I probably don’t need to remind you of fashion’s current obsession with old-school styling. Cargo trousers, cropped T-shirts and enamel jewellery are just a handful of 90s/00s pieces generating interest right now, with the revival of Y2K style showing no signs of slowing down. Add to that an upsurge for wide-leg denim, crochet shirts and micro mini skirts of the 70s – thanks, in part, to Amazon Prime’s Daisy Jones & The Six series – and it wouldn’t be hard to wonder whether we’ve been in a time warp when walking down the street.

In fact, John Lewis has reported a 72% increase in searches for ‘retro’ compared to last year. But is our love for these throwback looks purely coincidental or is there something else behind these styling choices? I sat down with Dr Paul Marsden, psychologist at the London College of Fashion, to delve a little deeper.

“Psychologically speaking, old-school fashion will always have an appeal,” Marsden says. “Our aesthetic preferences fall within a narrow frame of familiarity mixed with modern twists,” which is certainly visible when looking at the subtle shift in jean styles or sunglasses shapes throughout the past few decades. But Marsden does stress that the styles we see right now aren’t exactly the same as years gone by. “Fashion doesn’t repeat itself, but it nearly always rhymes,” he says, making changes that are more wearable for modern-day life, whether that’s through colour palettes, fabrics or fit. 

But with so many fashion styles and eras to choose from, how do we decide which styles should come back? Well, that’s a little more complicated, Marsden explains. 

“We see fashion cycles that get recycled every 20-30 years,” which partially explains the early 00s revival. Although, as with any trend, there has to be an instigator, and Marsen has an interesting theory as to why brands are leaning towards this Y2K look. “Old-school fashion is on-trend right now because trend agencies are pushing the idea of ‘nostalgia’ hard as an effective therapy for current economic and technological anxieties,” he shared.

This lines up with what Dr Carolyn Mair, a cognitive psychologist, author of The Psychology Of Fashion and fashion business consultant, shared about the rise of inner child dressing styles (Barbiecore, balletcore, mermaidcore, etc). Fashion, she says, allows us to escape from the demands and responsibilities of adulthood, which becomes “even more desirable when we are facing situations we find stressful”, citing the cost of living crisis, climate catastrophe and negative news as examples. So these styles of years gone by could be acting more like a comfort blanket than a groundbreaking new trend, and fashion brands know how to tug on our heartstrings, evoking the carefree feeling of our younger selves through our clothes. 

On top of this, the more we see a certain style on TV or celebrities, the more we’re drawn towards it, in what Marsden describes as the ‘exposure effect’. So hugely popular TV shows such as Daisy Jones & The Six are likely to leave us wanting to copy those looks. The same goes for the hordes of celebrities who whipped out their Von Dutch T-shirts and Juicy Couture tracksuits. It feels safe and simple, and in an uncertain post-lockdown world, it’s easy to slip back into the familiar. 

Images: Getty