Y2K Sold Online

discusses the current media discourse around the 2000s style in China. Similar to the

last chapter on Smart, online contents are also used, since two styles are both tied with

and discussed on the Internet. Besides, the generation born after 1995s grew up along

with the development of the Internet, so looking at comments on Y2K and the 2000s

in general online is crucial to understand what they mean to the youths. Through

analysis, this chapter seeks to find the possible connections between Smart from the

2000s and Y2K from the 2020s.

Y2K Sold Online

In the chapter of her book that discusses the sixties as vintage style, Jenss

writes,

When we speak about the “the sixties ” we are not just using a numerical

shorthand to refer to the succession of ten years, but instead this reference to

time describes a wider imaginary and often mythic construction of time, or

zeitgeist narratives, we come to produce around and associate with a past

decade, usually in retrospect, and by way of the identification of temporal

contrast.

80

In fact, since the twentieth century, fashion change started to be categorized

more according to the “time-specific qualities of past styles. ” This could turn into

80 Jenss, Heike.

“Icons of Modernity: Sixties Fashion and Youth Culture. ” In Jenss, Heike Fashioning Memory : Vintage Style and Youth Culture: 37-64: 37. London: Bloomsbury 2017.

what some historians call “decadism” , which according to Christopher Breward, is “a

reflection of market and media demands, and its use as an artificial orginasational

device, unconnected to historical events. ” This way of studying fashion changes is

convenient, and fashion does fit into “seasons” , but styles do not necessarily start and

end at the beginning and the end of a decade. Thus, referring to the style of a certain

decade often comes from stereotypes, which can only apply to certain groups from a

specific period of time. 81 As a result, the “style of the 2000s” as discussed here then,

can only be a partial fashion image of the decade, and the trend “Y2K” is in fact a

constructed image from pieces of incomplete memories of youths in the 2020s.

This “new” fashion trend called “Y2K” has become popular in international

fashion in recent years. Y2K means “year 2000” , as “Y” is short for “Year” , and “2K”

stands for two times one thousand. The term “Y2K Glitch” , also known as “the

millennium bug” , was first coined in the 1990s by some computer experts, referring to

the predicted technological problem that computers and other large data systems

would not be able to process dates after December 31, 1999 and lead to malfunction.

82

The feared failures of the system did not occur in most major computer systems, but

the term Y2K stays and exists now often in the fashion world, referring to the retro

2000s style. In China, Y2K style is more seen in women’s fashion, and the term “year

2000” is often followed by “hot girl (qian xi la mei)” . Now “hot girl (la mei)” alone

starts to refer to this style, too.

81 Breward, Christopher. The Culture of Fashion: a new history of fashionable dress. Manchester: Manchester University Press 1995: 184-185. 82 Holmes, Gillian S. “Y2K. ” In Lerner, K. Lee and Lerner, Brenda Wilmoth (eds.) The Gale Encyclopedia of Science, 5th ed., Vol. 8: 4731-4733. Farmington Hills: Gale 2014.

In Rachel Hertz Cobb, David Larkins and Greg Wilson’s book, Bowling,

Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th- and 21th-Century America, which

looks into American pop culture of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21th

century, fashion in the 2000s is characterized as a democratization of high fashion. In

the US, some of the most identifiable items include cargo pants, hoodies, sheepskin

boots that starlets wore with miniskirts, low-rise skinny jeans, leggings, platform

shoes, and body piercings. The style combines both the rugged gear and the

body-consciousness.

83

As for fashion in China, because of the Reform and Opening up (also called

Open Door Policy) in December 1978, China since then started to use fashion as one

of the starting points to be a citizen of the world. 84 Chinese fashion started to be

influenced more by the Western World. People wore items such as printed shirts, flare

pants, mini skirts, and T-shirts. 85 Towards the end of the 1990s, Chinese fashion was

already very diverse and internationalized. 86 Since the 2000s, China keeps following

this trend, 87 and fashion in the 2000s China is already similar to that in Western

countries. The American 2000s styles mentioned above can also be applied to that in

China. These can reflect the blurring of social class in terms of fashion since the end

of the 19th century and intensified since the 20th century, be it difference in

83 Cobb, Rachel Hertz, Larkins, David and Wilson, Greg.

“2000s: Fashion. ” In Cobb, Rachel Hertz, Larkins, David and Wilson, Greg (eds.) Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th- and 21th-Century America, Vol. 6: 1477-1494. Farmington Hills: Gale 2012. 84 Segre Reinach, Simona. “The Identity in Fashion in Contemporary China and the New Relationships with the West. ” Fashion Practice 4(1) (2012): 57-70; Finnane, Antonia. Changing Clothes in China: Fashion, History, Nation. New York: Columbia University Press 2008. 85 Wu, Juanjuan. Chinese Fashion: From Mao to Now. Oxford: Berg 2009. 86 Bian, Xiangyang. Zhong guo jin xian dai hai pai fu zhuang shi (中国近现代海派服装史). 87 Tsui, Christine. “The Design Theory of Contemporary ‘Chinese’ Fashion. ” Design Issues 35(3) (2019): 64-75.

manufacturing and production or distinctions in geographical styles due to mediation

and digitalization.

88

Today, dress in daily life is not only about expression of a pecuniary culture

anymore as it used to be in the 19th century. 89 Since the early 20th century,

consumers’ attitude might have been changing. Simmel points out that the “charm of

difference” makes old clothes somehow attract new wearers. 90 Dress began to be seen

more as practices of personal expression starting from the 21th century. 91 According

to Geczy and Karaminas, this shift in attitudes towards fashion at this time point is

tightly related to technological innovation as well as globalization, which resulted in

new ethical modalities because of the former. 92

Tsunami is the designer of the store OTAKU. Born in 1995, she is interested in

the Y2K style. Besides her fashion store, she also has other social media accounts that

has shared makeup tutorials of the style. She said at the beginning of the interview, all

styles in the 2000s can be called Y2K, but people only remember the most unique

ones. As discussed above, these stereotypical impressions only fit into a constructed

imaginary time, and to Tsunami, her fashion memory of the 2000s include flare pants,

crop tops, blue eyeshadow, and all glittery things. Although it is difficult to conclude

the style within this decade, and as Tsunami said, the same piece of clothing will not

look the same on different people, similar elements can still be found in those Y2K

88 Geczy, Adam and Karaminas, Vicki.

“Introduction. ” In Geczy, Adam and Karaminas (eds.) The End of Fashion: Clothing and Dress in the Age of Globalization: 1-4. London: Bloomsbury 2018. 89 Veblen, Thorstein. “Dress as an Expression of a Pecuniary Culture. The Theory of the Leisure Class. ” In Daniel Purdy (ed.) The Rise of Fashion: 261-88. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 2004. 90 Simmel, Georg. “Fashion. ” In Purdy, Daniel (ed.) The Rise of Fashion: 289-309. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 2004: 307, quoted in Heike Jenss, “Vintage: Fashioning Time” : 24. 91 Geczy, Adam and Karaminas, Vicki. “Introduction. ” 92 Geczy, Adam and Karaminas, Vicki. “Introduction. ”

items online.

At the biggest e-commerce website and one of the ten most visited websites in

China, 93 Taobao (Alibaba), there are plenty of items tagged as “Y2K” or “year 2000

hot girl. ” From these four stores, similar elements can be found. First, the element of a

cross are widely used, as shown in Figure 6, 7, 8. A cross is also often paired with

hearts, or skulls, and are often made of rhinestones. In Figure 6, the closeup head shot

shows Tsunami herself wearing a necklace with a pink cross, a safety pin, and some

other glittery charms. Figure 7 shows a model wearing a light gray top with blue

straps and a blue cross in the middle front, and it looks like pieces put together. Figure

8 is a selfie in front of the mirror in which the model / designer wears a black hat with

a cross made of rhinestones. Another widely used element for Y2K is leg warmers

with mini skirts. For example, Figure 9 shows the model in a simple black top, and

the black mini skirt and black leg warmers with white and gray boucle decorations

seem to be a set. Figure 10 is also a selfie in the mirror, and the person is wearing a

white and pink bucket hat, a pink sleeveless top, a pink mini skirt, and white and

fluffy leg warmers above white fluffy slippers. Interestingly, the styling in both photos

uses fluffy materials.

93 Kwahk, Kee-Young and Kim, Byoungsoo.

“Effects of social media on consumers’ purchase decisions: evidence from Taobao. ” Service Business 11(4) (2016): 803-829.