What some may see as simply a piece of headwear reserved for those between the ages of two and six, bucket hats are making a comeback in the most ironic way possible.
The slow but steadily climbing trend of the bucket hat is only one of many style choices that has been swept up in the wave of 90s nostalgia in recent years, and Gen Z kiddos just can’t quite get enough.
First designed for solely utilitarian purposes to protect fishermen at sea from both UV rays and the rainwater of tumultuous storms, bucket hats etched their mark on the fashion world throughout the 20th century. First making a breakthrough in the ‘60s mod era and then gaining popularity in the world of hip hop rappers and eventually haute couture in the 1980s and ‘90s, bucket hats are making a steady comeback with the “hip” teens of today.
Mind you, reimagining fashion trends of yore is nothing new. Designers are constantly selecting pieces from past runways and seasons to bring back and make popular once again. It is only once in a blue moon that something truly revolutionary in fashion comes to pass.
Those born at the cusp of the 20th and 21st centuries (myself begrudgingly included) have a strange fascination with 1990s fashion and style icons of the decade and have done everything to redesign today’s fashion with an updated Y2K lewk. The 1990s may only have been three decades ago, but the fashion world, like the rest of the world, moves at lightning speed.
To be “hip” in this day and age is to be woke about the decade in which you were born (or narrowly missed if you were born in the early 2000s) in the most superficial sense: style. (Note: when I say superficial I don’t mean to downplay the importance or validity of fashion or pop culture. I, as much as any fashion fanatic, love to craft aesthetically pleasing ensembles. When I say “superficial” I am literally referring to that which adorns a body.)
However, simultaneously, to be “hip” is also to be “hipster”– a word coined to describe the annoyingness of those who deem themselves ultracool because they seemingly like that which is not “popular.”
“Hipsters”, the oxymoronic group which all dress the same kind of “different”, have adopted normcore fashion into their vernacular. Normcore, a now ironically popular style movement, celebrates that which is dull and unoriginal and is the epitome of cool. Think solid colored boxy tees, oversized denim jackets, light-washed jeans, and, as aptly put by an Urban Dictionary contributor, is “[a]nything that looks like it might be featured in a Calvin Klein from 1998, or anything you’d wear around the house on laundry day”.
Whether today’s hipster teens have only hopped on the normcore fashion locomotive because they just can’t get enough of Rachel Green and her quirky gang of 30-something friends’ style ensembles (minus the sweater vests of Chandler Bing) or they truly believe in the power of dressing blandly, fisherman chic is coming back.
Look out tackle and bait shops, “woke” teens are coming your way.