirts, jackets and pants serves as a nod to the past and a memorable, one-of-a-kind detail.

Denim vests

2000s fashion essay

Worn purely for the appearance (not the warmth) of the added layer, the denim vest was a big 2000s vibe. With the right summer dress or simple shirt underneath, the vest was an easy way to serve up a chic look.

2000s fashion essay

Overalls were the original form of the now-popular jumpsuit. Whether your favorite pair were corduroy or denim, overalls were a wardrobe essential in the '90s and 2000s, and they'd fit right in with the current craze for one-piece garments.

2000s fashion essay

The poncho is like an elevated blanket, but less bulky and more shirt-like (except for the fact that it doesn't have sleeves). Ponchos were, without a doubt, a 2000s mood, but they're a trend we wouldn't be too mad about if revived.

Halter-style tops and dresses

2000s fashion essay

The halter silhouette is one of many that has transcended decades — think Marilyn Monroe's circa-1950s white halter dress — and especially during the 2000s, the look was a popular choice on the red carpet and runway alike. The effortless halter style is one we just won't get tired of seeing and wearing.

Shell jewelry

2000s fashion essay

Necklaces and bracelets adorned with shells were all the rage during the 2000s. These accessories may be on the literal side of the beachy spectrum, but as a summer look, we're here for it.

Kitten heels

2000s fashion essay

Thank you, '00s, for bringing us tiny purses and tiny heels.

Locket necklaces

2000s fashion essay

In the 2000s, having a locket necklace was the equivalent of having a "secret" place to stash a photo of our best friend or childhood pet. The locket just might be the jewelry item we didn't know we needed in our current collection.

The casual blazer

2000s fashion essay

How could we forget this iconic look? Stars of the 2000s proved the blazer isn't just for the boardroom, but can also dress up even the most casual t-shirt or blouse.

The t-shirt and blazer combination is great on everyone, really.

2000s fashion essay

The t-shirt and blazer combination was one of the best trends from the decade.

Puffy coats

2000s fashion essay

Puffer jackets were the outerwear style of choice in the early 2000s. With the popularity of athleisure — sporty sneakers, nylon jackets and sweatsuits — the practical and stylish puffer coat just might be making its way back.

2000s fashion essay

The 2000s also saw a much less, well... puffy form of outerwear. Peacoats were a staple piece for professionals and celebrities alike in the 2000s. The trench coat silhouette remains a versatile, practical wardrobe piece we wouldn't be ashamed to move to the front of our closet.

Coral everything

2000s fashion essay

This cheery color was everywhere in the '00s, from nails to lipsticks and red carpet ensembles.  Though it has arguably been replaced with millennial pink , we wouldn't mind seeing a resurgence of the bold, ever-flattering hue.

2000s fashion essay

From jeans to handbags and even hair, the 2000s seemed to be marked by fringed styles. The playful texture is one trend from the decade of neon and nylon that deserves to make a return.

Tie-dye everything

2000s fashion essay

Tie-dye as a pattern can be reminiscent of summer camp crafting sessions, but when worn in moderation, it's nostalgic and whimsical. 

Top-knot buns

2000s fashion essay

The top-knot, ballet-inspired bun was a reliable and popular way to keep hair pulled back — and it was also one of J-Lo's iconic looks that is still just as sophisticated now as it was in the past.

  • 12 teen movies from the early 2000s that you might've forgotten about
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Category: 2000-2009

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The Authentication of Chinese Culture in African Fashion

The Authentication of Chinese Culture in African Fashion

2000-2009 , 2010-2019 , 21st century , Africa , Asia , thematic essays

Since the mid-20th century, relations between Africa and China have grown stronger leading to a significant change in the mutual adaptation of fashion between both nations. A 21st century, Sino-African style has been formed by the intercultural meshing of traditional garments, textiles, and motifs.

2003 – Alexander McQueen, Oyster Dress

2003 – Alexander McQueen, Oyster Dress

2000-2009 , 21st century , garment analysis

Alexander McQueen’s evocative Oyster dress from his Irere collection (2003) is one of his best-known pieces and signifies his avant-garde and provocative approach to fashion.

2000-2009

2000-2009 , 21st century , decade overview

As the new decade and millennium dawned, fashion largely continued along the same trajectory that had started in the late 1990s. However, in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, fashion returned to conservatism. With the rise of new technology, fashion spread quickly and celebrities played a key role in consumer choices as images were shared through the internet instantly. While popular styles changed over the years, one item remained ubiquitous throughout the decade: denim jeans.

2004 – Tom Ford for Gucci, Acid Green Evening Gown

2004 – Tom Ford for Gucci, Acid Green Evening Gown

2000-2009 , 21st century , garment analysis , LGBTQ+

This 2004 acid green sequin gown embodies the sex appeal and modern lines that Tom Ford’s designs have been known for throughout his career.

1943-Present –  Stephen Burrows

1943-Present – Stephen Burrows

1970-1979 , 2000-2009 , BIPOC , designer profile

Stephen Burrows is celebrated for his graphic color blocking and innovative use of matte jersey fabric at the height of the disco era. He became one of the first Black fashion designers to achieve international acclaim.

2000 – John Galliano, Evening dress

2000 – John Galliano, Evening dress

John Galliano impresses the fashion world at the turn of the century with this champagne-pink, punk rock inspired evening gown. The asymmetrical bias-cut silk, daring slit, and body-hugging boning make the garment sexy, intriguing, and memorable.

Gucci Strikes Red: China’s Love Affair with Gucci

Gucci Strikes Red: China’s Love Affair with Gucci

2000-2009 , 2010-2019 , 21st century , Asia , thematic essays

Gucci has taken a thoughtful, creative approach to engaging Chinese consumers. While other brands have fallen into caricature and suffered for it, Gucci has become a beloved and dominant luxury brand in China.

2008 – Chadwick, The Other Boleyn Girl

2008 – Chadwick, The Other Boleyn Girl

16th century , 2000-2009 , film analysis

Two sisters, Mary and Anne Boleyn, contend for the affection of King Henry VIII.

2007 – Kapur, Elizabeth: The Golden Age

2007 – Kapur, Elizabeth: The Golden Age

A mature Queen Elizabeth endures multiple crises late in her reign including court intrigues, an assassination plot, the Spanish Armada, and romantic disappointments.

2003 – Roberto Cavalli, Spring/Summer RTW embroidered denim ensemble

2003 – Roberto Cavalli, Spring/Summer RTW embroidered denim ensemble

This Spring/Summer 2003 ensemble references 18th-century menswear, but inflects it with Cavalli’s signature sexiness and characteristic use of both denim and leopard print (for lining the cuffs). Cavalli replaces the expected breeches with a very on trend and daringly short mini-skirt and substitutes a silk bustier for the man’s waistcoat.

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2000s fashion essay

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How the Great Recession influenced a decade of design

Examining the inextricable, complicated relationship between the economy and how things look.

by Eliza Brooke

2000s fashion essay

Enough time has passed that it’s possible to look back on the fashions of the aughts with some fondness. It was an era of ruffled miniskirts and low-rise jeans , of rhinestones on everything. “It was colorful, it was sexy, it was obvious,” recalls Ron Frasch, who was president and chief merchandising officer of Saks Fifth Avenue in 2007.

“People were dripping in gold. There was bling on clothing, jewelry, accessories,” says Christina Binkley, who covered fashion for the Wall Street Journal. “Fashion had been really loud and it was a huge party, and then that shifted literally overnight.”

What happened was the Great Recession, which started in late 2007 and officially ended in June 2009 , though many Americans are still feeling its effects today. Millions of people lost their jobs , and with so many consumers cutting back on spending, retailers got pummeled . In November 2008, Saks sent shockwaves through the fashion industry when it slashed prices by 70 percent in an effort to clear out inventory; competitors like Barneys and Neiman Marcus quickly followed suit, torpedoing their profit margins. Store buyers became more conservative, stocking less inventory and focusing on items that had performed well in the past.

The wealthiest shoppers still bought luxury goods during the Recession , but Frasch recalls pushback against items with noticeable logos, while more subtle designs gained respect. (Some research debates that this was uniformly true throughout the fashion industry.) There were rumors that the French luxury brand Hermès, maker of the coveted Birkin bag, was letting self-conscious customers carry their purchases out in demure brown shopping bags, rather than the usual bright orange ones.

“It doesn’t even matter whether it was true or not,” Binkley says. “The mere fact of those rumors reflected people’s response: that it was suddenly so uncool to look rich.”

It’s impossible to separate the aesthetics of consumer goods from the economic circumstances under which they were created. The ways we adorn ourselves and our homes — and the ways brands dress themselves up to get our attention — speak to our personal and national relationships with money. More than a decade out from the start of the Great Recession, standing on what some believe is the precipice of another recession , we’re in a position to examine the ways in which it shaped design and led to the aesthetics of the present moment.

During the Great Depression, design was meant to lift the United States out of an economic pit. Industrial design, which concerned itself with elevating the look of mass-produced consumer goods like kitchen appliances, was still a relatively new profession during the 1920s. It came to the fore when the economy tanked, as corporations looked for new ways to inspire customers to shop.

“[Industrial designers] didn’t reengineer how a refrigerator worked or how a car drove, but they changed the design to make it look better,” says Sarah Lichtman, a professor of design history at New York’s Parsons School of Design. “How do you get someone to buy a new car? You curve the headlights, change the color.”

Redesigned products alone didn’t end the Depression, which lasted 10 years, but they did sell. In 1934, Sears, Roebuck & Co. hired the industrial designer Raymond Loewy to redesign its inelegant Coldspot refrigerator. After Loewy got his hands on it, “the Coldspot became a single smooth, gleaming unit of functional simplicity — and with it Sears’ sales shot up five-fold by 1936,” reported Time magazine in a 1949 cover profile of the designer, by then a titan in his field.

A streamlined locomotive designed by Raymond Loewy on display at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Depression-era industrial design tended toward “streamlining,” a modern look characterized by rounded edges and sleek shapes that emerged out of Art Deco. (Lichtman argues that streamlining wasn’t modernist in the formal sense, because modernism as an early 20th-century design movement prized form explicitly guided by function, and while streamlining has a natural function for, say, dolphins, a pencil sharpener doesn’t really need to reduce drag.) Crucially, streamlined household objects looked toward the future and projected a sense of optimism during hard times.

After the Great Recession, the country’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, it was venture-backed lifestyle startups, not established mega-corporations, that offered consumers a way forward through design. Direct-to-consumer lifestyle brands like Warby Parker and Everlane, both launched in 2010, began selling eyeglasses and sweaters without the retail markup, finding an uncomplicated aesthetic that suited their values.

“That first generation of direct-to-consumer successes started in that post-Recession moment,” says Leo Wang, CEO of Buffy, a one-year-old comforter startup. “They were about value, honesty, transparency of economics, and getting a good deal. All of that felt front-of-mind for consumers. Corporate America had swindled them.”

Startup minimalism , which became the dominant style of branding in the direct-to-consumer world, communicated this perfectly. It was optimal for digital consumption on small screens: stripped-down but warm, with lots of sans serif letters and white space.

Moreover, these brands were personable. Their ad and product copy was friendly and colloquial, which felt right because they were largely operated by millennials who were targeting their peers, creating a sense of shared values.

A woman in a simple navy blazer over a white shirt with navy pants, all made by Everlane. She also wears white sneakers.

“Trust wasn’t going to be created by officialness, but by brands sounding human,” says Wang.

They looked human, too. Their sites featured fun, unintimidating colors, most famously the shade of pale, faintly dusty rose known as “ millennial pink ,” and their simplicity was offset by cute, Matisse-y cut-out illustrations and line drawings .

The Recession certainly wasn’t the only reason that startup minimalism got so popular — the iPhone had come out in 2007, and Apple’s sleek, simple design sensibility was (and still is) massively influential — but it was the emotional backdrop for it.

That impulse toward simplicity was visible in interior design, too. White walls and innocuous fixtures became popular among home decorators in part because of the Recession — the housing bubble being the very root of the financial crisis — and the lifestyle magazine Kinfolk (est. 2011) elevated that look to aspirational levels with its pictures of clean, muted spaces. The spareness and earnestness of startup minimalism truly found its match in the ubiquitous decor style that the writer Kyle Chayka coined “ AirSpace ,” a reference to travel startup Airbnb. It typically features “raw wood tables, exposed brick, and hanging Edison bulbs.”

“Somehow scraping the plaster off a wall back to bare bricks is more authentic,” says Emmanuelle Dirix, a cultural historian who teaches at Syracuse University London, with heavy skepticism. “It’s that idea of stripping things away, showing off what a lightbulb looks like. Is this supposed to make me trust the business more, because I can see the wiring?”

However hollow this pared-down, industrial-yet-rustic sensibility rang to its detractors, you can’t say it didn’t sell.

A minimalist kitchen with cement floors, a wood countertop, and exposed bulbs.

Minimalism was also a hallmark of the clothing that came out of the Recession. Everlane pushed elevated basics, like simple T-shirts and navy sweaters. Cuyana, a brand launched in 2013, piously encouraged shoppers to buy “fewer, better things” — not a new impulse in the aftermath of an economic shock. In a 1974 essay called “Recession Dressing,” a response to an economic downturn that had begun a year prior, the fashion writer Kennedy Fraser wrote, “The old interest in the cautious principle of spending more on fewer clothes of better quality is back.”

One of the most influential figures in Recession-era and post-Recession fashion, Phoebe Philo , won over scads of fans with her understated (but unmistakably expensive) womenswear at Celine, where she oversaw design between 2008 and 2018. By 2014, deliberately plain clothing (fleeces, New Balance sneakers) had become a full-blown trend in the form of normcore .

Like Dorothy stepping into Technicolor Oz, design has veered back into exuberance and opulence over the last few years.

A model walks the Gucci runway in a colorful outfit.

The makeover of Gucci in 2015 is an inflection point in the return of maximalism. At Milan Fashion Week that February, the Italian brand introduced a new creative director, Alessandro Michele, whose style was all about eccentricity, romanticism, and ruffles. With each progressive collection, Michele’s work grew zanier, bolder, and more glittery. Gucci’s sales skyrocketed . In 2016, America elected a president known for his gaudy taste ( diamond-and-gold furnishings , etc.) to replace unfussy Obama.

Many luxury designers have returned to the liberal use of logos, no doubt inspired by the raging success of streetwear brands like Supreme. Burberry’s much-maligned check print has reemerged in full force, with Beyoncé and Kylie Jenner wearing it head-to-toe. Fendi is slapping its logo , in large font, on sweaters, bags, and dresses. Frasch, the former Saks executive, says that today’s showiness surpasses even mid-aughts levels of excess.

Startup minimalism is no longer novel; it’s a baseline for companies seeking to develop their brand identities. Today, startups trying to differentiate themselves from the pack are pushing into groovier (though still highly legible) territory. Sans serifs are giving way to thicker, curvier, curlier fonts, as with the makeup brand Flesh , launched this summer; the months-old cookware line Great Jones ; and Buffy , the comforter brand. Meanwhile, home decor has entered a new phase of rich paint colors and jewel-toned velvet furniture .

This transition took place as the economy improved, but the narrative is much more complicated than designers dialing things up and down in time to economic fluctuations.

Let’s go back in time to explain. On its face, the transition from the short, loose dresses of the Roaring Twenties to the nipped waists, long hemlines, and strong shoulders of the 1930s seems like a perfect example of a tough economy breeding conservative clothing. But Dirix argues that women’s skirts, which had reached an all-time high (literally) in 1925, were already well into their descent by 1927. The Great Depression began two years later.

There’s no one simple answer for the return to conservatism in the ’30s. When in the early part of the decade Hollywood adopted the Hays Code , which banned skimpy costumes along with other “immoral” visuals and plotlines in film, costume designers relied on form-fitting bias cut dresses to accentuate actresses’ figures. This pushed popular fashion toward a more mature look. On top of that, Dirix points out, fashion relies on newness in order to sell; successful styles are often those that feel fresh relative to what came before. Perhaps the ’20s had simply run their course. Perhaps the obviousness of the 2000s and the minimalism of the early 2010s had, too.

A West Elm-decorated room with blue walls, teal-printed wallpaper, a green velvet couch, and a yellow-printed chair.

Beyond the pendular swing of popular taste, the design world — and in particular the fashion industry — underwent major technological and cultural changes in the late ’00s and early ’10s, warping the lines we try to draw between the economy and design. Minimalism was definitely a trend in fashion, but it wasn’t the only game in town. Style had begun to splinter in a big way.

“In the ’90s, everyone wanted to have ‘the look.’ At the end of the ’90s and well into the 2000s, Prada was the kooky librarian look. In New York, you’d seen tons of people looking like kooky librarians,” says Cathy Horyn, New York magazine’s fashion critic. “That doesn’t happen as much anymore.”

Even before the Recession started, news and personal style blogs like Fashionista , Style Bubble , and Bryanboy had begun to infiltrate and democratize the fashion world. When Instagram launched in 2010, it completely disrupted the industry’s previously top-down flow of ideas, while accelerating the life cycle of a trend. As office dressing grew ever more casual — and with more people working from home — existing rules about what to wear and when to wear it were quickly becoming irrelevant.

Barriers shattered, we now have a cacophony of trends happening all at once. Designers are referencing the ’90s all over the place, with chokers and little slip dresses, but the ’70s are also having a moment. So are the ’80s. So are the ’00s, with Vetements resurrecting Juicy Couture tracksuits and Y/Project making outrageous thigh-high Uggs . While Instagram also came for other design sectors, the relatively fast rate at which many people buy new clothing amplifies this effect.

A model in thigh-high Uggs on a fashion runway.

Digital connectivity means that consumers have a boundless choice of aesthetics from which to choose. The Berlin-based magazine 032c put forward a theory of visual culture in its summer 2018 issue called “ The Big Flat Now ,” which posits that because the internet has made previously sequestered subcultures equally available to us, we can bob between them with unprecedented ease.

“The Big Flat Now is the infinite space on which our culture operates today. Its frictionless surface is composed of the obsolete hierarchies that have been melted by the Internet. Its shallowness belies a seamless texture that allows for the rapid collision of ideas,” write Thom Bettridge and Lucas Mascatello in 032c. “Raised by a global chorus of voices, our identities are voluntary, malleable, and unprescribed. We are everywhere, anytime, and everyone at once.”

At the same time, a lot of stuff looks the same, with trends endlessly regurgitated on Instagram and reproduced by brand after brand. Recent rebrands by fashion houses like Burberry, Balmain, and Balenciaga have resulted in a cohort of identical luxury logos . AirSpace is a prime example of the sameness of our time, applied to “coffee shops, bars, startup offices, and co-live/work spaces,” and it, too, represents a seamless way of navigating the world.

“The homogeneity of these spaces means that traveling between them is frictionless,” writes Chayka . “Changing places can be as painless as reloading a website. You might not even realize you’re not where you started.”

Despite the success of Gucci and its ilk, design today isn’t entirely freewheeling, and this is perhaps where the Recession’s effects are seen most clearly. Research shows that cohorts that have lived through economic downturns have lower appetites for financial risk . It’s not unreasonable to assume that the Recession will have long-term effects on today’s consumers.

In fashion, lingering financial fear, anti-consumerist impulses, and environmental concerns have contributed to the rise of a booming resale market. In November, Cowen & Company estimated that the secondary market for clothing, accessories, and footwear totals $20 billion today and could reach roughly $33 billion by 2022 , growing significantly faster over time than fast fashion, department stores, and off-price channels.

Consumers’ growing interest in used fashion — which means more people are wearing clothing from different seasons and eras, all at the same time — supports the idea of the Big Flat Now. Similarly, Instagram is filled with fan accounts dedicated to the pop culture and style of basically every decade, including the ’00s ; follow a bunch of them and suddenly time is a flat circle.

Environmental concerns also bleed into post-Recession home decor. It’s been difficult to miss the rise of status plants like the Monstera deliciosa and the finicky fiddle leaf fig , which add a needed dose of life to a millennial minimalist home. Not only are houseplants like these highly Instagrammable, but they have the convenient property of making us feel closer to nature.

“The sense of having abandoned nature has gotten bigger and bigger,” says Penny Sparke, a professor of design history at Kingston University in London. “Bringing a small plant into your apartment is a way of getting around that. It’s an easer of guilt. We’re all so worried about what we’re doing to the planet, and it makes you feel better about it.”

Adding to these existing stressors is the fraught political climate we live in, the consequences of which remain to be seen in the design world. Will we lean further into painting our walls soft pinks and greens, buy ever more velvet furniture, continue to seek out houseplants, with all their therapeutic properties?

And if we are indeed heading into a recession, what will become of our multiplicitous design landscape? One might suppose that it would be shot through a compressor, but as we know, aesthetics are much too slippery for that.

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Free Fashion Essay Examples & Topics

The way a person presents says a lot about their character. And everyone has their style. However, not everyone is fashionable. Fashion is the popular and prevailing way of dressing, which often follows particular trends in a given era. Unlike style, it is characterized by change. Fashion follows cycles and constantly evolves together with society.

What is fashion, if not a form of art? Of course, it is a tool and a statement. But very often, fashion trends are reflective of their time. They are influenced by real-life events, politics, values, and socioeconomic changes. Fashion culture reveals human culture, and this is why it is so important.

If you require help writing a fashion essay, you’ve come to the right place. Our experts have prepared tips and tricks that will be useful in your academic paper. Below, you will also find fashion essay examples and topics.

Structure-wise, a fashion essay is no different from any other academic paper. However, some tips and tricks will make your job significantly easier.

Here are recommendations on how to improve your essay on fashion:

  • Pick an idea that is not too broad. It is best to avoid exploring general topics. A question like “Is it very important nowadays to be in trend?” is not specific enough for you to examine. If your title is too broad, then you won’t be able to include details and specifics. The best topics are always narrowed down to allow room for insight.
  • Check whether you can research your topic. It is good to have a precise idea of what you want to write. However, make sure that you aren’t backing yourself into a corner. If your topic turns out to be too narrow, you will not be able to do any research. This is why it is a good idea to check for credible sources while you are still researching.
  • Form arguments and find examples from the start. It is a good idea to start thinking of your thesis statement once you have settled on a topic. It is a central argument of your paper, and our thesis generator can formulate it for you. Of course, you will need to back it up with evidence. Collect your facts from the very beginning and keep everything organized for efficiency.
  • Outline your fashion essay. Just like always, you will need an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Jot down topic sentences for each of your body paragraphs before you begin writing. Outlining your essay simplifies the process and makes your task easier.
  • Make sure that the content of your paper fits the topic. Now that you have everything that you need in front of you, it is time to revise. Fashion is a complex subject, and it is easy to get carried away. The most critical thing for you is to stay on topic and not drift off into irrelevant questions.
  • Double-check the instructions before you begin writing. It is a good idea to take another look at the assessment criteria. This will give you a general understanding of what is expected of you. If you feel like you are heading in the wrong direction, double-check your instructions.
  • Use a catchy title to capture the readers’ attention. Since fashion is about expression, your essay has to live up to the standards. This will lend more credibility to your work. Show your passion by spending some extra time on your title to make it stand out.

Are you writing a fashion trend essay? Or maybe you want to tackle early 2000s fashion? Or maybe, you still have no idea what you will be writing. In that case, here we have created an extensive list of fashion topics .

Otherwise, you can check the following ideas:

  • History of fashion in the 21 st century.
  • Vogue: how fashion magazines influence trends.
  • What is fast fashion, and is it ethical?
  • Zara: a case study of fashion marketing.
  • Teenage fashion among students in Japan.
  • Fashion and design – a study of the fashion show runway.
  • Clothes and fashion on the red carpet of the Silver Age.
  • How do fashion designers predict the next big craze?
  • Why are unisex clothes prevalent in today’s fashion?
  • The importance of sustainable fashion.
  • Present-day fashion in the workplace – what changed?
  • The evolution of the fashion industry in China.
  • Modern high fashion and gender.
  • The importance of fashion in my life.
  • Throwback to the 90s: the obsession with retro fashion today.

And that is all for now. We sincerely hope that you found our tips and topics useful! If you’re looking for more ideas, you can always find more fashion essay examples below.

Thank you for reading!

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COMMENTS

  1. Early 2000s Fashion History: Logos, Low-Rise, and It Bags

    A 2000s Fashion History Lesson: Logos, Low-Rise, and It Bags. By Lilah Ramzi. June 3, 2024. If one moment sums up early-2000s fashion, it was February 2000: Jennifer Lopez wore a chiffon Versace ...

  2. 2000-2009

    In the early 2000s, low-rise, flared jeans were prevalent while by the mid-2000s, bootcut jeans had grown more popular. During this period, True Religion and 7 for all Mankind were staple denim brands. Jeans were even worn on the red carpet with True Religion a popular option as chosen by Jessica Alba (Fig. 4).

  3. 2000s Fashion: The Best Trends of the Decade

    Crop tops, which exposed the midriff, were a staple of the 2000s. The trend was popularized by a host of celebrities, from pop stars like Britney Spears to actresses like Lindsay Lohan. Paired with low-rise jeans, crop tops were a testament to the decade's embrace of bold and daring fashion choices.

  4. 2000s Fashion Trends for Men and Women

    2000s Fashion for Men 2000s Rapper. From Nelly to Pharrell to Jay-Z, the rap scene entered a new era in the '00s. The hip-hop genre was all about prioritizing street style and showing off your riches. With oversized singlets, baggy basketball shorts, and sparkling jewelry, the aesthetic was rebranded in the early years of the decade.

  5. The 2000s Fashion Trends That Defined the Y2K Aesthetic

    WHO: Paris Hilton, 2003. Everything about 2000s fashion was defined by a more-is-more mentality: more embellishments, more layering, and showing more skin. Skirts were hemmed high to show off as much leg as possible, while waistlines were slung ultra low to maximize an exposed midriff, which brings us to the epitome of early 2000s silhouettes ...

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    Amanda Krause for Insider seemingly used Urban Outfitters and Fashion Nova as a litmus test for what 2000s fashion staples were making the comeback among the youth of today. Some of those staples include Steeve Madden sandals, velour tracksuits and seashell necklaces, no thanks to the VSCO girl. So, go forth and donate your clothes to the ...

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    1740-1749. 1740-1749, 18th century, decade overview. A hub for fashion research with hundreds of essays on specific artworks, garments and films, the Fashion History Timeline equips students and researchers with essential facts, vocabulary, models of analysis, and links to digitized primary & secondary sources.

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    Tag: 2000s. 2000-2009. 2000-2009, 21st century, decade overview. ... Recent Essays. 15th century - Late Byzantine Silk Damask Dress and Taffeta Tunic. In 15th century, Byzantine, garment analysis. ... The Fashion History Timeline is a project by FIT's History of Art Department.

  11. 32 '00s Trends We Love

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  12. A 2000s Fashion History Lesson: Logos, Low-Rise, and It Bags

    A 2000s Fashion History Lesson: Logos, Low-Rise, and It Bags. By Lilah Ramzi. Jun 22, 2024. Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City Photo: Alamy. If one moment sums up early-2000s fashion, it was February 2000: Jennifer Lopez wore a chiffon Versace dress to the 42nd Grammy Awards, and the world was never the same.

  13. 10 Early 2000s Fashion Trends We Must Revive

    10. Frosted Lip Gloss: Forget the boring matte colors you're buying from Kylie Jenner; now is the time to embrace all of the shine and shimmer. Extra points if you wear the gloss and then outline with lip liner of a darker shade! Melissa Joan Hart sporting an iconic hairstyle of the 2000s: the butterfly clip twist. 9.

  14. History of American Pop Culture

    The fashion styles of the 2000's are heavily influenced by the entertainment world around them. From the world of sports, music and television the 2000's was a time of great commercial success - especially in the early 2000s. For men the look mimics much of the style trends of bands like NSync and worked to conform to social trends of the time ...

  15. Gaudy and Gleeful, Early 2000s Fashion Is Making a Comeback

    At Miu Miu, frayed khaki micro- miniskirts and cropped cable-knit wool sweaters called to mind the skimpy garments of the suggestively Sapphic Russian musical duo t.A.T.u., who rose to fame in the ...

  16. 2000 Fashion Trends Essay

    Fashion in the 2000's moved away from the minimalist approach, incorporating the fusion of trends from several different styles (Kamal 2015). By the early 2000's, designers started to incorporate more colors and patterns into their designs (Kamal 2015). They also had inspiration from vintage clothing of the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's ...

  17. 2000s Styles That We Love

    Jun 21, 2019, 8:54 AM PDT. Mandy Moore in 2003 and Cynthia Nixon in 2003 SGranitz/Getty Images, James Devaney/Getty Images. Discussions of 2000s fashion trends often leave people who lived through ...

  18. 2000-2009

    2000-2009, 2010-2019, 21st century, Africa, Asia, thematic essays Since the mid-20th century, relations between Africa and China have grown stronger leading to a significant change in the mutual adaptation of fashion between both nations.

  19. How the Great Recession influenced a decade of design

    In a 1974 essay called "Recession Dressing," a response to an economic downturn that had begun a year prior, the fashion writer Kennedy Fraser wrote, "The old interest in the cautious ...

  20. 286 Fashion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

    Prada Fashion Sense and Christian Dior Fashion Sense. The designs of Prada are a blend of old and modern culture, which is because of their simplicity. This is because the products are tailored to meet the needs of the locals. Fashion helps us to define and show who we are and what we do.

  21. 2000s fashion

    2000 Fashion Trends Essay. The 2000's is referred to as the mash up decade (Kamal 2015). Fashion in the 2000's moved away from the minimalist approach, incorporating the fusion of trends from several different styles (Kamal 2015). By the early 2000's, designers started to incorporate more colors and patterns into their designs (Kamal 2015

  22. The Y2K Fashion Aesthetic Is Back

    Of course, one of the most quintessential Y2K outfits was the velour tracksuit. One from Juicy Couture or Baby Phat was *the* getup to wear in the early 2000s. And thanks to the general resurgence ...

  23. Free Fashion Essay Examples & Topics

    If you require help writing a fashion essay, you've come to the right place. Our experts have prepared tips and tricks that will be useful in your academic paper. Below, you will also find fashion essay examples and topics. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts. 185 writers online.