On stage, millennial nostalgia is stepping into the spotlight. Across some of this year’s biggest pop tours, artists are building their wardrobes around the early 2000s, spanning everything from glitter wrap tops and micro shorts to barely-there dresses and tassels. The crystal-studded bodysuit still has its place as the definitive pop-star uniform, but it’s no longer the only option, and Y2K is proving to be one of the most fun alternatives.
Brooklyn-based fashion designer Kelsey Randall, who created Taylor Swift’s rhinestone chainmail dress for “The Fate of Ophelia” video, is shaping this pop-girl style movement in real time. After being approached by stylist Neelo Noory, she began designing pieces for Hilary Duff’s Lucky Me tour. Duff gravitated toward the designer’s glow-in-the-dark star dress, an homage to the sticky decals we’d scatter across our ceilings, and loved that it “captured elements of [her] youth, but as a modern adult interpretation,” Randall said.
That dress became the benchmark, with more early-2000s details, including CDs, metallic butterflies, and bubble discs, making appearances on the tour. Today’s throwback stagewear isn’t just for artists who came up during the pop boom, like Duff. Zara Larsson’s Midnight Sun aesthetic is hyper-focused on Y2K pieces like airbrushed baby tees, sequin micro skirts, and even a minidress designed to look like an iPod.
And the look is reaching artists who missed the era the first time around. Addison Rae, who was born in 2000, has fully embraced the Y2K persona of a pop diva, complete with hit “Diet Pepsi” and a wardrobe that does more than hint at a Britney mood board. The look taps into nostalgia, but it also welcomes listeners—whether they were there for the turn of the millennium or not—into simpler times, before iPhones and AI ran rampant.
Offstage, low-rise jeans, sporty tracksuits, and rimless sunglasses have been street-style royalty for a while now, whether you’re 13 or 30. And while I love a glittery bodysuit just as much as the next girl, I’m much more likely to leave the house in cropped baby tees, micro miniskirts, and skinny scarves than a bedazzled one-piece. That’s part of why these tour looks land: they’re something you could actually recreate.
The moment the curtain opens and a singer steps out in butterfly clips or low-rise denim, she gets to make the era her own, and fans get the chance to step back into it (at least for a song or two). Ruby Ford-Dunker (McAuliffe) is a fashion and lifestyle journalist featured in Vogue, InStyle, Elle, Who What Wear, Marie Claire, Brides, the New York Post, Business Insider, and more. When she’s not reporting on her latest fashion obsession, she can be found listening to Taylor Swift, hunting for the best vanilla latte, playing with her cats, or smiling her way through a dance workout.
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