Nostalgia Is Fashion Currency
How nostalgic is nostalgia fashion? Turns out, not that much
In fashion, nostalgia is hot currency. Welcome to the nostalgia-fuelled vortex, where yesterday's fashion is today's trend du jour and our wardrobes are basically time machines.
Nostalgia is fashion's forever muse. It weaves its timeless threads into the very fabric of the industry, guiding it through relentless waves of change. Everything old is new and everything new is old. Fashion nostalgia has evolved into a beast of its own making.
We often view the past through rose-tinted glasses, and we’re at a point in culture where we’re obsessed with old things. So it makes sense that the older the fashion, the better. The dictionary may define nostalgia as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past” but right here right now nostalgia is what it's all about.
Celebrity fashion has hit the replay button and its nostalgic grip is real. Consider Dua Lipa's 1993 Versace throwback at the 2022 Grammys or Kim K channelling Marilyn Monroe at the Met Gala. Then there's J Lo, who closed Versace’s SS19 show in a sheer jungle-print scarf dress, the same one she graced the 2000 Grammys red carpet with.
The nostalgia loop is racing at breakneck speed and it’s hard to keep up. Our fixation with the past has become the driving force behind trend resurrections reinvented for a new era's embrace. The industry may be wielding the tools of nostalgia to its advantage, but as these trends flash by fashion flattens and everything's starting to look the same.
Fashion isn't merely dipping its toes into the waters of the past; it's cosied up in bed with it. Welcome to the "nostalgia economy", a place where fashion thrives on the revival of past aesthetics. And thanks to trend analysts like @oldloserinbrooklyn and @thealgorythm, we are being guided through this nostalgia time wave with videos that let us absorb its cultural significance and history in a wider societal context.
Fashions nostalgia revival isn't all sunshine and roses though. In fact, it's anything but as the comeback of problematic trends such as 'Heroin chic' have resurfaced. TikTok’s revolving doors have led us down a labyrinth of questionable aesthetics that don’t deserve the light of day. And sometimes, it's not just about embracing the past but learning from it and moving things forward. Some nostalgia trends need to jog on.
As Justin Timberlake once said: “What goes around comes back around” — which is ironic now coming from him. But I digress. True Religion, Ed Hardy, and Juicy Couture have all made a triumphant return if you can believe it. True Religion raked in £173 million in 2021, its most profitable year since 2013.
And then there's Marc Jacobs, who in the spring of 2022 debuted Heaven to the world — a sub-brand drenched in '90s nostalgia and a love letter to my youth. Tailored for Millennials, it also tickled the fancy of Gen Z shoppers by combining the old with the new, thereby appealing to fashion lovers across generations. Clever right?
Stine Goya is another label raising the fashion stakes by unveiling Goya Gallery, which promises to be an archive treasure trove. Following in these nostalgia-led footsteps, Ganni has joined the archival wave with a bunch of online sales and incentives, the profits of which go to charity. It’s only a matter of time before others get in on the action.
One archival store I’ve had the pleasure of visiting IRL is Acne Archive in Copenhagen, and it was everything I imagined it would be and better. The staff were attentive, the selection was curated and I was able to snap up some goodies I’d missed the first time they were released. It was a drain on my bank account, but I have absolutely no regrets and I will be going back for more someday.
They say fashion operates on a twenty-year cycle, so it makes sense why trends from my heyday are making a comeback. Lately, the sartorial stage has been swaying to the Millennium's rhythm. As a millennial seeing these trends a second time round adds a whole new layer of context I didn’t have decades ago, and suddenly things are starting to click. I'm just glad I can finally make sense of it all.
Today’s nostalgia-fuelled trend tornado hasn’t escaped the attention of Gen Z either, but there's no surprises there. With 54% of Gen Z falling in love with vintage styles, 90s and Y2K fashion have boomeranged back to life in the form of glitter details, claw clips, low-rise jeans and Von Dutch caps. Some Zer-led trends I'm into, some I could do without. But all in all, I'm not mad at this youth-fuelled nostalgia renaissance.
There's more to this nostalgia trend era than meets the eye, however. As we slip into our nostalgic ensembles we create a cosy bubble of comfort, and this yearning for the past offers us a sartorial escape from our daily lives and the chaos of the world around us. Nostalgia fashion is a safety blanket for many and we can't be mad at that.
But nowadays, nostalgia isn't just good; it's a fashionable source of truth — British Vogue's 2023 trend forecast states that our ongoing love affair with the 90s and 00s isn't going anywhere anytime soon. We've collectively embraced a nostalgic state of mind and are looking back to look ahead.
But is nostalgia fashion played out? And is it time to come up with something new?
Some may wonder if nostalgia's charm has worn thin, but whatever way you look at it fashion is going back to the future in an industry that's constantly sprinting forward. In this strange paradox, fashion stitches the past into its tapestry of the present, suggesting that sometimes the way forward is a trip down memory lane.
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