10 Forgotten Early 2000s Trends

The late 90s and early 2000s were vital developmental years for millennial babies. I went through puberty in the early 2000s and it wasn’t pretty (tons of teen angst and a lot of Simple Plan & MCR on repeat). There were other decisions made during those “torment-ridden” years that I’m sure most of you aren’t exactly proud of. We are talking about the painfully bad fashion choices made, each one significantly proving that the 2000s were really quite bizarre and befuddling. Every teenager in the early 2000s would know these trends and some might even send chills down your spine (i.e. those green cargos with bountiful pockets). And why did we use our dad’s necktie as a belt?

I store these fashion faux pas memories deep within the darkest crevices of my mind so as to not rekindle such thoughts of many a fashion catastrophes. What am I speaking of exactly? Well, be prepared to take a walk down memory lane – 2000s fashion edition. (Warning: Cringe Inducing)

The Maxi (scrunched up) Bohemian Skirt
These things came in every colour under the sun, and we mean every colour! From tie-dyed to ombre gradations and sometimes we have the ones with elastic waistbands. Yes, elastic bands that hold up your skirts. These skirts were rampant in high school, and I would scrunch it up and stuff it into my cabinet for the next day, ready for wear. Did we think we were at Woodstock or born in the 60s? I’m uncertain as to why but I'm sure that those dreadful things are still in my cupboard and I’m taking them out for recycling, TODAY. What was up with all that embroidery and drawstrings?

Babydoll Dresses
Why did we like to wear a dress that had the words ‘baby’ and ‘doll' incorporated into its name? Not too sure but those dresses were what skinny jeans are today – a grab-and-go staple. We wore it with jeans (bellbottoms mind you) and wore it with spaghetti strings with a bow, in leopard print, with floral designs, some even as tube tops. But the ones I remembered in high school were empire waist and had crumpled up fabric on top – yup, those.






Chokers
Well this trend is somewhat making a comeback – on runways and on the streets. But, the chokers mentioned here are the unsightly beaded or velvet ones. Those beaded wire chokers! Just because Lizzie McGuire wore them, doesn’t mean they actually looked good. Even the dark velvet ones made us look like we were forming a hardcore emo band that Evanescence couldn’t even ‘bring to life’.


Shiny Pants
Shiny, latex/pleather pants. The Spice Girls wore it, so they must be fashionable. Yes, during the 2000s they were but looking back at old pictures, they aren’t flattering at all. Also the shiny leggings scream ready for a night out at the disco, which explains to me why my parents never liked them.





Studs and More Studs
What we call the Avril Lavigne chapter. Or the emo, ‘nobody understands me’ phase when we would only wear black, converse sneakers and our dad’s ties over tank tops. I don’t know what the charm was, but whenever we saw something with studs it was our ‘kryptonite’, we had to get it. On leather bangles, on our belts, on our jean pockets – even our shoes. You name a piece of clothing and we would need to add studs to the fabric somehow. It proved how grungy or misunderstood we were and that we had ‘emo’ cred which meant we were “cool” in the alternative domain.





Cowgirl Shirts
I had my fair share of plaid cowgirl shirts back in the day. Many department stores had copious amounts of these shirts, making bank every season because young girls wanted to look like ranch handlers. They came in blue, pink, orange and definitely checkered. No, they didn’t look like the trendy hipster lumberjack shirts we have today as they were tight-fitted, curved to the shape of the body and short.

Cowl Neck Tops
Oh the trusty cowl neck. Because the unvarying basic round or V-neck tops weren’t making enough of a statement, or we wanted to look like we had curtains hanging down from our chest. What was the appeal - possibly additional dimension to your top? I had cowl neck sweaters, jerseys, turtlenecks (that’s possible) and more, slightly embarrassed but I’ll live.





The Midriff Jacket
The midriff jacket is something we are all guilty for loving a little too much as a teen. We had them in denim, sequin or even wool. It didn’t even cover the entire torso and I wore it overseas so I could keep warm…fashion logic? These things just float above our midriffs and they looked like our mother washed our jacket and it shrunk in the dryer. I can’t even.




Straightened Hair (not a fashion trend but super fundamental)
Every girl in high school during the 2000s wanted impeccably straight hair! My salon was packed with young girls wanting to have completely pin-straight hair. Sleek, slick and not-a-stray-in-sight straight hair was a huge beauty trend. Ironed, super shiny lengths were ‘IT’. However strange it looked back then, I did revel in the fact that I never needed to comb my hair in the mornings before school.




Stacked black gel bands a.k.a. (sex) bracelets
We had them stacked onto our hands. Piled till we couldn’t stack anymore! We were such “punk rockers” with our black bracelets and it even became the subject of a widespread urban legend linking them to a supposed sex game explaining their popularity among young teenagers in 2003. Whatever the “true” meaning was behind this fashion phenomenon, we all had them and we handed them out to our crushes or friends, as a sign of our interest or friendship. It was a THING alright.



Wow, the early 2000s had some really questionable fashion inclinations. (brb, getting rid of all photographic evidence I ever wore any of the above)

by: Adeline Tan