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<ul class="summary-list"><li>"<keyword id="13032544" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="indie-sleaze" source="Orion">Indie sleaze</keyword>" and "<keyword id="13765773" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="night-luxe" source="Orion">night luxe</keyword>" are <keyword id="11974765" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="gen-z" source="Orion">Gen Z</keyword>'s favorite aesthetics on TikTok right now.</li><li>One is a bit gritty, while the other is polished — but both romanticize urban party culture.</li></ul>You're in your early 20s on a Friday night: What are you wearing, and where are you going?Maybe you're posted up at a dark, swanky bar in a pair of strappy, sparkly Mach &amp; Mach heels, a Cult Gaia crystal-encrusted shoulder bag sitting next to a plate of oysters and an espresso martini in your hand.Or maybe you're tearing up the dance floor and shooting pool at a dive bar, wearing a graphic tee and a mohair cardigan, a cigarette dangling from your mouth.Gen Z is likely rocking one of these two distinct vibes, revived and rebranded as "night luxe" and "indie sleaze." One is the socialite, the other the hipster; both center on urban nightlife. Biz Sherbert, a culture specialist at the creative agency The Digital Fairy, described the former as "polished and luxurious" and the latter as "glittery and grimy."As is the case with most youth <keyword id="11893303" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="fashion" source="Orion">fashion</keyword> trends of the 2020s, both aesthetics took off on TikTok, where #nightluxe has 22.9 million views and #indiesleaze has 18.5 million views.At a surface level, they seem to attract opposing crowds."One is stilettos and martinis and trying to look rich; the other is ripped tights and PBR and trying to look broke," Casey Lewis, a trend strategist who writes a Substack newsletter called After School, told Insider. "But they're both heavy on excess." Much like the revival of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-pink-gen-z-yellow-very-peri-orchid-flower-generational-colors-2022-1">colorful clothing</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-millennials-reviving-old-money-aesthetic-fashion-decor-sports-2021-10">maximalist interior design</a>, it's a quality that signals a hedonistic thirst — a desire to let loose after two years of economic distress and <keyword id="11896136" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pandemic" source="Orion">pandemic</keyword> restrictions.In brightly hued tights or feather-trimmed skirts, Gen Zers are romanticizing pre-COVID party culture after the pandemic fast-tracked them into the pressures of adult life and deprived them of normal socialization and partying, Sherbert told Insider. As the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-gen-z-laid-off-furloughed-coronavirus-job-market-2020-4">hardest-hit generation in the labor force</a> during the coronavirus recession, forced to attend college remotely and socialize through their phones, Gen Z is nostalgic for 4 a.m. last calls and liberation after last year's <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/14/style/delta-variant-vaccine-covid-summer.html">failed Hot Vax Summer</a>.The reaction is an escape from an <keyword id="11893570" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="economy" source="Orion">economy</keyword> that stole <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-nostalgia-y2k-indie-sleaze-old-money-economic-response-2022-1">the first years of their adulthood</a> — and a stylish one at that.<h2>Hot Vax Summer 2.0 means partying like it's 1980 … or 1920</h2>Reminiscent of an American Apparel model headed to a dance club during the Tumblr era, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@oldloserinbrooklyn/video/7021634496009161989?is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v1&amp;q=%23indiesleaze&amp;t=1651074523917">indie sleaze hit TikTok last fall</a>. Mandy Lee, an analyst of Gen Z trends who goes by @oldloserinbrooklyn on TikTok, first pointed out the trend, identifying its hallmarks as provocative ads, amateur-style flash photography, and a rise in outdated technology like wired earphones.<a href="https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/54603/1/wtf-is-indie-sleaze-comeback-tiktok-trend-y2k-chanel-saint-laurent-cobrasnake">Dazed's Daniel Rodgers described it</a> as "grubby, maximalist, and performatively vintage," while <a href="https://www.nylon.com/fashion/indie-sleaze-2000s-fashion-comeback">Nylon's India Roby likened it</a> to a mashup of a Brooklyn hipster, the '80s electronica club scene, and grunge."Indie sleaze feels very driven by nostalgia and the way we were living vicariously through vintage snapshots of parties past and wild nights out we didn't experience," Véronique Hyland, the fashion features director at Elle and author of "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dress-Code-Unlocking-Fashion-Millennial/dp/0063050838/ref=sr_1_1?crid=30JLG6Z97DTV1&amp;keywords=dress+code&amp;qid=1651008810&amp;sprefix=dre%2Caps%2C1065&amp;sr=8-1">Dress Code: Unlocking Fashion from the New Look to Millennial Pink</a>," told Insider.The comeback of hipster grunge — which <a href="https://www.racked.com/2015/3/3/8134987/american-apparel-urban-outfitters-hipster-brands">millennials also revived</a> in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis — signals Gen Z's search for a simpler era, one uninhibited by social media and adult expenses."Indie sleaze serves as a somewhat painful reminder of the last gasp in time when it was possible to envision a future unscathed by the ravages of late capitalism," <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a38746992/the-return-of-indie-sleaze/">Isabel Slone wrote for Harper's Bazaar</a>, alluding to an economy that wasn't hindered by sky-high housing prices and inflation.A more recent emergence of nostalgia and hedonism, the put-together party vibe known as night luxe appeared this spring, identifiable on social media by chic nightlife photos cast under a darkened exposure. Slipping into a cab in a slinky black dress, sights set on cocktails and a night out with the girls — it's a modern-day take on the Roaring '20s, when people partied in an age of economic prosperity following a flu outbreak and a world war.In March, <a href="https://www.glossy.co/beauty/the-night-luxe-aesthetic-instagram-and-tiktoks-post-wellness-vibe-shift/">Glossy's Liz Flora declared</a> that night luxe had replaced the pastel, Instagram-driven wellness aesthetic that reigned supreme in the 2010s. Turning quarantine into a self-care obsession may have been the final nail in the coffin for the well-being mantras that influencers preached in recent years, while the shock of the pandemic made people question their dedication to work and what they want out of life. For the 20-something, that looks more like having a good time than self-optimization."There has definitely been a postpandemic shift away from burnout working culture," said <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lucy.xjd/">Lucy Davies</a>, a 29-year-old microinfluencer whose TikTok and Instagram accounts are rife with moody lighting, wine glasses, fur coats, and Chanel accessories. "Whereas once images were perfectly curated, there is now a trend for blurry and more candid content of people having fun on a glamorous night out."But Hyland isn't convinced that night luxe has taken hold outside of TikTok. "It may be one of those hyperspecific trends that feels like it's been concocted expressly for the platform," she said."But the opportunity to dress up and feel sophisticated is appealing after we burned out on sweatpants and tie-dye," she added, referring to the colorful '90s-inspired loungewear that became <a href="https://www.insider.com/gen-z-fashion-trends-that-baby-boomers-will-never-understand-2020-6">one of Gen Z's first fashion trends</a> to become popular on TikTok during lockdowns.Lewis, the trend strategist, says the unifying thread between night luxe and indie sleaze is an emphasis on after-hours and late-night opulence. Two years into the pandemic, "people are just so incredibly bored of sweats and athleisure and watching Netflix at home on the couch that they want whatever is the opposite of that," she said.She added: "After the Hot Girl Summer that wasn't, I think people just really want to party again. They want to have fun, and they want to do it in clothing that feels fun, a little messy, a little elegant."Hyland described dressing up for a night out after being cooped up as an embrace of fashion's social element. "Everyone wants to see and be seen," she said.

Party girls and grungy hipsters are taking over Gen Z fashion to reclaim Hot Vax Summer 2.0

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11974765" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="gen-z" source="Orion">Gen Z</keyword> brought back the maximalist <keyword id="13032544" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="indie-sleaze" source="Orion">indie sleaze</keyword> aesthetic of the mid-aughts.</li><li>Think American Apparel and flash photography: it's hipstery, a little grungy, and clubby.</li></ul>Another mid-aughts aesthetic has made a comeback thanks to Gen Z: indie sleaze.Millennials may know it as "hipster."Reminiscent of an American Apparel model headed to a dance club during the Tumblr era, the hedonistic style first appeared on TikTok last fall when Gen Z trend analyst Mandy Lee, known as <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@oldloserinbrooklyn">old loser in Brooklyn</a> on the social app, declared it was resurging.Several outlets have since reported on the rise of the aesthetic. <a href="https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/54603/1/wtf-is-indie-sleaze-comeback-tiktok-trend-y2k-chanel-saint-laurent-cobrasnake">Dazed Digital's Daniel Rodgers</a> described it as "grubby, maximalist, and performatively vintage," while <a href="https://www.nylon.com/fashion/indie-sleaze-2000s-fashion-comeback">Nylon's India Roby</a> likened it to a mashup between a Brooklyn hipster, the '80s electronica club scene, and grunge. Think Polaroid photos and party vibes, mohair cardigans and band t-shirts, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/12/style/smoking-cigarettes-comeback.html">cigarettes</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-fashion-trends-reviving-wired-headphones-airpods-finance-bro-2021-11">wired headphones</a>, Mary-Kate Olsen and Pete Doherty.As is the case with most of the '90s and early 2000s trends Gen Z has recently revived, the aesthetic is a retaliation to the conspicuous wealth that emerged in the 2010s <keyword id="11893570" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="economy" source="Orion">economy</keyword>. Indie sleaze is an uncurated, hot mess — the opposite of the clean, minimal vibe of millennial productivity and influencing. This post-coronavirus recession rise of the hipster echoes the emergence of the Great Recession hipster in 2008, both fueled by a nostalgic search for an easier era.Indie sleaze also represents a thirst for fun after economic distress. <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/article/indie-sleaze-trend-comeback">Lee explained to Vogue</a> that people are craving community and creativity after lockdown. "I feel like with the indie sleaze subculture, 15 years ago, community, art, and music were so powerful," she said, "that's what brought people together."<h2>The post-recession hipster is back</h2>Gen Z's love for indie sleaze isn't just about reckless, post-lockdown euphoria. It's a search for a simpler era, one uninhibited by <keyword id="11895013" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="social-media" source="Orion">social media</keyword> and adult expenses.As Isabel Slone wrote <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a38746992/the-return-of-indie-sleaze/">for Harper's Bazaar</a>, "Indie sleaze serves as a somewhat painful reminder of the last gasp in time when it was possible to envision a future unscathed by the ravages of late capitalism."The youth often becomes nostalgic during economic hardship, seeking comfort and connection. Such was the case for Gen Z, who is adjusting to the realities of adult life in the middle of a global health crisis. They were <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-gen-z-laid-off-furloughed-coronavirus-job-market-2020-4">the hardest-hit generation in the labor force</a> . Even a year into the pandemic, recent college grads were having the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-graduates-hardest-time-job-hunting-recession-2021-7">toughest time finding jobs</a>. Plus, many were forced to attend school remotely and socialize almost exclusively through their phones. As a coping mechanism, they reminisced about the '90s and early 2000s, when social media didn't yet exist, Michael Pankowski, the founder of the Gen Z marketing consulting firm <a href="https://www.crimsonconnection.net/">Crimson Connection</a>, previously <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-nostalgia-y2k-indie-sleaze-old-money-economic-response-2022-1">told Insider</a>. To them, that unplugged lifestyle is a novelty."While we love the internet, the pandemic's grave effect on in-person interaction has made the digital world basically all we have," he said. "So we feel nostalgic for a time before the internet had become so omnipresent."It's similar to the hipster take-off around the time of the 2008 financial crisis. While hipsterdom existed as far back as <a href="https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/julyaugust/feature/how-did-cool-become-such-big-deal-0">the late 1940s</a> in various iterations, the subculture was commodified during the Great Recession as college students began to lean toward "indie rock or '80s <keyword id="12019777" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nostalgia" source="Orion">nostalgia</keyword>," <a href="https://www.racked.com/2015/3/3/8134987/american-apparel-urban-outfitters-hipster-brands">as Racked put it</a> — elder millennials' way of seeking simpler times as the economy crumbled. Brands like American Apparel and Urban Outfitters <a href="https://www.racked.com/2015/3/3/8134987/american-apparel-urban-outfitters-hipster-brands">capitalized on the trend</a>, bringing it mainstream.It seems that when a recession hits, hipsters unite. This time, Gen Z is leading the way.

Gen Z brought post-recession hipster fashion back — rebranded as 'indie sleaze'

From Y2K to old money, inside the 4 subcultures Gen Z revived during the pandemic

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Dad fashion is trending again.</li><li>It's a humble throwback to the Kramercore of the 90s that followed a brief recession.</li></ul>You've heard of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/girl-summer-taylor-swift-beyonce-barbie-childcare-crisis-pandemic-aid-2023-9">hot girl summer</a>. Now, it's going to be another dad winter.Think <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/walking-shoes-millennial-gen-z-status-symbol-covid-wfh-economy-2021-3">sneakers</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-everyone-loves-bean-boots-2015-3">durable boots</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/guides/style/best-flannel-shirts-men">flannels</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://nypost.com/article/gen-z-fashion-trends-style-aesthetic/">big sweatshirts</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://hatheaven.com/blogs/news/why-nba-fitted-hats-are-essential-for-gen-zs-casual-style">baseball hats</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://people.com/style/womens-cargo-pants-trend/">cargo pants</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-fashion-trends-90s-sustainable-ugly-shoes-kramer-2023-8">Kramer</a>, and, yes, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2023/aug/12/long-and-the-short-of-it-why-knee-grazing-jorts-are-big-this-summer">jorts</a>.Dad-style <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGrtuqoHhcQ">stalwart brands</a> like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/24/suddenly-obsessed-how-new-balance-built-a-5-billion-brand.html#:~:text=New%20Balance%2C%20which%20in%202022,over%20the%20next%20few%20years.%E2%80%9D">New Balance</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.retaildive.com/news/ll-bean-ironic-totes-second-best-revenue-sales/645343/">L.L. Bean</a> have exploded in popularity; the hashtag "newbalance" has four billion views on TikTok, the Internet's new town square and ground zero for the latest trends. GQ celebrated "Stylish Dad Week" over the summer for Father's Day, and even compiled their own listicle of famous guys who "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.gq.com/gallery/famous-dads-style">made dad style look glorious</a>."It's a stark contrast to the sexier trends that characterized the early post-vaccine era — like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-millennials-reviving-old-money-aesthetic-fashion-decor-sports-2021-10">old money</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-night-luxe-vibe-shift-fashion-partying-over-wellness-2022-4">night luxe,</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-indie-sleaze-trend-hipster-grunge-party-2022-1">indie sleaze</a>.So why did those evolve into dad fashion? One answer could be in the economy.Unlike the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/hot-vaxx-summer-pandemic-horniness-is-coming-blissful-release-2021-3?_gl=1*1p8cogg*_ga*MTkyOTg3MDQxLjE2OTUyMTYxMzU.*_ga_E21CV80ZCZ*MTcwMTI2OTM1OS4yNTYuMS4xNzAxMjc0Mzc4LjI5LjAuMA..">hot vax summer of 2021</a>, when people were eager to don <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/going-out-clothes-sales-rising-vaccines-retailers-vaccine-summer-2021-4">going out clothes again</a> and take <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/caviar-bumps-status-symbol-millennials-gen-z-roaring-20s-nyt-2022-6">caviar bumps</a>, this winter is ushering in a far more tempered economic outlook. While inflation may have been on the rise back then, workers were exercising their power to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/quit-job-great-resignation-big-stay-changing-jobs-market-2023-5">quit their jobs</a> for higher pay and better opportunities. They had <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-millennials-financial-futures-jobs-economy-money-pandemic-recession-2023-4">excess savings from the pandemic</a>, and some federal support like monthly checks for parents still flowed. As the extra cash and pay bumps dried up, Americans began facing a cooled off economy —and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/a36674454/adam-sandler-tiktok-fashion-style/">choosing outfits to match</a>.<h2>The rise and return of Dadcore</h2>Dad fashion is not a new trend, it's just returning in a new way, according to Thomaï Serdari, a clinical associate professor of marketing and the director of the fashion and luxury MBA at New York University.In the 1990's, Seinfeld popularized a dad vibe. People loved <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-fashion-trends-90s-sustainable-ugly-shoes-kramer-2023-8">Kramer's outfits</a> so much that it became difficult to source them. The look fit the times because <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-fashion-trends-90s-sustainable-ugly-shoes-kramer-2023-8?IR=C">consumers were facing an uncertain world, and a rocky economy</a>. A style that projected both timelessness and chaos made sense with the vibes.So why is it back now? The economic situation has tempered. Prices are high, the once-hot jobs market has cooled along with pay raises, and young people in particular are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boomer-millennials-debt-financial-security-interest-rates-recession-savings-2023-11">struggling</a> with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-debt-credit-card-payments-afford-middle-class-lifestyle-2023-2">heavy debt loads</a> that they can't pay off.Younger consumers in particular feel <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/business/economy/democrats-biden-economy.html">dreary about the economy</a>, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll of 3,662 voters in Biden swing states. Just 11% of Americans ages 18 to 29 polled from October 22 to November 3 said that they feel excellent or good about the economy; 89% said it was poor or only fair. Consumer sentiment is low, albeit not as bad as it was during the drearier days of 2022, when inflation was even higher and layoffs were dominating headlines.All of that might explain why dad fashion is once again dominant. Previous eras of dad fashion, which fell during the mid-90s and the 2010s, came a few years after a recession and major economic fluctuations.Dad fashion seems to show up when consumers are feeling wary — not the worst they've felt, but certainly not the best. That might make sense: If anything, dads are known for being pragmatic, and maybe just a tad jaded — they've been here before. That sense of economic grumpiness might be inadvertently showing up in that dad fashion."You don't make a decision to show up angry, but you get angry on the way," Serdari said. "And so that's also how the outfit is created."Dadcore's revival came in parallel to a more "Roaring 20s" look due to the way the internet made us all obsessed with subcultures. Long gone are the days that you'd go to Bloomingdales or a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/department-stores-evolution-then-now-photos-2019-1">department store</a> to get dressed; instead, you're following points of view and people you find interesting, and emulating that. It's much more fragmented.These so-called "core cultures" arose on platforms like Tumblr, Reddit, Instagram, and TikTok, in which young fashion consumers are eager to chop up fashion trends into subcultures and become devotees. Think <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/guides/home/cottagecore-aesthetic">cottagecore</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/guides/style/barbiecore">Barbiecore</a>, and even <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/corecore-is-gen-z-latest-trendy-aesthetic-on-tiktok-2023-2">corecore</a>."They're more eager to distinguish themselves by belonging to community, which is another big difference that didn't exist in the Seinfeld years — we see many more iterations of the same dad fashion," Serdari said.And Dadcore is one type of core that's recently successfully made a crossover from niche Internet tribe to the wider streets."It is now a mainstream phenomenon, but while it is mainstream, it is also core. It is a subculture that has diffused into the mainstream culture," Serdari said.

The return of dad fashion matches how Americans feel about the economy

<ul class="summary-list"><li>People are confused about what Gen Z does for fun. Some are worried they don't have fun at all.</li><li>Gen Zers say they spend a lot of time in the house reading, playing games, and crocheting.</li></ul>What does "fun" mean to Gen Z? That's the question on the minds of millennials since a TikToker who goes by Ashley posed the question that went hugely viral.In a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@ashleyteacozy/video/7302138605147901189">video</a> posted on November 16, Ashley, who said she's almost 33, posited that millennials like her got to have a way better time in their late teens and early 20s than Gen Zers are now.She told viewers she had the "best time" being an emo kid in 2005, describing the indie sleaze scene, going clubbing, drinking, and hanging out in bars and restaurants because they were affordable.She noted that for people who came of age during the pandemic, the experience of early adulthood would have been much different."What do you do for fun?" she asked. "It's like a Friday night, a Saturday night, like, do you go out? Do you go to a club? Or do you just, like, go to shows? Is it only raves now?" Her video received over 650,000 views and 5,000 comments, which showed a stark contrast in how people viewed "fun" 10-15 years ago compared to what Gen Z does now.<h2>Gen Zers are in their 'grandma era'</h2>Many people who said they were millennials recalled enjoying similar things to Ashley when they were younger, while commenters who said they were Gen Zers confirmed her suspicions that their experiences of having fun were different.One viewer wrote that every Gen Z they know is in their "grandma era." They added, "Crocheting and reading books on the weekend, which is fine but it's so not what I was doing at 22."Another commented, "I'm 23 and I rot inside. There isn't much to do anymore and it's too expensive; so I crochet and play video games."In conclusion, Ashley determined in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@ashleyteacozy/video/7303667455287692550">follow-up video</a> that, "It turns out that Gen Z actually just simply does not have any fun."This second video went even more viral, receiving over 1 million views, although its premise may be a bit of an exaggeration. Ashley acknowledged that some people had told her they did have fun, just in different ways such as hanging out at people's houses rather than going out. She also noted a lesser focus on binge drinking."Just way more wholesome," she said. "It's kinda cool that Gen Z has more variety that doesn't just include drinking until you vomit."<h2>Gen Zers' idea of 'fun' may be shaped by the economic and social landscape</h2>Ashley's idea that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-drinking-less-alcohol-bad-news-concert-venues-promoters-2023-6">young people are drinking less</a> than older generations has legs. In a 2021 Gallup survey, only 60% of respondents aged 18 to 34 said they drank alcohol, whereas for those aged 35-54, the figure was 70%.This could be down to health concerns and ineffective marketing — but also cost, a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/email/genz/2023/10/2023-10-17c.html">McKinsey report suggested</a>. Cost is a key factor in many choices made by Gen Zers, according to responses to Ashley's video. One TikToker who said they graduated high school in 2006 referred to this as the "gentrification of fun" in their own video."Everything is so expensive nowadays that you have to literally monetize your hobbies to be able to really enjoy them to the maximum potential," they said.While <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/falling-inflation-outlook-fed-target-interest-rates-rent-prices-oil-2023-11">inflation is decreasing</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/high-inflation-goods-durables-deflation-groceries-expensive-federal-reserve-cars-2023-12">some things are getting cheaper</a>, it's mostly household appliances and cars that are becoming more affordable. Items more likely to be on young people's shopping lists, like clothing and groceries, remain high, BI previously reported.Many viewers also wrote that they had no one to hang out with because they had no friends — an issue that seems to be impacting Gen Z in particular. In December 2022, a survey from the Harvard Graduate School of Education found that over a third of respondents aged 18 to 25 said they had <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-loneliness-spends-money-to-make-friends-2023-9">felt lonely frequently</a>, almost all the time, or all the time in the previous month.It appears that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/loneliness-epidemic-decline-in-third-places-friends-parks-community-2023-9?r=US&amp;IR=T">the number of "third places"</a> — where people can meet outside the home or office — is also dwindling. This includes bars, parks, coffee shops, libraries, and even sidewalks, BI previously reported.The few options that are still available <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inflation-cost-of-living-alcohol-coffee-going-out-more-expensive-2023-10?r=US&amp;IR=T">are also becoming pricier</a>, which may be may be driving people to spend more time at home, limiting opportunities to build relationships, form connections, and have fun.Perhaps the crux of the issue isn't that Gen Zers don't know how to have fun — it's that many of them can't afford to.

Millennials think Gen Z doesn't know how to have fun — but it's more complicated than that

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The pop-music trends of 2023 bear a striking resemblance to 2013, both sonically and aesthetically.</li><li>Today, Tumblr-era artists like The 1975 and Lana Del Rey are as popular as ever.</li></ul>Around this time last December, just as the winter chill began to creep in, I made a playlist titled "I'm 18 years old again."My nostalgia was triggered by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/best-albums-this-year-ranked-2022-12">then-recent releases</a> like The 1975's "Being Funny in a Foreign Language" and Arctic Monkeys' "The Car." Those bands delivered two formative albums of my adolescence: "The 1975" and "AM," both released in September 2013, the same month I began my freshman year of college.When I made the playlist, I was working off a hunch. But something in the air — or, more accurately, something on my phone screen — carried the peculiar suspense of homecoming. My indie-sleaze spidey senses, honed over many years as an active Tumblr user, were tingling.This year — a full decade after I reblogged a photo of Matty Healy for the first time — that faint whisper of reprise seemed to solidify. From a pop-music lover's perspective, 2023 looks a lot like a 2013 doppelgänger.<div type="image" title="matty healy the 1975 then and now" height="1200" width="2400" msid="106166071" hostid="261" sizebytes="227208"></div>It's often said that trends are cyclical, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/5/7/21247938/tumblr-aesthetic-2014-nostalgia-tiktok-indie-pop">so this isn't exactly a revelation</a>. New generations make old fads cool again. Low-rise jeans and ballet flats are back, somehow.But it's hard to deny the parallel appeal of these two sister years — or the sheer volume of mirror images that have dominated my feeds for the past 12 months, familiar to anyone who once considered <a target="_blank" href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/201106/the-way-i-work-david-karp-of-tumblr.html">David Karp</a> a personal hero.The 1975's current tour, aptly titled "Still… At Their Very Best," has been extended into 2024 after <a target="_blank" href="https://www.rollingstone.co.uk/music/live-reviews/the-1975-live-in-brighton-a-game-changing-arena-show-for-the-ages-25605/">igniting a surge of critical praise</a> and an explosion of interest on TikTok. (I know it's been a long year, but don't tell me you've already forgotten the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@dimariacountmein/video/7195015343419510059?is_from_webapp=1&amp;sender_device=pc&amp;web_id=7292150377570190879">"don't like menthols"</a> phase.) The elusive Frank Ocean, who once <a target="_blank" href="https://pitchfork.com/features/article/2010s-how-tumblr-culture-legitimized-queer-fandom-frank-ocean-troye-sivan-one-direction/">used Tumblr</a> to help create his mythology, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/coachella-frank-ocean-performance-review-disappointing-2023-4">headlined Coachella</a> in April. Lana Del Rey's latest offering "Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd," which continues to paint the singer as a tragic Americana icon, is a frontrunner for album of the year at the upcoming Grammy Awards.<div type="image" title="lana del rey music videos then and now" height="600" width="1200" msid="106166073" hostid="261" sizebytes="19526"></div>It's true that Ocean and Del Rey never really went out of style. But the 2013 revival goes deeper than certain artists being as popular as ever.Many artists who released music that year were grappling with a strange, transitional vibe. Words like "selfie" and "emoji" had just been <a target="_blank" href="https://newsfeed.time.com/2013/08/28/dictionary-adds-badassery-selfie-and-twerk/">added</a> to the Oxford dictionary. The term "catfish" entered the mainstream lexicon. The constant presence of smartphones was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINa46HeWg8">starting to feel sinister</a>. It's not an exaggeration to say that in 2013, we were on the cusp of a whole new world.Consider albums like Lorde's "Pure Heroine," Sky Ferreria's "Night Time, My Time," and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.stereogum.com/2222860/vampire-weekend-modern-vampires-of-the-city-turns-10/reviews/the-anniversary/">Vampire Weekend's "Modern Vampires of the City,"</a> which stand out as emblematic of that time. Themes of defiance, isolation, mortality, and suburban malaise were filtered through a particular lens: sleek yet informal; carefully spare; often monochromatic.These albums didn't only shape sonic trends, but aesthetic ones. The language of 2013 was emphatically visual, as young people spent an ever-increasing amount of time online.Even major stars understood this. Miley Cyrus overhauled her brand in 2013 with "Bangerz," a neon-lit dreamscape that used giant teddy bears to obscure growing pains. Meanwhile, Beyoncé changed the game with that digital drop; "Beyoncé" was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/a46028501/beyonce-self-titled-10-year-anniversary/">her first visual album</a>, a practice in mood-building as much as storytelling. It opened with "<a target="_blank" href="https://youtu.be/LXXQLa-5n5w?si=JJvPw4iCk1cX7PgJ">Pretty Hurts</a>," a boldfaced critique of modernity. (To continue the line of symmetry, Cyrus and Beyoncé both had banner years in 2023 with "Endless Summer Vacation" and the Renaissance World Tour, respectively.)<div type="image" title="miley cyrus adore you river music videos" height="600" width="1200" msid="106166074" hostid="261" sizebytes="26282"></div>Though distinct and different in many ways, the albums and songs of 2013 shared a self-conscious quality — hyper-aware of perception and pageantry — that felt, at least to my teenage brain, novel and era-defining.Over the past 10 years, the power of the digital, visual space has swelled beyond hyperbole. These days, particularly with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/26/23519605/tiktok-viral-videos-privacy-surveillance-street-interviews-vlogs">the dominance of TikTok</a>, it can feel like real life is nothing but a staging ground for social media — and the ominous uncertainty of the world we've created is more pronounced than ever.There's an appetite for art that understands the plight of the online era, the simultaneous desire to hide and be seen. For my demographic, of course, the appeal is both angsty and sentimental. "Watching 'Teenage Diary of a Girl,' wondering what went wrong," Del Rey laments on her latest album, while Healy puts it even more bluntly: "I'm sorry if you're living and you're 17."Pop music has always been a useful tool to gauge the taste and tolerance of a given time period.There are many different ways to interpret the trends of 2023, but my read is simple, if inadequate: It's a bit of a surreal nightmare out here. It makes sense for the sensitive, cynical vibe of 2013 to reemerge with a vengeance.

The 2023 music scene is 2013 all over again

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Cory Kennedy was the internet's first "It" girl as a teenager in the early aughts.</li><li>Now she represents a generation that has some economic power, and she just wants a house and garden.</li></ul>You can still see the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-indie-sleaze-trend-hipster-grunge-party-2022-1">indie sleaze</a> on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/corymkennedy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cory Kennedy's Instagram account:</a> Photos of Kennedy as a teen-about-town in heavy eyeliner, blurry bar scenes, and ripped stockings, alongside other early-aughts icons like Lindsay Lohan and Alexa Chung.It's a reminder of her time as "<a href="https://www.thecut.com/article/cory-kennedy-new-york-it-girl.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the internet's first 'It' girl,</a>" as New York Magazine dubbed her in a recent profile.While the grunge look is firmly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-nostalgia-y2k-indie-sleaze-old-money-economic-response-2022-1">back in style</a> — and still tinges the edges of Kennedy's look more than a decade later — the 33-year-old, who currently lives in Brooklyn, recently told <a href="https://www.thecut.com/article/cory-kennedy-new-york-it-girl.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Magazine</a> that she's moving on from the lifestyle it evokes.In fact, like many millennials who've aged out of their hard-partying 20s, Kennedy said she's ready for a new phase of life and recently closed on a house in Connecticut with her boyfriend."It's less people, more trees. I want to live this bucolic life," she told the magazine. "I want to garden, like a freaking hipster Martha Stewart."Don't we all?Many millennials, born between 1981 to 1996, have slogged through a debt-filled, paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle thrust upon them by two recessions, a roller-coaster job market, a student-debt crisis, and a massive housing shortage. It's led to stress, burnout, and a delay in major life milestones like marriage, buying a home, and starting a family.But signs point to some in the generation finally crawling out of that financial hole. Millennials led the exodus from cities during the pandemic, opting for more suburban, exurban, or small-town living, and why trends like cottagecore and tiny homes dominate social-media feeds. Plus, like generations before them, millennials have simply grown up. While the psychological toll of economic stress could stick around for a while, some of us can now afford to ditch our time squatting on the sidewalk smoking a cigarette and focus on what Martha calls "<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=martha+stewart+talking+about+gardening&amp;oq=martha+stewart+talking+about+gardening&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160j33i22i29i30l8.11843j0j7&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&amp;vld=cid:3d4eb796,vid:ooTxgpCa31E" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the art of gardening.</a>"<h2>From teenage dirtbag to proud homeowner</h2>The <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/teenagedirtbag?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#teenagedirtbag hashtag</a> on TikTok has 2.7 billion views. That's a lot, even for TikTok.The trend goes like this: Videos start off with someone — typically an elder millennial or Gen Xer — nodding along to a sped-up version of the 2000 banger "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus. As the song launches into the chorus, the image switches to photos of that person as a teenager, wearing some '90s or early-aughts trend like baggy, low-slung jeans, tube tops, smudged eyeliner, or shell necklaces.Today, many of those dirtbag teens have traded in their mesh trucker hats for kids and a mortgage. Despite a slow start, 62% of 40-year-olds now <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-higher-homeownership-rates-than-millennials-at-age-25-2023-4">own their home</a>, a recent report by Redfin found. That's not far off from Gen Xer and baby boomers' homeownership rates at the same age. It's one reason the academic Jean M. Twenge has thrown a wrench in the discourse about how the economy has screwed millennials. In her recent article in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/05/millennial-generation-financial-issues-income-homeowners/673485/?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Atlantic</a>, Twenge said millennials have experienced "a breathtaking financial comeback" since the mid-2010s."Millennials, as a group, are not broke — they are, in fact, thriving economically," Twenge wrote. Since roughly 2015, <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/chart/#quarter:133;series:Net%20worth;demographic:generation;population:all;units:levels" target="_blank" rel="noopener">millennial household wealth</a> started to surpass that of previous generations at the same age. "By 2019, households headed by Millennials were making considerably more money than those headed by the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, and Generation X at the same age, after adjusting for inflation," Twenge wrote.It may have taken a while in the wake of the Great Recession, but millennials have finally started to hit those classic markers of adulthood in the same way their Gen X older siblings and boomer parents did. The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-generation-characteristics-didnt-actually-get-screwed-by-economy-trends-2023-4">myth of the millennial trapped</a> in an endless cycle of trashy dive bars, avocado toast, and dead-end jobs has given way to a prosperous batch of new homeowners and parents slowly but steadily building wealth.As millennials' wealth builds, however, their nostalgia for simpler times remains, as seen in the revival of aughts and '90s fashion. Even <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRTCgURy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Martha Stewart</a> jumped on the teenage-dirtbag train — though she could take some notes from Kennedy on the sleaze.

Early-aughts 'It' girl Cory Kennedy entering her 'hipster Martha Stewart' era pretty much sums up how millennials are gearing up for middle age

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The "night luxe" aesthetic is replacing <keyword id="11895013" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="social-media" source="Orion">social media</keyword>'s wellness trend, <a href="https://www.glossy.co/beauty/the-night-luxe-aesthetic-instagram-and-tiktoks-post-wellness-vibe-shift/">reported Liz Flora for Glossy</a>.</li><li>A modern-day take on the 1920s, it symbolizes hedonistic desires and nostalgia after economic distress.</li></ul>Meditation and green juices are out, late nights and martinis are in. The "night luxe" aesthetic has replaced the wellness aesthetic that reigned supreme on social media in the 2010s as part of the latest vibe shift, <a href="https://www.glossy.co/beauty/the-night-luxe-aesthetic-instagram-and-tiktoks-post-wellness-vibe-shift/">Glossy's Liz Flora reported</a>. Photos depict the refined party girl's night out — cocktail in one hand, oyster in the other — donning a slinky slip mini dresses under a darkened exposure. It's an edgy glam feel, accompanied by #nightluxe or #darkluxuryaesthetic. The trend symbolizes the desire to let loose after two years of economic distress and intermittent lockdowns in which many <a href="https://www.vox.com/22536756/covid-pandemic-quarantine-lockdown-productivity-hobbies-work">felt the pressure to better themselves</a> during newfound freetime. Turning quarantine into a self-care hobby may have been the final nail in the coffin to the well-being mantras that influencers came to preach in recent years. Flora writes that while the wellness trend still dominates, it's reached a tipping point, prompting backlash for being performative, a signal that it's on its way out."Hedonism is the new wellness," she wrote. As TikTok user @thedigifairy <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@thedigifairy/video/7081670260511886597?is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v1&amp;q=%23nightluxe&amp;t=1649862480941">explains in a video</a>, night luxe "centers on luxurious urban nightlife and the <keyword id="11893303" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="fashion" source="Orion">fashion</keyword> that goes along with it."It's just one of many aesthetics that have cropped up post-lockdown as part of <keyword id="11974765" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="gen-z" source="Orion">Gen Z</keyword>'s retaliation to the 2010s <keyword id="11893570" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="economy" source="Orion">economy</keyword> in which millennials came of age. Consider the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-fashion-trends-old-money-aesthetic-status-symbols-2021-9">"old money" aesthetic</a>, which also goes by "dark academia." Like night luxe, it can have moody vibes but it's marked by an aspiration to the coastal upper crust lifestyle and contrasts with the new money, athleisure feel of the 2010s' billionaire class or the "California rich" influencer.There's also the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-indie-sleaze-trend-hipster-grunge-party-2022-1">rise of indie sleaze</a>, another hedonistic party aesthetic. This one hails back to the mid-aughts with club-meets-hipster-meets-grunge vibes. It's the opposite of the clean, minimal look of millennial productivity and influencing. As <a href="https://www.nylon.com/beauty/party-girl-beauty-is-the-post-wellness-trend-taking-over-tiktok">Laura Pitcher points out for Nylon</a>, the irony is that by rejecting the rigidity of the perfectly curated Instagram aesthetic, party girl trends like night luxe have become a new aesthetic to aspire to. <h2>Black is back</h2>At the core of these counter-trends is nostalgia. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-gen-z-laid-off-furloughed-coronavirus-job-market-2020-4">Gen Z was the hardest-hit generation in the labor force</a> and they were forced to attend school remotely and socialize almost exclusively through their phones. It prompted reminiscing on times when social media didn't yet exist."While we love the internet, the pandemic's grave effect on in-person interaction has made the digital world basically all we have," Michael Pankowski, founder of the Gen Z marketing consulting firm <a href="https://www.crimsonconnection.net/">Crimson Connection</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-nostalgia-y2k-indie-sleaze-old-money-economic-response-2022-1">told Insider</a>. "So we feel nostalgic for a time before the internet had become so omnipresent."What's different about night luxe from other Gen Z pandemic-era trends is that instead of recalling the mid-aughts, it's more of a modern-day version of 1920s style — it's more refined. There's also its color palette. From indie sleaze to the Y2K resurgence of butterfly clips and spaghetti straps, most of 2020's youth aesthetics have bursted with color and maximalism. Think lime green, hot pink, and lemon yellow. Again, these choices can be explained by the economy. Consumers seek out familiar and reassuring colors like browns, neutrals, and blacks during a recession, Jenny Clark, head of color at WGSN, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-pink-gen-z-yellow-very-peri-orchid-flower-generational-colors-2022-1">previously told Insider</a>. "On the flip side, when the economy is stronger and the outlook is more positive we tend to see a lot more brights and neons," she added. That's exactly what we saw during last year's short-lived <a href="https://www.insider.com/hot-vaxx-summer-pandemic-horniness-is-coming-blissful-release-2021-3">hot vax summer</a>, the period of post-vaxxed bliss as the economy headed toward a boom before new variants and inflation fears popped up. But the night luxe girl's favorite color is black, a startling departure from the mainstream. She's rejecting not just the 2010s, but even the trends of her own peers. Or, maybe she just knows we could be <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inflation-recession-talk-creating-vibe-shift-economy-2022-4">headed for another possible recession</a>.

Wellness is out and partying is in as Gen Z takes on a 'night luxe' aesthetic

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The youth become nostalgic when the <keyword id="11893570" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="economy" source="Orion">economy</keyword> is struggling, seeking comfort and connection. </li><li>It's why <keyword id="11974765" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="gen-z" source="Orion">Gen Z</keyword> is reviving indie sleaze, old-money prep, and <keyword id="12346211" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="y2k" source="Orion">Y2K</keyword> trends of the '90s and early 2000s.</li></ul>Nearly two years ago, when New York City became the epicenter of the coronavirus in the US, I found solace on my couch watching TV. I checked in for new episodes of "The Bold Type." I devoured "Sex and the City" for the first time. I rewatched "Younger."Living vicariously through the glamorous antics of 20- and 30-somethings in pre-pandemic New York was a comfort in a time when my favorite haunts shuttered their doors and nothing sparkled in Times Square but the billboards. Uncertainty, anxiety, and loneliness triggered my <keyword id="12019777" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nostalgia" source="Orion">nostalgia</keyword> for a bustling, energized NYC, the Le Moyne College professor and psychologist Krystine Batcho told me. A researcher of nostalgia, Batcho explained that it's a common response when a troubled economy disrupts our lifestyles. Right now, it's most evident in the '90s and early-2000s trends that Gen Z is reviving. <div type="image" title="gen z baggy jeans" height="3204" width="4272" msid="89076345" hostid="261"></div>"For many people, particularly young adults or those without a financial safety net, poor economic conditions raise fears of being able to meet financial obligations like rent or student-debt payments," Batcho said. "Nostalgia is a refuge, as people turn to the feelings of comfort, security, and love they enjoyed in their past."It explains why so many of us <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/04/why-exes-are-reconnecting-coronavirus-quarantine/610081/">texted our exes</a> when the <keyword id="11896136" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pandemic" source="Orion">pandemic</keyword> hit; why so many shows and movies got reboots, from "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/where-to-watch-gossip-girl">Gossip Girl</a>" and "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/satc-reboot-carrie-bradshaw-iconic-bags-status-symbol-discreet-wealth-2021-7">And Just Like That</a>" to "<a href="https://www.insider.com/spider-man-no-way-home-does-right-by-andrew-garfield-2021-12">Spiderman</a>;" why companies and brands <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/business-insiders-top-advertising-and-media-stories-for-october-15-2020-10">beefed up nostalgia marketing</a>; and why <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-versus-gen-z-it-generation-cool-fashion-trends-pandemic-2021-9">all the things that are now cool</a> in our pandemic world transport us back to a simpler time.While I soaked up skyscrapers and taxi cabs on screen, Gen Zers (born from 1997 onward) watched "Friends" for the first time and thrifted '90s clothes. Their search for simpler times before adulthood — free of social-media trolling, <a href="https://www.insider.com/influencers-edited-my-photos-to-make-me-look-completely-different-2020-6">Facetune</a>, and remote school — led to the resurgence of trends that were hot long before the hardships of the pandemic or even the <keyword id="12266328" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="great-recession" source="Orion">Great Recession</keyword>. We emerged from quarantine to a vaccinated world where <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/12/style/smoking-cigarettes-comeback.html">cigarettes,</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-fashion-trends-reviving-wired-headphones-airpods-finance-bro-2021-11">wired headphones</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-millennials-reviving-old-money-aesthetic-fashion-decor-sports-2021-10">preppy style</a>, and Y2K fashion trends are in again. But youth nostalgia is not just a product of the existing economy. It can reshape it for years to come. Because 20-somethings typically <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/typical-gen-z-student-debt-savings-y2k-trends-2021-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wield the most influence</a> in what consumers buy, they set the tone for a new economic and cultural chapter.<h2>The youth's search for comfort</h2>You don't have to be a certain age or gender to feel nostalgic during troubling times. But it can be more potent for those in a state of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-pandemic-shaped-millennials-adulthood-growing-up-2021-3">emerging adulthood</a> — that 20-something limbo between adolescence and full maturity."It's a bittersweet time when you trade in childhood innocence for the independence of adulthood, not yet having experienced the more disappointing aspects of social behavior," Batcho said.Gen Zers are adjusting to the realities of adult life. They hadn't yet experienced the full impact of economic hardship until the pandemic, when they bore the brunt of it. They were <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-gen-z-laid-off-furloughed-coronavirus-job-market-2020-4">the hardest-hit generation in the labor force</a> and, even a year into the pandemic, college grads were having the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-graduates-hardest-time-job-hunting-recession-2021-7">toughest time finding jobs</a>. Plus, many were forced to attend school remotely and socialize almost exclusively through their phones.As a coping mechanism, they reminisced about the '90s and early 2000s, when social media didn't yet exist, Michael Pankowski, the founder of the Gen Z marketing consulting firm <a href="https://www.crimsonconnection.net/">Crimson Connection</a>, told me. "While we love the internet, the pandemic's grave effect on in-person interaction has made the digital world basically all we have," he said of his generation. "So we feel nostalgic for a time before the internet had become so omnipresent." The ironic part is that it's through social media that people are making these nostalgic connections. Gen Z <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-versus-gen-z-it-generation-cool-fashion-trends-pandemic-2021-9">digitally bonded during quarantine</a>, prompting the resurgence of these trends to take off on TikTok and making it easy to cycle through so many of them.Consider the <a href="https://www.nylon.com/fashion/indie-sleaze-2000s-fashion-comeback">rise of indie sleaze</a>, an eclectic early-2000s aesthetic influenced by the '70s and '80s and reminiscent of an American Apparel model headed to a dance club. Marked by Polaroid photos and party vibes, the style reflects the simplicity Gen Z seeks to escape from overstimulating technology and adult expenses. Returning to this more hedonistic, carefree style is also a rejection of the carefully curated millennial Instagram aesthetic that dominated the 2010s — think perfectly posed pics and lip filler.In fact, Gen Z's nostalgia is a retaliation to the 2010s economy in which <keyword id="11921342" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="millennials" source="Orion">millennials</keyword> came of age. The comeback of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-millennials-reviving-old-money-aesthetic-fashion-decor-sports-2021-10">old-money aesthetic</a> — characterized by pearls, Ralph Lauren tennis skirts, and white tube socks — nods to an old-school aristocratic upper crust that reflects the economic boom times of the '90s. It's in contrast to flashy, Kardashian-style displays of wealth as well as the jeans-and-hoodie uniform of Silicon Valley. Bold Y2K colors, reminiscent of another pre-social-media era, are a spot of brightness in a world ravaged by climate change and a global health crisis.The Gen Z experience is not unlike that of millennials, who <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-great-recession-finances-coronavirus-triggers-financial-crisis-2020-4">graduated into the financial crisis</a> of the Great Recession and spent years floating from job to job in a dismal labor market while juggling <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-is-college-so-expensive-2018-4">massive student debt</a> and soaring living costs. Coming of age during an economic decline and a technological revolution, millennials leaned into the simplicity of their childhood to cope. It explains the appeal of #TBT (Throwback Thursday), the <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/harry-potter-and-millennials">persisting obsession with the Harry Potter</a> books and movies of their childhood, and how millennial pink — a shade <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/the-color-psychology-of-pink-2795819">associated with youth and innocence</a> — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-pink-gen-z-yellow-very-peri-orchid-flower-generational-colors-2022-1">became so popular</a>.<h2>Social media complicates nostalgia</h2>Gen Z nostalgia perplexes Benjamin Ho, an associate professor of behavioral economics at Vassar College and author of "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Why-Trust-Matters-Economists-Guide-ebook/dp/B08L9QBKTZ#:~:text=Benjamin%20Ho%20reveals%20the%20surprising,%2Dto%2Dday%20economic%20lives.&amp;text=He%20provides%20an%20accessible%20account,bring%20rigor%20to%20understanding%20trust.">Why Trust Matters: An Economist's Guide to the Ties that Bind Us</a>.""The way nostalgia usually works is it activates your memories from childhood, primarily the pop culture from your teenage years," he told me. "It seems too soon for Gen Z to be seeking the past."Indeed, Gen Z is reminiscing about a time of which they have few or no memories. Ho said the fast pace of social media has splintered pop-culture trends so much that unlimited choices have made it harder for younger generations to find unifying cultural touchstones. So they turned to an earlier time when "Friends" and "TRL" were some of the only options for after-school TV, bonding a whole generation with common humor, fashion, and theme music. Regardless of the medium, the common thread in youth nostalgia is that it fosters a sense of belonging. Nostalgia helps us strengthen relationships through shared experiences. That builds trust, Ho said.He explained that we often unconsciously use others' consumption cues to make judgments about them; those with similar nostalgic consumption proclivities like music playlists and movie references likely share the same values. "We are evolutionarily designed to seek out those like-minded individuals as the people who can be trusted," he said.It makes sense then, he added, that younger generations would turn to nostalgia during times of economic and social upheaval. Pankowski said because the past is complete, it feels simple and structured compared with the uncertain times of the pandemic. It's what the millennium provided Gen Z, and what NYC-based TV shows gave me. As he put it, "Thinking about it brings a calmness that can be hard to find in the chaotic present."

Gen Z brought the '90s back because it feels impossible to grow up in today's economy

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Economic downturns have changed how we shop for clothes.</li><li>After the <keyword id="12266328" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="great-recession" source="Orion">Great Recession</keyword>, fast <keyword id="11893303" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="fashion" source="Orion">fashion</keyword> became the norm for millennials dressing professionally on a budget.</li></ul>You can thank the <keyword id="11893570" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="economy" source="Orion">economy</keyword> for your outfit of the day.The past two recessions have shaped key sectors of the fashion industry over the past 15 years. The 2007 financial crisis accelerated the rise of fast fashion among millennials much the same way that the <keyword id="12948405" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus-recession" source="Orion">coronavirus recession</keyword> heightened a shift toward the secondhand <keyword id="12062142" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="clothing" source="Orion">clothing</keyword> market among Gen Z. While both generations shop in both markets, each served as the trendsetters during the economic downturns they came of age in.In her new book, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dress-Code-Unlocking-Fashion-Millennial/dp/0063050838/ref=sr_1_2?crid=25TANSB0ND229&amp;keywords=dress+code&amp;qid=1650301149&amp;sprefix=dress+code%2Caps%2C765&amp;sr=8-2">Dress Code: Unlocking Fashion From the New Look to Millennial Pink</a>," Elle fashion features director Véronique Hyland explores how fast fashion emerged as the norm for millennial shoppers in the post-Great Recession era."'High-low' became first a personal style directive, and then more of an order, for strivers," she wrote, and went on to explain the term. "Millennial women, who entered the workforce during a recession, were advised to mimic a proper professional appearance by mixing fast-fashion items, often runway knockoffs, with 'investment pieces' at a time when investments of all kinds felt precarious."This advice was less often given to men, she added, because women were under more pressure to balance staying on trend with dressing appropriately for the office. "You didn't want to be too provocative or too prim; you wanted to pass as older and more authoritative while still looking cool," she wrote."Fast fashion was a lifehack that would help you easily hurdle class boundaries, or at least that's how I saw it" she added. She recalled wearing consignment versions of Prada with fast fashion pieces to her first fashion publication job to "pass off" as her peers, despite still living with her parents, paying off student debt, and living paycheck-to-paycheck.Fast fashion quickly normalized, Hyland wrote, as spotting a bargain became "a way to advertise you had champagne taste on a beer budget."<h2>Thrifting is becoming the new norm</h2>But fast fashion has <keyword id="11896309" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sustainability" source="Orion">sustainability</keyword> problems <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-driving-online-resale-secondhand-clothes-thrifting-poshmark-depop-2021-4">that Gen Z cares a lot about</a>: waste that contributes to the climate crisis, and workers subject to unethical labor practices, such as <a href="https://smartasset.com/credit-cards/the-economics-of-fast-fashion">16-hour work days and pay below the living wage</a>.The sustainable fashion industry grew in response, with rental fashion companies, thrifting, and ethically made clothing brands becoming more popular. It's a shift that the coronavirus recession accelerated.A recent <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reviews/out?platform=browser&amp;postSource=bi%7C615b24d8ea58a405ad50ae0a&amp;sc=false&amp;type=LINK-WITH-REVIEW-SLASH-OUT&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thredup.com%2Fresale%2F%3Fmkt_tok%3DMjExLU5KWS0xNjUAAAF_tt2t-Cbo-INnOrNXAn2Jey4Br0SIk3vt9K8FMXRe9PBJJin37PN7DTR8wkJ7HioM2WuQyEV5KYlWur2eoDAPB508kogG4AMrmZEE_AIc-aKvH6o%23size-and-impact&amp;sessionid=16502993377648ew297r7" rel="nofollow sponsored noindex">report</a> from retail analytics firm GlobalData and the online thrift store ThredUp projected the secondhand market would reach $77 billion by 2025, up from its 2021 level of $30 billion as Jefferies estimated last April. About a quarter of the secondhand market is resale clothing, which Jefferies estimates will grow by 39% per year in the same time frame, coming to eventually account for over half of the market.Jefferies forecasts the secondhand clothing market will comprise a mid-teen percentage of the overall apparel market over the next decade, driven by online resale, with Gen Z leading the way. Socially and environmentally conscious, it makes sense that Gen Z would lean toward more ethical, eco-friendly <keyword id="11896038" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="shopping" source="Orion">shopping</keyword>. But sustainability isn't the only factor pulling Gen Z toward the secondhand market. The <keyword id="11896136" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pandemic" source="Orion">pandemic</keyword> has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-nostalgia-y2k-indie-sleaze-old-money-economic-response-2022-1">sent Gen Z down a nostalgic path</a>, turning towards trends reminiscent of the millennium such as indie sleaze and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/gen-z-s-nowstalgia-y2k-fashion-leading-thrifting-explosion-n1274720">Y2K fashion</a> as comfort during moments of economic instability. Deemed vintage by Gen Z, clothes for these trends can best be found at thrift stores.Emily Farra <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/the-year-in-secondhand-vintage-upcycling-sustainable-fashion">wrote for Vogue</a> on the rise of vintage clothing in 2020, there's something to be said of a more subtle statement of a vintage piece of clothing instead of a flashy logo in a pandemic world."In a difficult year that's seen staggering unemployment and countless shuttered businesses, the shift toward vintage and secondhand could come down to a desire for less-conspicuous fashion," she wrote.

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