It’s said that fashion trends re-emerge in a 20-year cycle. Past trends give a sense of nostalgia, and often the younger generations catch on and enhance the trends and make them their own. We saw this a lot over the past few years with the surge of 90s fashion returning. Many celebrities were pulling archived ’90s pieces to wear for red carpets or other star-studded events. For example, when Olivia Rodrigo spoke at the White House in 2022 to promote youth vaccination, she wore a matching suit-style outfit from Chanel’s Spring/Summer 1995 collection.
We’ve seen this with the bow trend late last year and continuing onto this year. We have bow rings, bow earrings, bows on shirts and even on dinnerware. This is reminiscent of the mustache trend from 2014. Mustaches were everywhere. They were on glasses, jewelry, shirts and even on notebooks and stickers.
It’s surprising then, if fashion is known to follow a trend cycle, that 2014 trends are beginning to make a comeback. We would expect to be in an early 2000s era by now, but we saw the Y2K trends make a comeback in 2020 and 2021.
2014 was known for less saturation and bright colors to more grunge and toned-down outfits. At the time, Tumblr was a popular platform for getting trendy outfit inspo. Lorde, American Apparel, boy bands such as One Direction and 5SOS and Urban Outfitters were all prevalent during this time and served as a source of inspiration for the era. It was a time when the ‘misunderstood teenager’ thrived.
This era was known for flannels, Doc Martens, chokers, combat boots, space buns and edgy makeup looks. Even colorful hair was much more popular as many tried to achieve the teal color Kylie Jenner was sporting at the time.
According to TikToker Sophie, who goes by the username planetskirt, other notable trends were “tennis skirts, striped shirts, plain clothes, denim, Mary Janes, Chelsea boots, leather shoes in general,” said Sophie.
This year we have seen celebrities such as Kylie Jenner declaring that the 2014 aesthetic is back. Kylie was known for her “King Kylie” era in 2014 – which many fans believe to be her best style era. Kylie went back to her colorful hair roots and posted a photo with light pink hair captioning “Hiiiii remember me.”
One user, marvinoelm replied saying “Suddenly we’re back to 2014 y’all, it’s finally happening.” Even the brand Forever21 commented saying, “King Kylie is back” with a fire emoji at the end.
Other celebrities such as Addison Rae have been participating in the 2014 aesthetic by posting with an iPhone 5C wearing a fur coat and having a darker vibe to the photo. One user, velvetcoke commented “Bringing back 2014 vibes YES IT GIRL.”
If you want to get the “2014 It Girl” aesthetic inspired by Victoria’s Secret Angels, here’s how you do so according to rosettalovespink on TikTok. First, you want to make sure you’re wearing off-the-shoulder T-shirts. We’ve seen this trend emerge lately and many of us have started to cut wider necklines in our t-shirts to achieve this look. Next, you want to find some low-rise skinny jeans or leggings and pair them with Ugg boots. The more updated version of this trend is low-rise boyfriend jeans, flare leggings, and the popular Ugg minis we saw for fall 2023.
While we may not be in 2014 anymore we can still enjoy the trends and nostalgia from that era. I know I’ve personally started listening to One Direction again and I’m a fan of the digital cameras and flash photography that give off the 2014 aesthetic. I’m sure these trends will evolve as the year goes on, particularly in summer and fall.