Why Is Everyone So Obsessed With 2016 Right Now?

Before we begin, I’m going to make one request: play Drake’s One Dance in the background as you read this. It’s the only soundtrack that can truly set the scene for the time warp we’re about to embark on, rewinding all the way back to 2016. Don’t worry, I’m not about to subject you to a slideshow of my own decade-old memories. Having just turned 18 at the time, I have very few photos that exist outside of sticky-floored nightclubs. But I am going to explore why, collectively, we seem so drawn to the past.

“There are so many studies that preach psychologically we always look back on the past with coloured glasses, and we always find the past to be maybe better than our present,” shares fashion and beauty psychologist and author Shakaila Forbes-Bell.

“There was even one study that found when people were encouraged to engage in nostalgic thinking and were actively reminded about the past and encouraged to reminisce, they felt happier, they felt more socially connected, even physically they felt calmer. So it's always going to be something that evokes joy, which I think under the current climate that we're in right now is needed. A lot of people are struggling with affordability and political situations and it seems like a very tough era to be in,” she adds.

So why, exactly, is 2016 the destination for our metaphorical DeLorean? “We've had five years of upheaval. Coming out of the pandemic I think a lot of people were predicting the roaring 20s, myself included, and it just wasn't like that. I think people feel cheated out of that so they're harkening back to a time where we did feel free, people were dressing up and going out,” Forbes-Bell explains.

And go out we did. We wore lace-up tops and Bardot necklines—searches for off-the-shoulder styles on fashion platform Lyst reportedly hit 3,000 an hour in July—alongside a generous dose of metallic. Just look to Kylie Jenner, a key tastemaker of the era, to jog your memory.

But, as Forbes-Bell notes, it isn’t just the feeling of 2016 we’re trying to recreate—it’s our wardrobes, too. “I think it's maybe even a sign of how people are getting a bit fed up with the very minimalist, quiet luxury, clean girl tropes, which has now been used as a symbol of like success,” she explains. “Maybe they secretly crave the freeness and the the boldness of the 2016 aesthetic”.

That boldness came in the form of skinny jeans—which were reportedly outselling other silhouettes two-to-one globally—even as straight-leg styles began climbing the search charts, becoming the most sought-after shape in the UK that year, according to Lyst. They were paired, naturally, with logo-heavy hoodies from Vetements, Gucci and Calvin Klein, and classic black-and-white Vans, which racked up more than 18,000 searches a day on the platform. Proof, if ever you needed it, that your style may not have been quite as “indie” as you thought—yes, even you in the black choker, whose sales were up 120% that year.

Still, as Forbes-Bell points out, this doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll all be rushing to buy silky bomber jackets and slogan tees. “It almost feels incompatible with the times that we're in right now.”

“There is this push for us to be more bold with the heels and the dressing up, but looking broadly it's the case of not having somewhere to go,” she explains. “People can't afford it, nightclubs are shutting down, and people aren't really going on dates as much, so it's just like a whole culmination of things. As much as people would would to [lean into that fashion era], there has to be more of a shift globally for that to be a lifestyle that we can actually dress up for.”

For now, then, it seems our love affair with 2016 will remain largely confined to Instagram highlight reels—unless, of course, someone fancies throwing a house party.