Predicting Gen Z fashion revivals
We examined Gen Z consumer trends to find out how brands can predict which decades will come back into fashion and what the revivals mean for fashion’s sustainable future.
Key takeaways
Social and cultural factors such as national lockdowns and political movements can help bring trends from the past back into fashion
The sustainable fashion movement has had a huge impact on the vintage fashion market but some pieces can be hard to find in good condition
Apps like Depop and TikTok are invaluable for seeing which trends will be popular with Gen Z
Gen Z experts and trend forecasters predict that the late 00s will be the next decade to make a comeback following strong 70s, 90s and Y2K revivals
Velour tracksuits and low-rise jeans were once banished to the back of our wardrobes. Tube tops and bandana shirts only reappeared in clickbait articles about the worst 00s fashion mistakes. We used to cringe at trends from the early 2000s, but now, 20 years later, Y2K fashion is back in a big way. The trend is most popular among Gen Z who scour resale apps like Depop to find pieces that look like clothes their mums or older siblings probably sold on eBay or donated to charity shops a few years ago. “Y2K fashion” was one of last year’s most Googled trends. But why do certain decades come back into fashion and can looking at trends from the past help us predict the trends of the future?
LOEWE Paula's Ibiza collection in collaboration with legendary boutique Paula's Ibiza, an icon of Balearic style from the 1970s onwards.
Case Study: Lockdown and the 70s DIY revival
According to creative agency The Digital Fairy, a consumer trend occurs when broader social factors such as cultural context, sentiment, lifestyles, and routines combine with direct stimuli; influencers, street culture, art, social media, media, or a general cultural ‘moment. “We’ve seen several examples of this occurring over lockdown, such as the rise in loungewear as a direct response to working from home. Among Gen Z, DIY fashion has surged in popularity as young people take up new creative hobbies from home and increase their support for independent businesses in the pandemic.
Popular DIY trends, such as tie dye and crochet, were also huge in the 70s when a do-it-yourself attitude was applied to everything from punk music to hippie communes. “The 70s was the decade for being connected with nature but also being politically active and motivated; two things I think Gen Z really resonate with,” says Gen Z expert Katie Ramsingh. “That said, any decade has the potential to fall into favour with Gen Z, as long as it's a look that can be replicated without exclusive luxury designer labels. If it can be sewn, reworked from second hand clothing, or found on Depop, they're into it.”
Jessie Aofie, 22, learnt to crochet on YouTube. She started selling her creations just before lockdown and has grown her business, Joopsie, in the pandemic. However, she’s sceptical about how long the trend will continue once the demand for fast delivery returns. “It’s easy to support small businesses when you have nowhere to go in a hurry,” she says. “Next day delivery isn’t necessary right now. I think the trend will remain popular, but I have a feeling as soon as festivals are back in action and people have parties to go to that they want a new outfit for, small businesses will not be where they turn.”
Vintage fashion and sustainability
The convenience of online fast fashion is still an incentive for young people, with 28% of Gen Z and 24% of Millennials citing convenience and price comparison as the top two benefits of online shopping. This doesn’t translate to small businesses like Joopsie. However, the same study found that Gen Z are willing to pay more for sustainable fashion and less willing to buy from a brand that doesn’t share their values.
The sustainable fashion movement has undoubtedly had an impact on bringing trends from previous decades back into fashion again. Young people are increasingly aware of the negative impact that fast fashion has on the planet, and while they might not have ditched fast fashion completely, they are more likely to opt for second hand, vintage or DIY garments than previous generations.
“Many of my customers are brand new to vintage when they come to the studio and are looking for ways to cut out fast fashion and shop more sustainably.”
Laura von Behr, founder of Laura von Behr vintage, says that sustainability is one of the main reasons that her customers come to her for vintage pieces. “Many of my customers are brand new to vintage when they come to the studio and are looking for ways to cut out fast fashion and shop more sustainably,” she says. The 60s and 70s are the most popular decades among Laura’s customers, particularly “the Victoriana style and cottagecore ditzy prints.”
However, recreating trends with original vintage garments does have limitations. “While I love pieces from earlier decades, the 30s in particular, they are becoming harder to find in good condition and need a lot of care as they can be delicate,” Laura says. “With more and more sellers it is becoming increasingly harder to source, especially with no opportunity to travel at the moment.” The more popular a trend, the faster it will get bought up in the vintage market and the lure of fast fashion creeps back in. Fast fashion brands can mass produce popular trends after they have been snapped up by early adopters in the vintage market. They can offer vintage-style garments in brand new condition and pieces inspired by older decades that are less accessible as genuine vintage.
Overall, however, Gen Z consumers have a more positive attitude towards shopping second hand than older generations. An estimated 46% of Gen Z shopped second hand in 2019, according to Medium, compared to 37% of millennials and only 18% of Gen X. Yet quality is still one of the most important factors for the younger generation and they are able to take advantage of the wide range of second hand and vintage retailers on the market today to seek out quality pieces.
Predicting the future
Fortunately, the most popular decades among Gen Z right now are undoubtedly the 90s and 00s and key pieces from these eras are easy to find on Depop and eBay. Both Katie Ramsingh and The Digital Fairy suggest that the next major fashion revival will be the late-00s; a time so recent that pieces will be easy to find second hand. “We’re already seeing a growing nostalgia for late 00s culture,” says The Digital Fairy. “Gossip Girl and Twilight are viral on TikTok with a new generation, memes about skinny jeans and stretchy belts are circulating on Twitter, Ugg boots are in demand again, and a recent Vice article reminisced about a golden era of ‘landfill indie’ music.”
If there is one app to use for Gen Z trend forecasting then that app is TikTok. Cottagecore’s meteoric rise last Spring was thanks partly to the app, and JW Anderson’s patchwork cardigan went viral as users recreated the look after it was worn by Harry Styles. A popular TikTok fashion challenge gets users to recreate looks from each decade.
JW Anderson’s Patchwork Cardigan
“For Gen Z, trend cycles are contracting and eras are blending. Thanks to the context collapse of the internet, the archival influence of Instagram, and an innate curatorial consciousness, Gen Z are the ultimate cultural DJs: selecting, remixing and remaking elements of eras and cultures that have come before them with freedom and an iconoclastic DIY spirit.”
New media requires new methods for trend forecasting. Social media has allowed for more of a remixed approach to fashion. “The old 20-year model of fashion trend forecasting is dying,” adds The Digital Fairy. “For Gen Z, trend cycles are contracting and eras are blending. Thanks to the context collapse of the internet, the archival influence of Instagram, and an innate curatorial consciousness, Gen Z are the ultimate cultural DJs: selecting, remixing and remaking elements of eras and cultures that have come before them with freedom and an iconoclastic DIY spirit.”
Young people may mix and match their influences, – pulling inspiration from archival Instagram pages and TikTok trends as well as older forms of culture like films and TV – but we can still spot some uniformity in their collective embrace of Y2K fashion. The parameters by which we predict trends are constantly shifting. Who could have predicted 2020’s rise in loungewear and DIY fashion two years ago without knowing the context of the pandemic? But while social and cultural factors keep shifting, Depop and TikTok will continue to be a good indicator for Gen Z trends in 2021, meaning that the key to predicting what will come back next is literally at your fingertips.
10.03.2021
