Fashion nostalgia is a funny thing. For a while we were partying like it was 1997 but now the 00s are back, like a serial killer in a slasher film just as we thought we could relax in that creepy haunted house.
You can barely scroll through TikTok without your eyeballs being assaulted by off the shoulder tops or faux Burberry tartan. If you compared Freshers Week 2001 to 2021, would you really be able to tell the difference?
The past few years have seen us grapple with our recent past on a number of levels, from Britney's conservatorship to Monica Lewinsky's blue dress. Paris Hilton, once known for her tiny dog, sex tape and obscene wealth, made a documentary about her time at an abusive school for 'troubled teens' and podcast Even The Rich followed up by diving into how she took her trashy socialite image and turned it into a brand. Looking past the sparkly pink surface, she was an exploited girl determined not to be a victim.
And as for the Barbie pink Elle Woods-style fashion she embodied, it's being reclaimed as a new kind of feminism that doesn't reject women who enjoy femininity or don't have traditionally academic backgrounds.
But there are some things that can't be reclaimed and for those of us who lived through it - frosted tips, stonewashed jeans and all - it's not something we want to revisit. Except in the form of a well-curated picture gallery, of course...
This isn’t just a fashion retrospective - it’s a cautionary tale.
To misquote noughties Queen Bee herself, Regina George - stop trying to make the 'Y2K aesthetic' happen, Gen Z. It's not going to happen.
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