2000s In 2021
2021
FADE IN:
INT. THRIFT SHOP – DAY
The curtain of a changing room pulls open, and out steps ELLE (15, light hair, dark eyes), dressed in clothes from the y2k trend: a rhinestone-emblazoned baby tee, a denim mini skirt and pink platform sneakers.
ELLE
(squealing) How do I look?
Elle’s SISTER (13, light hair, dark eyes) briefly glances up from her phone, then continues texting.
SISTER
(bored)
You look fine. Remind me why you need new clothes again?
Elle admires herself in a mirror.
ELLE
Because, my old clothes aren’t in trend anymore. Like, 80s clothing is so last month, but the y2k fashion trend is in right now.
SISTER
Why do you even need to keep up with these trends? They just die out, and then new trends replace them.
The sister gestures at Elle’s outfit.
SISTER
Y2k was in trend 20 years ago. Why is it popular again? Why does a fashion trend even become a trend? Don’t you ever wonder why these trends just keep dying out and coming back again and again?
Elle strikes poses in front of the mirror.
ELLE
What do you have against trends? I look cute, and if you just try on some clothes from the y2k trend, I’m sure you would look cute too!
The sister rolls her eyes at Elle.
ELLE
Come on, just try! The y2k trend is really iconic.
Elle tries to place a pair of tinted cat-eye sunglasses from the 2000s on the sister’s head, but the sister raises her arm and swats Elle away.
SISTER
(sighs)
Only when you properly find out and explain to me how fashion trends work, then I will try on one of your dumb outfits.
ELLE
(gasps) Really?
The sister nods begrudgingly as Elle hugs her.
ELLE
I’m gonna make you look amazing!
HARD CUT TO:
A pink screen with white text reading: HOW A FASHION TREND GAINS POPULARITY AND DIES OUT OVER TIME. SWIPE to the next slide, reading: 2000s in 2021: A DOCUMENTARY ON THE COMEBACK OF THE Y2K FASHION TREND.
“OOPS!…I DID IT AGAIN” by Britney Spears plays.
CROSS DISSOLVE
TO:
INT. CLOTHING STORE – DAY
WIDE SHOT of DANIELA MONASTERIOS TAN (short dark hair, pink glasses) looking through racks of clothes. Every so often, as she speaks, she pulls out an article of clothing, takes a photo of it and scribbles something down on her notebook.
Text reading “Daniela Monasterios Tan, fashion lecturer at LASALLE College of the Arts” appears at the bottom of the screen.
DANIELA
I worked in fashion publishing, so I was doing copywriting. And then I was working as a design assistant for a local labour called “Hensel”.
Photos from the brand, “Mash-Up”, taken from their website are shown, depicting the clothes they designed.
DANIELA (V.O.)
Then I launched my own brand called “Mash-Up”.
INT. CLASSROOM – LASALLE – DAY
WIDE SHOT of Daniela walking through the doorway and speaking to the camera.
DANIELA
And now I’m a fashion lecturer in LASALLE.
Daniela sits down at the teacher’s table and opens her computer to a deck of slides containing images and information about a lecture.
DANIELA
So I’ve been in different aspects of the local fashion industry for the last 10 years.
INT. BEDROOM – DAY
WIDE SHOT of LILY ANN LAI RICHARDSON (16, brown hair, pale skin) standing in front of a clothing rack.
Text reading “Lily Ann Lai Richardson, student”, appears at the bottom of the screen.
Elle stands next to Lily, admiring her clothes.
ELLE
Other than y2k, what are some other fashion trends you wear or have worn?
Lily removes a crewneck t-shirt hanging on the rack, which has the words “New York” emblazoned across it.
LILY
When I was younger, I would wear 2010s, like, you know when everyone was wearing H&M?
Elle nods in agreement.
Lily takes out a hoodie from the rack, a piece of clothing merchandise from the popular K-pop band “BTS”.
LILY
And then in Primary school, like P6 to early Secondary school, because I was going through my “kboo” phase, I would wear Korean streetwear.
Lily removes a mesh top and from the rack and hands a pair of platform pink sandals to Elle, who tries them on.
LILY
But then I kind of grew out of it, because I watch a lot of YouTubers who were doing y2k when I was in Sec 1, Sec 2.
A series of photos from Lily’s Instagram account (@lilyannlaii) are shown, with her in different y2k outfits. For example, her wearing cropped tank tops, bootcut jeans, platform sneakers, and dresses over jeans.
EXT. ORCHARD ROAD – DAY
MEDIUM SHOT of Daniela standing in front of the “313 Somerset” shopping mall and speaking to the camera.
DANIELA
In fashion theory, there are two theories that people have come up with (about how fashion trends gain popularity) and the first one is bubble up.
PAN to a group of fashionably-dressed teenagers laughing and chatting. Their outfits include dresses with wild prints, patchwork jackets, and vinyl trousers.
DANIELA (V.O.)
That means that things from the streets, or from youth culture, or subculture…
CROSS DISSOLVE
TO:
INT. RUNWAY – DAY
A circle of mannequins is adorned with outfits similar to the teenagers’. A fashion designer finishes the last touches on them.
DANIELA (V.O.)
…get taken by the designers…
JUMP CUT TO:
A model walks down the runway dressed in one of the designer’s outfits.
DANIELA (V.O.)
…and put into the runway, so that’s called bubble up dissemination.
WIDE SHOT of another model walking down the runway dressed in an elegant outfit – a crisp black blazer over a formal, stiff dress.
DANIELA (V.O.)
And then there’s also the idea of trickle down. Trickle down means that the designer puts it on the runway…
MATCH CUT TO:
EXT. ORCHARD ROAD – DAY
WIDE SHOT OF a teenager walking down the street wearing a street-style adaptation of the model’s outfit – a loose- fitting pink blazer over a casual crop top and an a-line skirt with a relaxed silhouette.
DANIELA (V.O.)
…and then the streets eventually adopt it through mass fashion.
PAN back to Daniela. She speaks to the camera.
DANIELA
One way that trends die out, one of the most common reasons, is that fashion works in this way that things are cool, or interesting to a group of people, because they’re the first ones who do it.
PAN upwards to reveal a “Zara” store in “313 Somerset”. ZOOM-IN at the window of the store, so we can see what is happening inside. TIME LAPSE of the store over a month: we can see the clothes on the racks being replaced by copious blazer and skirt sets over time.
DANIELA (V.O.)
And once it becomes a mass trend, like you see everybody wearing it, or you see a very mainstream shop, like Zara or H&M, creating things that look like that…
ZOOM-OUT to once again reveal the bustling street, but this time, not a single person is wearing a blazer.
DANIELA (V.O.)
…then the original wearers of the trend don’t really want to be associated with the mainstream.
ZOOM-IN on Lily and Elle in the crowd of people. They are fashionably dressed, and carrying a number of shopping bags.
ELLE
So, what is y2k clothing to you?
LILY
For me, y2k is more of like, futuristic styles…
A series of CLOSE-UP shots are shown, starting with a hand flipping open a flip phone, typing furiously on a huge keyboard connected to a 90s Windows computer, and plugging in the jack on an Ipod.
LILY (V.O.)
…because it was inspired mostly by the tech revolution from the 90s to the early 2000s.
A series of photographs are shown, depicting girls from the 2000s wearing the below mentioned clothes.
LILY (V.O.)
Y2k was really skinny bootcut low- rise jeans, and velour tracksuits. The skirts were super mini, like really mini skirts. Denim was a big thing, like everything denim. And very revealing clothes. And anything really shiny and really bling, and just really trashy looking.
Photographs of Missy Elliott, Bjork, and TLC in the 2000s are shown.
LILY (V.O.)
If you look at Missy Elliott, or TLC, and like, Bjork, all that stuff were very futuristic and cyber.
O.S.: “NO SCRUBS” by TLC plays in the b.g.
J CUT TO:
INT. CLASSROOM – DAY – CONTINUOUS
The MUSIC BLEEDS over. WIDE SHOT of Daniela standing in front of a projector screen, lecturing a class of students, which includes Elle and the sister.
Daniela points at the screen, which shows TLC performing the song on Music Television (MTV). The music FADES OUT and we can hear Daniela speaking.
DANIELA
Y2k stands for the year 2000. And there was a lot of futuristic speculation in music videos in MTV, like TLC’s “No Scrubs” has that futuristic-looking music video.
Elle raises her hand.
ELLE
Ms Daniela, why do you think y2k clothing came back in trend?
Daniela walks over to the teacher’s table. She picks up long strips of orange velour fabric, and pins them to a mannequin wearing a half-completed pair of pants, to create a colour- blocking effect. From the projector screen above, it can be seen that these pants draw inspiration from TLC’s outfit in the video of colour-blocked, baggy pants.
DANIELA
I think similar to me, many of the designers who are designing today are looking at these inspirations. The fact that it’s 20 years ago, and the designers who are working now kind of grew up in that time. They are referencing things that they remember or they thought were cool when they were in their teens.
SISTER
(whispers to Elle)
That’s so cool, I never knew that.
The sister types down notes on her laptop, as Elle grins and raises her hand once more.
ELLE
Ms Daniela, another question? When do you think y2k fashion came back in trend?
Daniela walks over to a desk and picks up a binder. She opens it and points at drawings, photographs and material samples depicting the things she says.
DANIELA
Four years ago, I started seeing my students referencing this 90s style butterfly, and rhinestones in their collections. Oh, and they were also looking at cell phones from the 90s.
Photos of Daniela when she was a tween are shown, depicting her wearing butterfly clips, skirts with rhinestones sewn on it and holding a flip phone.
DANIELA (V.O.)
And all these things were very familiar to me, because I lived through that. That’s when I started noticing that this y2k style was coming back.
The SCREEN SPLITS to show a comparison of Lily wearing similar y2k outfits to what 12-year-old Daniela wore.
DANIELA (V.O.)
Then recently, it’s just become very full blown and I’ve seen it in a lot of styling or even in the streets, I see young people wearing things that I wore or I wanted to wear when I was 12-years-old.
ZOOM-IN on Lily.
INT. BEDROOM – DAY
MEDIUM SHOT of Lily standing in front of a a huge closet filled with colourful and vibrant clothes. Elle stands next to her.
Lily opens the TikTok app on her phone and shows Elle as she scrolls through it. CLOSE-UP on numerous videos of people wearing the y2k trend.
LILY
I think it came back last year, because everyone was on their phones on TikTok.
ELLE
Do you think it’s dying out again?
The search results on the Tiktok app for the hashtag “#y2k” is shown. The results display that the total number of views for videos with this hashtag is 1.9 billion.
LILY (V.O.)
I don’t think it’s dying out. Y2k style is what’s happening now.
INT. “ZARA” STORE – DAY
MEDIUM SHOT of Daniela standing in the middle of the store, surrounded by racks of clothes. She speaks to the camera.
DANIELA
I think trends go through this bell curve and the first part is the earlier adopters, and then you need it to go to the masses.
Daniela removes a baby tee from the clothing rack, an iconic staple of y2k clothing, indicating that the y2k trend has slowly started to go to the masses.
DANIELA
Once you see it in the mass shops, like everywhere, then you will begin to see it kind of dying out. But there is no complete end point. Even when the trend has ended, there will still be people who continue to carry it a little bit, or mix and match that trend with something new.
INT. BEDROOM – DAY
WIDE SHOT of Lily and Elle pulling out clothes from the closet and holding them against themselves.
ELLE
So Lily, when y2k dies out again, are you going to stop wearing it?
LILY
To be honest, I don’t think I will. I really don’t think I will.
A series of photos are shown, depicting y2k outfits worn by different people during different occasions. For example, photos of popular celebrities from the 2000s like Paris Hilton, and music artists like Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne, all wearing y2k.
Photos of the well-dressed characters from iconic 2000s movies such as “Mean Girls” and “Clueless” are also included. Lastly, photos of teenagers wearing y2k from when the trend came back in 2021 are shown.
LILY (V.O.)
The entire vibe of it, and like, the 2000s was literally a lifestyle. So I don’t think I can grow out of it.
The last photo depicts Elle wearing the y2k outfit from the first scene.
CROSS DISSOLVE
TO:
INT. THRIFT SHOP – DAY
Elle, wearing the y2k outfit, walks over to the mirror, holding the same pair of sunglasses from the first scene. The sister is standing in front of the mirror, dressed head- to-toe in y2k clothing. Elle places the sunglasses on her sister’s head as a finishing touch.
ELLE
(happy)
I told you you would look amazing!
SISTER
You’re right, and I learnt so much about fashion trends today. The y2k trend is totally cool!
Elle slings her hand around the sister’s shoulder, and they smile. They sashay out of the shop in her new outfits, as “OOPS!…I DID IT AGAIN” by Britney Spears plays O.S.
FADE TO BLACK.