A few weeks before the New Year, I’m scrolling through my Instagram feed when I land on an image of Lil’ Kim dressed in little else than a fringed bikini top and bottom, a Western gun belt fastened around her pint-sized waistline. The MC’s flaxen, waist-length tresses have been braided into two ponytails and she’s daintily flexing her cutout ankle boot toe daintily. I immediately message a colleague in the comments below: “Stepping into the new year like . . .” Within minutes he’s messaged me back.
It’s been a daily exchange since he advised me to follow the New York City stylist, curator, and vintage dealer Gabriel Held, who has culled a visually arresting compendium of throwback images that celebrate the braggadocios, ostentatious, and—dare I say—so-bad-it’s-good fashions of the early 2000s. Thousands of millennials flock to his page to reminisce and wince over the low-slung boot-cut jeans of Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton’s ruched minidresses, and Beyoncé’s customized stage outfits. Is their appeal now about camp, a sense of nostalgia, or a challenge to the normcore minimalist stylings of late? When I talk to Held, he suggests it may just be all three, a reminder that maybe we shouldn’t be so eager to throw out our ruches and ruffles after all. Here, Held talks about the fashion faux positives that defined the times and the early-aughts stars we can learn the most from now.
Bad Taste as Good Taste
What has spurned this return of bad taste as good taste? Some of it may be nostalgia. At the turn of the millennium, I’m sure people felt like the future is now, and we might be nostalgic for that. But what do I personally find inspiring about the early aughts? It’s when I really came into my own style. I was fascinated by labels at that point because I was a less-fortunate student at an affluent New York private school. But what I was able to do was thrift things on my meager weekly allowance that I would then sell back to the girls at school for a profit.
There’s also something about the highly manufactured imagery of the early ’00s—think David LaChapelle—that I think is almost more upfront and paradoxically a little bit more honest than some of the artists we have today. People were so conspicuous! Everybody was like, “Look at me! That’s right, I said look at me!” As opposed to today when people are like, “Maybe look at me in my beige coat . . . but don’t . . . but do, please.”
I consider myself to have invented a primitive version of Instagram. I had an empty vintage backgammon case with my favorite clippings from magazines and from catalogs—definitely Delia’s catalogs, but also Vogue. I carried that around all year, and I’ve been collecting images and making images for a long time. The Internet is a wealth of information in general, and on the basis of my “work” on Instagram, I am doing photo research gigs. I have a line coming out in collaboration with Print All Over Me in August, and I can tell you a couple of things are definitely informed by this era: the classic J.Lo jumpsuit silhouette, monograms, quilting, and a slew of other things. It’s a small capsule and will contain five looks available in five different textiles of my design, but here’s the kicker: You can upload any image to Print All Over Me and they can print you a fabric and ultimately make it a garment. Keep an eye out for that!
When Camp Becomes Collectible
Logomania never really went anywhere, and I could see low-slung denim and boot-cut denim even coming back in, but what I think really we’re going to see is stuff like ruffles and ruching like in a Tom-Ford-for-Yves-Saint-Laurent way, but also in a Roberto-Cavalli-ruffly-tiered-miniskirt way. Basically any style Beacon’s Closet deems “too difficult” to sell is what we should be looking for. I am really coveting all of John Galliano’s Dior—I feel like it will become as collectible as Tom Ford Gucci is at this point. Also, some lines that have taken a somewhat different direction, any of the pieces from their original glory days are appealing to me, in part because they’re in limited quantity now.
Fashion Faux Positives and the Movement That Truly Defined the Era
I think the “ghetto fabulous” movement was the most significant. There’s something poetic about it: the appropriation from high fashion to the streets, and then back into high fashion, all prevalent at that time. Designers started really paying attention to and being inspired by some of the hip-hop and R&B artists who were featuring their looks.
Two specific moments that symbolize this are Manolo Blahnik’s Timberlands and the fact that, other than her Manolo’s, Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw is most associated with her name-plate necklace. It’s the mixing of references, from high and low and really everywhere, that comes full circle here. My friend and sometimes collaborator Misa Hylton masterminded many of Lil’ Kim, Mary J. Blige, and Missy Elliott’s iconic looks—most notably, Lil’ Kim’s exposed breast at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards. That’s what I referred to as a “fashion faux positive.” Whether people loved or hated that look, we’re still discussing it 15 years later, and the value of that kind of cultural contribution is something I can’t underestimate. It also gave us the moment of Diana Ross bopping her on the boob!
8 Early-Aughts Style Stars We Can Learn From Now
One thing about Misa Hylton’s work that really speaks to me is that she’s never afraid to try something differently from the way it was intended. Why not wear that necklace as a tiara? Why not cut up a fur and make it a bikini? That’s one thing that we could learn from the styles of the early 2000s: not to be afraid to appropriate things away from their original context or purpose.
Paris Hilton: I’m more a fan of Paris’s former aesthetic, but from her we can take some cues on accentuating your best features. She has that gorgeous giraffe neck and wasn’t afraid to wear a superwide Dolce Swarovski choker.
Lil’ Kim: Kim has been an endless source of inspiration to me. The best lesson from her is to be fearless and to really commit to your look.
Beyoncé: For the record, I put my money on Beyoncé from “No, No, No” onwards. The Tina Knowles technique was very influential to me, because at the time I was choreographing hip-hop numbers and I would always put the girls in some variation of a customized wifebeater and pair of customized jeans.
Mariah Carey: Mariah and her stylist Tonjua Twist’s work? There’s something so low fashion about it that it is kind of rebellious, which was really Mariah’s vibe at the time. If she wanted to wear an oversize T-shirt on MTV’s TRL or take a bath fully clothed on Cribs, she sure did it.
Mary J. Blige: I really feel that her essence is that she’s earned the right to do whatever she wants. Be fearless, don’t be afraid of labels, don’t be afraid of colors. I really loved that kind of 1960s direction that Misa Hylton took her in with the hooded chiffon outfits and cat eyeglasses around 1995.
Nicole Richie: Nicole Richie was also giving a real Eric Cartman “I do what I want” vibe. And honestly, to me that’s what everybody should do. I don’t really follow trends and I certainly don’t like being told what to buy, what to sell, and what to store. I’ll be the judge of that.
Britney Spears: From Britney we learn that it’s okay to have a signature body part. If you love your midriff, go ahead and show it off.
Naomi Campbell: What can we learn from Naomi Campbell? Be flawless. Next!
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