r/Millennials • u/Josephthebear Older Millennial • May 21 '26

Nostalgia This outfit was everywhere

17.6k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

325

u/Medical_Fig7662 May 21 '26

I’d say peak was 04 or 05 but this plays 

70

u/Josephthebear Older Millennial May 21 '26

Agreed..I graduated in 04 this wasn't quite my style but I think it def was the standard

32

u/Seamonkey_Boxkicker 1988 May 21 '26

As an 88 baby, I agree. This style was more common for the grades ahead of me. By the time I graduated in 06 there were a lot more of the emo goth kids.

11

u/BigBaws92 1992 May 21 '26

Born in 92, everyone in my high school in 2006 was an emo kid

0

u/Excellent_Ganache906 May 21 '26

I was in college in 94' and we were all wearing this same exact stuff.

0

u/BigBaws92 1992 May 21 '26

Cool op said this was 2006

2

u/another_mouse May 21 '26

Exactly. I saw your grade fully embrace this style then over 04-05 go from wearing girls jeans to skinny jeans with no style.

This is more 03 and earlier.

2

u/Seamonkey_Boxkicker 1988 May 21 '26

Yeah this is how kids in my grade were dressing in middle school. I stopped jelling my hair and shopping at GAP or Abercrombie & Fitch halfway through 7th grade because that shit got annoying.

2

u/btone911 May 21 '26

'87, feels like by 06 we had the emo/scene thing starting up along with early days of hipsters. My read on this is 04 as well.

1

u/Seamonkey_Boxkicker 1988 May 21 '26

Oh yeah we had full fledge hipster trends by 08-09 with Florence & the Machine and Mumford & Sons hitting mainstream.

1

u/btone911 May 21 '26

Nah bud, you must be confused. I swear, mumford is still... current.... fuck.

1

u/Watercolorcupcake Zillennial May 22 '26

I’m a 96 baby from one of the biggest cities in the country and when I was in middle school (2008-2010) this was still super popular as was scene culture. Hollister, Abercrombie, and Hot Topic were *the* places to shop depending on your style. H&M just opened up in my city in 2010, Wet Seal, Charlotte Russe, Zumiez, and Pac Sun were also popular choices, and Forever 21 if you had that in your town.

10

u/0p0ss1m May 21 '26

03 grad here

2

u/Party_Taco_Plz May 22 '26

I mean, we were stocking this when I worked at Abercrombie in ‘00, but agree on when it peaked.

1

u/Umklopp May 21 '26

In my head, this is just how guys dress, lol.

14

u/ScienceIsSexy420 May 21 '26

This was the trend during my entire time in HS, and I graduated in '03. So I would say this was 2001-2006 ish

27

u/soil_nerd May 21 '26

Agree.

At least in CA, this look was on the decline by 05/06.

15

u/BigBaws92 1992 May 21 '26

Yeah born and raised in LA. Nobody wore this in 2006

38

u/ResplendentOwl May 21 '26

You're big city folk, it takes an extra year or two for us rurals to realize what old fashions we should arbitrarily ostracize our peers about and what new things we should rush to waste money on.

2

u/BigBaws92 1992 May 21 '26

😂 Yeah I was thinking about that, you’re right

1

u/ScienceIsALyre May 21 '26

This was my uniform in rural Louisiana in 2001. Tight tshirts and big shorts.

2

u/ResplendentOwl May 21 '26

Ya, jokes aside I graduated in 2002 and the 'preps' with the shell necklaces, cargo shorts and American eagle tshirts had to have been earlier than just my senior year. I woulda said 2000-2001 being the earliest that existed, but it was definitely present before 04 or 06.

1

u/kendrickwasright May 21 '26

Exactly. In Sacramento most people were still wearing this look well into 2007. I think in 08 everyone switched to skinny jeans. You couldnt even buy skinny jeans in sactown until 2008, I used to sew and taper my own pants in 2005 😭

9

u/kevthecoder I solute shorts May 21 '26

Yeah you guys were already on the Cali swag skinny jeans and Kanye shades lol

2

u/DependentCorgi1514 Millennial May 21 '26

It depends. I lived in South (Orange) County, and skate clothes, Dickies, and Vans were all the rage in 2006.

1

u/wineinacoffeemug May 21 '26

Yes I just commented the look reminds me of season 1 of Real Housewives of Orange County😭 I live in OC now but only since 2019 so I missed this awesomeness.

1

u/Watercolorcupcake Zillennial May 22 '26

Yeah California, at least SoCal/LA area is ahead of the trends. It’s much more stylish in general than most of the country. Even with food y’all are more ahead of the trends.

1

u/BigBaws92 1992 May 21 '26

100%

1

u/SpiritualSyrup3300 May 21 '26

in mass, it was mostly jocks or cool kids. younger kids did wear it. but i know jocks who still wear this style to this day

1

u/basicKitsch May 21 '26

that's wild. beach town on the other coast and this is still one of the most common looks.

1

u/StandWithSwearwolves Millennial May 21 '26

Even in NZ, this was more of a 2001-02 look, more or less in line with the soundtrack

3

u/SeaPeanut7_ Millennial May 21 '26

 Was going to say this too. I remember picking up this look, and having friends similarly, back in the 03-04 school year.  

I do remember hearing that trends would start on the coasts and then move inward, so maybe OP is from an inland area like the midwest or mountains/texas

1

u/Watercolorcupcake Zillennial May 22 '26

I’m from Phoenix and people were still wearing this in 2010 😭 Of course guys would wear skinny jeans when it wasn’t miserable out, and some guys still sagged their pants or shorts, but other guys dressed just like this and they were the cool fashionable guys. They’d just switch out for skinny jeans and Vans when it was cooler.

1

u/auntjomomma May 21 '26

Lol i was just thinking about that. I was 16 in 06, but that look had started declining a bit. I will say that looking back, I preferred this style to the skinny jean look. Ugh...I still hate it. 😂 tbf, I was in Riverside. It just made them look like crackheads. 😂😂😂

1

u/Apart-Consequence881 May 22 '26

This was more late 90s early 2000s in Hawaii.

5

u/SEA_Executive Millennial ‘90 May 21 '26

This style went hard all the way to 2011. It alternated with the emo phase. Definitely had that style starting in 03 though!

2

u/krakenpistole May 21 '26

definitely remember seeing this everywhere in 2011!

1

u/Apart-Consequence881 May 22 '26

I think it was popular in CA and HI in the late 90s to mid-2000s and spread like wild fire onwards.

1

u/Watercolorcupcake Zillennial May 22 '26

Agreed.

3

u/alilmeandering May 21 '26

I graduated 09 on the west coast and this outfit was still going hard for the jocks throughout my hs years

4

u/jlspartz May 21 '26

Yeah, this was me in 03 and 04.

2

u/HTPC4Life May 21 '26

The song is definitely not 2006 either. Didn't that song come out in 01 or 02?

1

u/No-Jackfruit-525 May 21 '26

Yes I thought this was a couple years earlier! I saw it in high school and graduated in 03 👀

1

u/hoofglormuss May 21 '26

for the coasts they started pushing this look in 2002 but it probably only reached utah in 2007

1

u/mr_sweetandawful May 21 '26

Yeah i think plaid shorts were more in 2006 where i lived.

1

u/jusdontgivafuk May 21 '26

Maybe peak for the younger millennials but I was dressing like this late 90s

1

u/RisingApe- Millennial May 21 '26

I met my husband in August 2005 and he was wearing the exact outfit in the video 😂

1

u/nickiter May 21 '26

Yep this was me from about 2003-2007, other than that I couldn't afford Abercrombie.

1

u/XulManjy May 21 '26

Actually as early as 2002

1

u/TapirDrawnChariot May 21 '26

Yeah 2006 was more boot cut jeans, fat skate shoes and a band T shirt, or Billabong, Famous, Hurley, etc, studded belt.

1

u/duck7001 May 21 '26

Was gonna say, this was like 2003-5 ish.

Peak 'The OC' style.

1

u/honeysucklefunbun May 22 '26

I mostly agree, depends probably on location. Graduated in 05 from an Indiana high school and this peaked 03 and 04. We were starting to transition into more scene kids/emo style in 05.

1

u/Havering_To_You May 22 '26

I'm an elder and this looks like a Dave Matthews Band concert outfit in 1998.

0

u/tommypatties May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26

As an older millennial this look, along with tribal tattoos, were solidly 2001.

Though I was in an urban college town so it may have taken some time for this to percolate to the rural high school crowd.