We were all more than happy to adorn ourselves with scrunchies when the 80s came back, spend a paycheck on platform boots when the 70s cycled onto our feed, and bedazzle our baby tees when the 2000s swung in. However,TikTok’s recent romanticization of 2014 tumblr culture
comes with a bulk of hesitation.
I’m still clearing Arctic Monkeys and Twenty One Pilots songs out of my playlists, and I’m
pretty sure I donated my combat boots. Doesn’t it seem a little too soon for an era of trends to
come back? According to the history of the trend cycle, it usually takes about 20 years to
reappear. The 90s did 70s, the 2000s did 80s, and we did the 2000s, generally speaking. We
could chalk this up to our overconsumption and constant need for content. As a culture, our
attention span has spread as thin as girls that popularized “thinspo” back in 2014. While it could
be true that we are just looking for new trends to fill the endless void in our minds, I think it’s a
lot deeper than that.
When thrifting started to get popular in our lifetimes, many of us were hunting for brands and styles that were trending. We wanted vintage Levis and 90’s mini dresses- everything else at
Goodwill was just filler. After a while though, all that early 2000s stuff we shoved past on the
hangers started to look less ICarly and more Britney Spears. This especially rang true when thrift stores ran low on more vintage items and became “picked over.” My point is that whatever is trendy no longer fuels us to thrift, but rather the other way around. The more we shop, the more whatever is in stock starts to look attractive.
Ergo, it has become very tempting to start grabbing striped turtlenecks and skater skirts, simply because of their abundance in second hand stores. And once one person makes the switch, it only takes a couple trending videos until we all start to remember 2014 fondly.
So next time you’re out shopping, you might look at that ribbed hollister long sleeve that your
older sister definitely had a little differently- and you’ll be all the better for it. Thrifting is
entirely more fun when you stop looking for specific items and start looking at your options in a
new light. Of course, this should all be taken with a handful of salt: trends are nothing but mild
suggestions in a vast sea of personal expression.
I also like to think as we grow up, we see our early teen years in a revitalized way. While many of us felt emo and misunderstood then, we can look back and feel warmth for our past selves. 2014 was a time when we owned the internet, when we were in love with vampires, when
Blink-182 understood us better than our parents, and when we thought we knew just how hard
life could get. 2014 feels more nostalgic and less cringey the more we remember how life felt
back then, and wearing the clothes we used to is the best way to celebrate where we came from.
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