If you want to sound like a true Internet subculture connoisseur, it’s worth brushing up on the difference between the Y2K and McBling aesthetics. What are the origins of the Y2K aesthetic?

For his spring 2023 collection, Brognano doubled down on a Y2k-meets-grunge aesthetic, with a shimmering abundance of flared low-rise jeans and sheer minidresses, reminiscent of the ocean’s ...

“Specifically, the beauty of the women and the men, the style of the people in ... helped to shape the Y2K aesthetic globally, and this impact is evident in Nollywood. Jim Iyke’s bad-boy ...

What we commonly know as the Y2K aesthetic is really the McBling look. Y2K is more about frosty metallic finishes and futuristic motifs, whereas this Bush-era look of excess emphasizes luxury ...

Twenty-five years into the new millennium, Y2K aesthetics and millennial nostalgia are still alive and well in Colette Shade's new book, Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (Essays on the Future ...

If Shade were just identifying the Y2K aesthetic, this book would be quickly consignable to the remainder pile. Some of her narrative leaps do falter, like that modem straining to connect.