Fashion mistakes all girls made in the 2000s

Including the obligatory ‘scene’ phase that you wish you could forget

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We all made mistakes in the noughties. We were young and had absolutely no idea how to dress, but that doesn’t mean we can’t laugh about it now. The boys had their chinos, their upturned collars and Kanye West-esque shutter shades- but what did the girls have?

The answer is pink flip phones, jeggings and tutus.

Now 14-year-olds have Instagram, eye makeup straight out of a YouTube tutorial and they all dress like Kylie Jenner. Where are the New Look floral leggings, the backcombed hair and the diablos? Hmu on my flip phone if you find out. For now, let’s take a tour through one of the darkest places in fashion history: 2007-2012.

Jeggings

What originally seemed like a genius combination of jeans and leggings actually turned out to be a match made in hell. While some elasticated jeans remain in shops even today, there was a very specific pair of jeggings in circulation around 2009. The Primark jeggings. Thin, denim coloured and made of weak elastic, these ill fitting jeggings gifted almost every girl with a camel toe and years of regret to match.

The Scene Phase

Avril Lavigne was our idol in the early 2000s and we should hold her largely responsible for the monstrosity that came next: the “scene” phase. Racoon tails, eyeliner for days, back combed hair and lip piercings were all major players in this trend and they added up to be a really horrendous combination.

Every scene kid had a studded belt, a tutu or brightly coloured skinny jeans. Everyone wanted those knee high lace up converse but luckily no one had them. The unluckiest scene kids were those with strict parents who didn’t allow them to dye their hair. All we can say is thank god this phase passed before we did lasting damage to our hair or reputation.

Jack Wills

There was probs a day where your mum took you shopping and you ended up stumbling upon a 2010 goldmine: Jack Wills. You obvs don’t have enough pocket money to get much else other than a pencil case or a water bottle but if you save up enough you can get one of those plain tee’s with Jack Wills or JW written on it. Of course whatever you buy needs to have Jack Wills written on it in large letters because if people can’t tell it’s Jack Wills then what’s the point? What really matters though, is that you have a pink and blue JW carrier bag to take your PE kit to school in.

The female Bieber hair

Just as bad as the male Bieber cut, this was the girls hairstyle that featured a massive fringe which swept across your whole forehead. Either held in place by a pin, a bow or enough hairspray to give you respiratory problems in the future, this hairstyle was a total mess. And the worst part was that it lead to forehead spots so you had no choice but to continue wearing your hair the same way, and thus the vicious fringe cycle continued.

The 3D glasses

The horrible trend born out of an increase in 3D movies and “geek chic” fashion, where everybody who had recently been to a 3D movie poked the lenses out of their 3D glasses and wore them as an actual legitimate accessory. And we all though it was really cool? Why?

The trend even progressed to shops like Primark and New Look selling clear lens glasses so that you could spend even more money to look like a knob. Did we not learn after the Shutter Shades phase?