What is Y2K Fashion?

Y2K Fashion is virtually about bold, ornamental compositions aligned with an Area 51 affectation. It's now coming back with a reckoning as we enter into a recharged decade with double digits, symbolizing a newly discovered modernized milestone into the latest century.

Bright with technological Utopianism and rose-colored glasses (I don’t mean metaphorically speaking), the babies of the ’80s were just coming out of the Cold War. This moment in time altered the late '90s fashion trends and successively influenced the Bratz Doll and Mean Girls aesthetic coming into the early 2000s. The Y2K fashion craze faultlessly blended the era of Gen-Y, those 25 and older, and the new coming-of-age generational wave of preteens embracing all the unfathomable technological prosperity that the future clearly held in store for them. 

Counterculture in the ’80s had successfully influenced the industry with overconfident, overwearing, egotistical undertones that seemed acceptable for those of all ages to adapt. However, velvet technological visions of opulence appeared mutually endless among both Generation Y and Z, and that which had come to pass: the Y2K era of 2000-2009. These ingredients were key components to envision all that this era had embraced (or for Gen Y, had endured).

A comment that can be seen on the Instagram account @doyoulovethe2000s reads “I was like 14 and my bedazzled blackberry cover said “sexy”.”

With strappy, metallic, reflective suits that you would sport in extraterrestrial laboratory experiments (should an alien abduction happen), these textures are indubitably entwined with an alluring theme of intricate beauty to showcase the female body which acutely nods to a sort of "femme bot" sex appeal. Implications of an unapologetic chauvinism with an alien-like futuristic undertone ensued.

Imaginably, these themes can be attributed to the ‘peace and prosperity’ collective consciousness that had transpired after the Cold War had ended in 1991. Before this was a period in which Americans had advocated for free-market capitalism, in contrast to the Soviets who firmly held communist belief systems. Americans championed innovation and abundance, while the Soviet Union viewed Americans as materialistic and rapacious. America remains to be the most powerful economy in the world due to the happenings of the Cold War and the events that led to the end of the economic terror it caused its citizens. 

Chanel, 1987

Fine-tuned with the theories of technological determinism, the trend of new pop stars, fashion, and even digital sound analogs were first introduced and born of this era. This set the precedent for bubble pop and other digital themes which had amassed throughout media and advertisements.

This was also due to the attainability and refinement of curves through the use of digital image manipulation. 

*Even landscape architecture stayed consistent within this technological Utopian realm.

Although Y2K fashion was mostly reserved for going out, most 2000s fashion was heavily influenced by globalization, fast-fashion, and actively driven by online shopping that was now available to shoppers all over the world. 

Are we in for another rendition of the Y2K era and all that it cultivated for us? 

Scientists say our power grids and technological communications are under threat in the new Solar Cycle, which begins in 2020. As Cycle 24 comes to a close, with little to no solar activity, Cycle 25 is predicted to be higher than that of Cycle 24 where the solar atmospheric sunspots were minimal which had resulted in colder climates. Sunspots are forecast to erupt (expected to be the highest solar activity during 2023-2026) all over the sun creating solar flares and coronal mass eruptions which burst out electromagnetic energy. It's not known whether or not these will make contact with Earth. 

“While we are not predicting a particularly active Solar Cycle 25, violent eruptions from the sun can occur at any time,” Doug Biesecker, a solar physicist at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, said in a statement.

Coronal mass eruptions, according to the National Space Weather Prediction Service On NOAA Scales which range from Minor to Extreme. 

*Solar Radiation Storm (on NOAA Scales)  from The National Space Weather Prediction Center And The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The more explosive CMEs generally begin when highly twisted magnetic field structures (flux ropes) contained in the Sun’s lower corona become too stressed and realign into a less tense configuration – a process called magnetic reconnection. This can result in the sudden release of electromagnetic energy in the form of a solar flare. This typically accompanies the explosive acceleration of plasma away from the Sun: the CME

“These are blasts of charged particles off the sun which can disrupt satellite and radio communications, and even power grids in extreme cases.”

“The prediction panel, in future work, will attempt to better understand the strength, timing and location of sunspot formation across the sun’s hemispheres and the likelihood of solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These are blasts of charged particles off the sun which can disrupt satellite and radio communications, and even power grids in extreme cases.” 

“Solar scientists are most concerned about a major eruption from the sun, which could cause substantial damage to electronic communication systems and power grids. History suggests such extreme events are possible.” Says Joe Cruches, a former lead forecaster and operations chief at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center from The Washington Post. 

Although this information is inconclusive, we may be a bit desensitized when it comes to news such as this. This is much different to the terrified yet naive bright-eyed and bushy-tailed years leading into the Internet Age.

As we are overwhelmed with political factors and daily happenings all over the world, global warming seems to get lost in the infinite abyss of "The Age of Information."

Can we head the earth’s warnings?

Joe, Kruchers. ‘Scientists predict a new solar cycle is about to begin and that it might be stronger than the last one’, The Washington Post, NWA Digital, April 11, 2019.

Written by Veronica Van Dine