If you went back in time, you’d see that while some things have stayed the same, a lot has changed. This is true for fashion throughout the early 2000s to now. When walking the school hallways, you’re guaranteed to see old trends resurfacing, like scrunchies and chokers from the ‘80s and ‘90s, but Gen Z has taken these trends and made them their own, creating new subcultures defined by these articles of clothing. 

Society has come a long way from the bootcut jeans and low-cut jeans of the early 2000s, as well as the cargo pants and tracksuits. Though people do still enjoy some of these fashions, they are not as popular as they once were. Through the late 2000s to the early 2010s, these trends were replaced with everything animal print as well as a revival of “grunge” fashion. Over the past few years, there has been a rise in many different fashion trends like VSCO, e-boy and e-girl, and others. Now when walking around the school, there’s a guaranteed spotting of mom jeans, scrunchies, Hydroflasks and shell necklaces. 

People often define themselves by the way they dress and the trends they’re part of. They can determine friend groups and self-image. Fashion allows people to express who they are and who they want to be.

“Fashion is important to the individual to just show who they are to the outside world,” senior Emily Stewart, said. “Just looking at people you can tell kind of a little bit of their personality. I guess part of it is just because like a lot of people dress like that. So it’s kind of part of our society to fit in, we wear a lot of stuff that everyone else wears.”

With all of the fads and trends, people are finding their style and a bit of themselves. Style is a way to express individual personalities, and people’s ability to be confident in what they wear is just a step closer to confidence in who they are. 

Even with the trends and society pushing towards a single image, people find a way to make their style their own. 

“The way you accessorize your outfits can kind of make it unique to you,” Stewart said.