– Originally written March 22, 2024
Fashion changes through the years, with teenagers figuring out their identity and ways to dress, and even celebrities encouraging new trends. In the 2000s, it was a bunch of layered tees, hats, belts, low rise jeans, sandals, and hoop earrings. The 2010s introduced chunky necklaces, side parts, boots, and yoga pants. We’re currently in 2024, but are there any clear ways of dressing these past few years for Gen Z?
The “coquette” trend has taken over the internet where adding bows and ribbons into your hair is fashionable with frilly skirts to compliment the look. Even the Y2K era has made a comeback as the younger generation looked back at the fashion. Through these trends following the internet, we begin to learn the history behind what created them.
There’s 2 sides to the upbringing of the Y2K fashion era. The outfits we see online are influenced by Black fashion in the early 2000s, especially seen between the different celebrities at the time. If you look at Britney Spears and Beyoncé side by side, you notice the different styles as they both belong to different communities. The erasure of where these trends actually came from, had people praising white artists for “trendsetting” when it was Black women that really influenced the people. While they both have iconic outfits we can look back to and praise, there is no denying how the erasure can be hurtful when claiming certain trends. Bralettes and Baggy Jeans, Bedazzled Sunglasses, and airbrushed tops are something you can see around social media. When you see someone wearing these, just remember where these trends first started, as they aren’t just Y2K fashion.
In 2022, there was a big uproar towards model Hailey Bieber over a new lip combination she posted on TikTok. She named it the “Brownie Glazed Lip”. The lip combo consisted of a darker brown lip liner to line your lips and accentuate the cupid’s bow, and afterwards adding a clear gloss over the lips. Many content creators on the app completely loved the “Brownie Glazed Lip” and tried it for themselves, posting their own videos and loving how it looks on them. What many people didn’t know was that this combination was already used by Black and Latina women. A great example is the Chola makeup in the late 90s and early 2000s, a style in Latino communities accompanied by a flannel loose shirt and baggy jeans. Even celebrities, like once again Beyoncé, can be seen wearing the same “Brownie Glazed Lip” look. There are still many trends out there that continue to erase the history behind them. There is no harm in wanting to try new trends, but claiming something already made by others only enforces the erasure of colored people behind these fads.
Ribbons, bows, and pink are the main components of “coquette”, a trend that is normalizing femininity and the love for pink. Although there is a good intention behind this trend, sometimes, there’s more to a trend than the simplicity of it. The most recent example of erasure is the trending “coquette braids”. Many people have tried to recreate this look, which is two braids with ribbon intertwined in their hair. What some creators didn’t know, this was already a hairstyle worn by the native women in Oaxaca, Mexico. This hairstyle is more than just a trend, and cultural differences should not be forgotten when participating in a trend. Especially when it overlooks an important influence behind these fads.
There are many people online that are uneducated about the influences behind certain hits on social media. There’s no shame in not knowing beforehand, and we should all take time and look behind what these microtrends are influenced by. There are still many examples out there about the hurtful trends erasing the culture behind them, one being the whole “evil eye” craze online. Acknowledging these differences and also recognizing that a lot is influenced back to people of color, can stop these trends from forgetting about the people behind them.
