The resurgence of the Y2K fashion is a gift that keeps on giving. Millennials who grew up in the era of low-waist jeans, and crinkle tops that magically always fit and peplum everything look back at those photos saved in their jumbo-sized family with disdain and rue their sartorial choices, usually made by their mums. However, the younger generation insists on bringing back these trends as they make these fashion choices ironically and look at them with rose-tinted wrap-around glasses.
A mainstay of the Y2K fashion era was barrettes or clips. And on March 18, model and fashion influencer Madeleine White (@madeleinecwhite) shared a Reel and a carousel of photos wearing two iPods as a fashion accessory on Instagram. Launched on October 23, 2001, the Apple iPod was a mini portable MP3 player that could be clipped to your clothes. With a 10-hour battery life and the space to store up to 1,000 songs, it revolutionised the way we listen to music on the go. But we are not here to take a trip down a nostalgia lane, so let’s move on to the actual matter at hand.
White wore two iPods, one blue and one orange, on her shoulder-length hair. Taking inspiration from the Y2K device, she even opted to dress in a similar manner, with a crocheted halter-neck top and the infamous Diesel belt skirt. She captioned her post, “POV you’re manically downloading new songs to ur iPod shuffle for the bus (sic)” and asked her followers, “what are u downloading (sic)”.
This trend can be traced back to creator Vick Cammie (@vickcammie), who posted a photo in 2019 wearing blue and green iPods as she captioned her post, “The year is 2007…… You’re at the playground with your friends, wearing earphones, listening to a little music”. In December 2021, TikTok creator Kira Lyn Vaden shared a video where she used the Shuffles as hair clips, earning herself more than 350,000 likes, according to Mashable. These two posts have gone viral several times on different social media platforms as a way of wearing technology in fashion.
Taking to X (formerly known as Twitter), on March 14, pop artist Slayyyter posted a few photos, where she is seen matching two blue second-generation iPod Shuffles. She went old school and added wired earphones to complete the look, à la model Bella Hadid. Her tweet got over 105K views and around 5K retweets.
So, is it time to rummage through our drawers and dust off our old iPods to wear this at the next house party?
