The fashion industry has seen older trends make comebacks every few decades. In 2024, the glorious styling of the 90s and 2000s is re-emerging in the form of the latest fashion trends among the Gen Z population. Crop tops and fitted tees. From dresses over jeans to bucket hats, stiletto heels, midriff-display, lip gloss tubes, oxidized chunky chokers, flashy neon streetwear and basically anything that Britney Spears or Paris Hilton wore is popping back up on the fashion timeline.
One millennial mom, who goes by the name @nicolestorydent on TikTok, posted several videos on her social media, depicting her hilarious reactions to the resurgence of vintage fashionwear. In a video she posted on her Instagram she showed herself browsing through Target and spotting some of the fashionwear that reminded her of 90s fashion. The video’s overlay caption read, “When you see the clothes you wore in middle school back in style.” The video zoomed in to display some colorful oldtimer butterfly hair clips, crop tops, denims, and more. “It’s too soon Target, it’s too soon,” she wrote.
@nicolestorydent, who usually posts sarcastic adulthood and millennial-mom content, posted another Tiktok video referring to the fashion appearing in the 1994 movie "The Santa Claus", the American Christmas comedy film directed by John Pasquin and written by Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick, starring Tim Allen as Scott Calvin. She spoke about the character of Scott Calvin from the movie, and how his fashion sense was the best. “I’m thinking about 2023’s biggest fashion icons and inspirations. You know it’s not a celebrity. It’s not a model. It’s not a high-end fashion designer. It’s Scott Calvin.” She then showed some pics in which the models were donning white crop top with red athlete shorts, high socks and sneakers, “It’s sporty and still sexy. If Santa can rock the crop top, so can you,” she said. Then she showed some snaps of models wearing silk monochromatic red matching sets.
Image Source: Tiktok | nicolestorydent
In another Tiktok video captioned as “When you see the clothes from your childhood back in style,” Nicole showed the wardrobe fashion of some of the 2000s pop stars, hinting that these trends are making a comeback.
Image Source: Tiktok | nicolestorydent
A woman commented that she wished the 2000s peplum-style tops would make a comeback.
Image Source: TIktok | michelle
Others said that they wished for flare jeans style to return, only without the low-rise feature.
Image Source: Tiktok | bitsandbobscraftsAMC
Others discussed their fondness over the Y2K fashion. In general, Y2K implies Y for year, 2 for the number two and K for 1000. Put them together and it comes to the year 2000. Y2K is used to refer to the fashion trends of the early 2000s. Regarded amondst the glory days of fashion, the Y2K fashion is in resurgence nowadays, often termed as the “Y2k Aesthetic”.
Another of her TikTok videos that garnered nearly 16 million views and nearly 2 million likes depicted the caption, “When the clothes from your childhood are back in style.” The bottom caption read, “The clothes from your favorite childhood music videos and Disney channel.” A commenter spacefloaties jokingly said, “It’s because everyone who grew up with that are now the ones designing.” Jasmine wrote, “As someone who wasn’t allowed to dress that way, my inner child has been healing,” Talking about how the resurgence of 90s fashion promotes the healing of millennials’ inner child.
Image Source: TikTok | nicolestorydent
Fashion seems to have an on-off relationship with the clockwork of time. From low-rise jeans to tank tops and ruffles, all of these vintage trends are reemerging from the fashion horizon. A time of army pants, flip-flops, ruffles, bejeweled everything, juicy orange jumpsuits, sequinned belts and all things denim is rising in a flashback. For women, high heels are no longer everything, but also platform shoes, skinny scarves and open-toed sandals. Speaking about how period fashion trends are replaying, fashion historian Madeleine Seys says "It's created in a different way for a very different audience with different social messaging and cultural connotations, but there was something distinctly similar about that silhouette. More recently, the return of early 2000s looks are really, really noticeable for me amongst teenagers and those in their early 20s," according to ABC News.
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Why do some folks use social media but don't engage?
Psychologist says people who never comment on social media share these 5 positive traits
For over 20 years, social media has developed into a staple in many people’s day-to-day lives. Whether it’s to keep in communication with friends and family, following the thoughts of celebrities, or watching cat videos while sipping your morning coffee, there seem to be two types of social media users: commenters and lurkers.
The term “lurker” sounds equally mysterious and insidious, with some social media users writing them off as non-participants at best or voyeurs at worst. However, mindfulness expert Lachlan Brown believes these non-commenters have some very psychologically positive and healthy traits. Let’s take a look at how each one of these traits could be beneficial and see how fruitful lurking might be even though it can drive content creators crazy.
1. Cautious about vulnerability
Consciously or not, making a post online or commenting on one puts you and your words out there. It’s a statement that everyone can see, even if it’s as simple as clicking “like.” Doing so opens yourself up to judgment, with all the good, bad, and potential misinterpretation that comes with it. Non-commenters would rather not open themselves up to that.
These silent users are connected to a concept of self-protection by simply not engaging. By just scrolling past posts or just reading/watching them without commentary, they’re preventing themselves from any downsides of sharing an opinion such as rejection, misunderstanding, or embarrassment. They also have more control on how much of themselves they’re willing to reveal to the general public, and tend to be more open face-to-face or during one-on-one/one-on-few private chats or DMs. This can be seen as a healthy boundary and prevents unnecessary exposure.
Considering many comment sections, especially involving political topics, are meant to stir negative emotional responses to increase engagement, being extra mindful about where, when, and what you comment might not be a bad idea. They might not even take the engagement bait at all. Or if they see a friend of theirs post something vulnerable, they feel more motivated to engage with them personally one-on-one rather than use social media to publicly check in on them.
2. Analytical and reflective mindset
How many times have you gone onto Reddit, YouTube, or any other site and just skimmed past comments that are just different versions of “yes, and,” “no, but,” or “yes, but”? Or the ever insightful, formerly popular comment “First!” in a thread? These silent browsers lean against adding to such noise unless they have some valid and thoughtful contribution (if they bother to comment period).
These non-posters are likely wired on reflective thinking rather than their initial intuition. Not to say that all those who comment aren’t thoughtful, but many tend to react quickly and comment based on their initial feelings rather than absorbing the information, thinking it over, researching or testing their belief, and then posting it. For "lurkers," it could by their very nature to just do all of that and not post it at all, or share their thoughts and findings privately with a friend. All in all, it’s a preference of substance over speed.
3. High sense of self-awareness
Carried over from the first two listed traits, these silent social media users incorporate their concern over their vulnerability and their reflective mindset into digital self-awareness. They know what triggers responses out of them and what causes them to engage in impulsive behavior. It could be that they have engaged with a troll in the past and felt foolish. Or that they just felt sad after a post or got into an unnecessary argument that impacted them offline. By knowing themselves and seeing what’s being discussed, they choose to weigh their words carefully or just not participate at all. It’s a form of self-preservation through restraint.
4. Prefer to observe rather than perform
Some folks treat social media as information, entertainment, or a mix of both, and commenting can feel like they’re yelling at the TV, clapping alone in a movie theater when the credits roll, or yelling “That’s not true!” to a news anchor that will never hear them. But contrary to that, social media is a place where those yells, claps, and accusations can be seen and get a response. By its design, social media is considered by experts and the media as performative, regardless of whether it is positive or negative. Taking all of the previously mentioned traits into account, one can see why they would prefer to “observe the play” rather than get up on the stage of Facebook or X.
On top of that, these non-commenters could be using social media differently than those who choose to fully engage with it. Using this type of navigation, there may be nothing for them to comment about. Some commenters are even vying for this for their mental health. There are articles about how to better curate your social media feeds and manipulate algorithms to create a better social media experience to avoid unnecessary conflict or mentally tiring debate.
If you go on a blocking spree on all of your accounts and just follow the posters that boost you, it could turn your social media into a nice part of your routine as you mainly engage with others face-to-face or privately. In terms of commenting, if your curated Instagram is just following cute dogs and all you have to offer for a comment is “cute dog,” you might just enjoy the picture and then move on with your day rather than join in the noise. These non-commenters aren’t in the show and they’re fine with it.
5. Less motivated by social validation
The last trait that Brown showcases is that social media users who browse without posting tend to be independent from external validation, at least online. Social media is built to grow through feedback loops such as awarding likes, shares, and reposts of your content along with notifications letting you know that a new person follows you or wants to connect. This can lead many people to connect their activity on social media with their sense of self worth, especially with adolescents who are still figuring out their place in the world and have still-developing brains.
Engaging in social media via likes, shares, comments, and posts rewards our brains by having them release dopamine, which makes us feel good and can easily become addictive. For whatever reason, non-commenters don’t rely on social media as a means to gauge their social capital or self worth. This doesn’t make them better than those who do. While some non-commenters could have healthier ways to boost their self worth or release dopamine into their systems, many get that validation from equally unhealthy sources offline. That said, many non-commenters’ silence could be a display of independence and self confidence.
Whether you frequently comment online or don’t, it’s good to understand why you do or don’t. Analyzing your habits can help you determine whether your online engagement is healthy, or needs to be tweaked. With that information, you can then create a healthy social media experience that works for you.