Millennial Saves Y2K Clothes—Makes Discovery 20 Years Later: 'The Scream'
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Internet users have taken a journey to the past as a woman shared a newly released clothing collection and compared it to her own wardrobe from close to 20 years ago.
Jenna Barclay, 38, a millennial online content creator, lives in Los Angeles and has been taking a trip down memory lane as clothing brand Hollister released its 'Y2K collection'. The limited-edition collection includes "Y2K-inspired" baggy low-rise denim jeans, strapless babydoll tops, denim skorts, fleece shorts and more, according to the Hollister website.
Barclay told Newsweek: "The Hollister 'Y2K' collection looks like it should've been called the '2006' collection because I owned nearly all of these items when I was a freshman in college in 2006."
When she wears them, "it's like looking in a weird fun house mirror. I feel like I'm looking at my former self—but a version of my former self that isn't quite right, because I'm obviously no longer 19." But Barclay said, "at this point, seeing clothes I wore as a teen just feels normal."
She added: "Nearly every trend I loved as a kid and a teen has come back around—often with pieces looking almost identical to those I wore, just styled differently!"
Jenna Barclay tries on new tops from the Hollister collection, left; and, right, her own outfit in 2006.
Jenna Barclay tries on new tops from the Hollister collection, left; and, right, her own outfit in 2006.
TikTok @jennaabarclay
In a video to her TikTok account @jennaabarclay on August 8, Barclay describes "the scream" she let out when she saw the collection, and tries on several newly bought items.
This includes what she describes as a navy "iconic super deep V to show off your lacy cami, super long arms for no reason, cable-knit sweater"—also showing off her original item from 2006, this one in a bright pink.
Speaking of lace camis, Barclay bought plenty of those, too—which she recalled wearing with a Hollister button-down and demin skirt, "to drink cheap beer at a college party in 2006."
Barclay said the clothes reminded her of buying a new Fergie CD, having drinks in the fridge for "pre-gaming later," adding friends on Myspace, and taking selfies with a digital camera.
Barclay said she still has "a ton of my old clothes" from that era, with the rhinestone miniskirt being one of her favorites.
"I remember wearing it on spring break in college with a babydoll tank top that was almost as long as the skirt," she said, "and plastic flip-flops, of course."
TikTok users loved the blast from the past, awarding it more than 17,000 likes, as one commenter wrote: "I decided this collection is my midlife crisis. So I bought like $200 worth of clothes and I'm shocked they all fit and look cute."
Another posted: "I didn't have Hollister money in high school, so it is taking EVERY ounce of self-control not to use my adult money to buy everything from this collection."
"I'm still obsessed with this sweater," a third said—while one commenter added that they were "tripping on the fact you can still fit in the clothes you wore in 2006!"
Barclay in her own sweater from 2006, left; and, right, in the new collection from Hollister.
Barclay in her own sweater from 2006, left; and, right, in the new collection from Hollister.
TikTok @jennaabarclay
Barclay said that it is not just the Hollister collection, but "everywhere I look I see things I recognize from the past.
"Pretty much all the fashion trends now remind me of the '90s or the 2000s," she added.
"Teenagers are carrying digital cameras or even disposable ones. They're into 'low-tech' stuff because they've never known an offline world, so it's novel to them in a way we can never understand, having lived it."
From fashion and makeup trends to pop culture and general cultural attitudes, Barclay said that "it's inevitable that trends will come back around."
"At the end of the day, there are only so many different cuts of jeans, you know what I mean? They'll continue to go from super-skinny to super-baggy and back again over and over for as long as we live," Barclay added.
"But it's super-strange the first time you realize you've lived long enough to see it come full circle."
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