Intro
Fashion in the 2000s is often described as a global mash-up. We’re seeing trends that incorporate vintage styles, global and ethnic clothing (like boho), and even music-based fashion from numerous subcultures. When talking about 2000s metal fashion, we have to talk about 2000s metal music, because it can be said that the two influence each other and are inseparable.
About Nu metal
Nu Metal, also known as Nü-metal or Aggro-metal, can be regarded as one of the sub-styles of alternative metal. Its original meaning is rage metal. Compared with traditional heavy metal, there are more angry and violent elements infused into the music by band members.
The media used by the members to express this idea are different, with the help of Funk, Hip Hop, Alternative Rock, Grunge, DJ mixing, MIDI, etc. As for this type of music, there are too many musical elements and styles.
New metal is different from traditional heavy metal in that it uses less guitar solos (Solo). Most new metal guitarists use seven-string guitars. The lead part is more melodic. The lead singer usually adopts an aggressive singing style, including clearing the throat, Shouts, heavy metal and hardcore punk’s various shouts, sometimes also use rapping like funk metal. The earliest representative band of nu-metal bands was Korn.
The Essence Of 2000s Metal Fashion
Silver
When you think of silver, what is your first reaction? Silver earrings and bracelets? The light of the sword? Or is it high-tech and futuristic? For example, dynamic robots, artificial intelligence AI, spaceships swimming in space…
On the other hand, when talking about Y2K, we have to mention silver, which is almost the representative color of the 2000s. After the arrival of the millennium, technological development has become increasingly rapid, and human beings’ longing for and fear of the modern world have been mixed together, inspiring a yearning for new trends and styles. The y2k trend, which seems to be a retro trend today, was actually centered around the mysterious new space world at the time.
In the revived Y2K aesthetic, silver is regarded as an important part. It can add a modern and fashionable temperament to a dull and rigid atmosphere, is full of a sense of future technology, and leads fashion trends in various fields.
Metal Element
The classic core of Y2K is the psychedelic sense of the future, so you can see its digital atmosphere created around technology, transparency, PVC, jelly and other elements. But the most representative of them is metal elements.
In particular, the popularization of technology and the development of artificial intelligence have inspired everyone’s enthusiasm for the future world and the vast space. Silver, which is full of technology, has also come more and more to the public’s eyes. Echoing the previous paragraph, what does silver represent? Silver, of course, represents metal.
In a contemporary era where all kinds of emerging elements and imaginations are exploding, metallic color, an element with its own shining light, has hardly become the first choice to equate with the concept of “future”, and even in many It seems a bit “old-fashioned” to people’s eyes; but when we go back to around the millennium, metallic color is definitely the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind as a symbol of the future.
At that time, a large number of classic science fiction movies, such as the “Terminator” series, used metallic colors to express their depictions of the future. The fashion industry also loves to use metallic elements to add a mysterious, ethereal, or mysterious aesthetic effect to fashion works.
2000s Metal Fashion In The Show
Metal not only has a firm foothold in the works and styles of celebrities, but has also become a dominant element in shows.
In 2019, Dior collaborated with illustrator Hajime Sorayama to transform the show into a futuristic technological feast, setting off a unique visual wave.
Alexander McQueen, perhaps the greatest designer in the minds of countless people, used metallic elements to create avant-garde fashion around the turn of the millennium, which has been regarded as a classic by future generations.
Versace also used its 1998 autumn and winter metal aesthetic feast to express its welcome and longing for the new millennium. It also contributed a lot to this metal fashion storm.
Celebrity icons of the time, as well as the millennials influenced by this trend, the first adherents of what we now call the Y2K aesthetic faction, jumped into this metal fashion trend. However, with the continuous evolution of the aesthetic system and the gradual evolution of the times and culture, the metallic color trend has been gradually “abandoned” by the fashion circle for a long time after experiencing the heat of the millennium. To this day, we see this familiar metal storm in major brands and various shows, and it has begun to “kill” back.
Why is Y2K Style So Fascinating?
If you want to know about 2000s metal fashion, you need to know the foundation of y2k mental fashion. Behind the phenomenon is culture. Let’s take a look at the reasons why y2k became a trend.
From Lady Gaga’s new song “Stupid Love” MV to Blackpink’s return with the y2k-style title song “How You Like That”, these gorgeous and retro-futuristic visual languages make the aesthetic trend that belonged to the beginning of this century no longer just belong to The nostalgia of some niche and subcultural groups has officially become a popular popular culture around the world.
Science And Technology
We now all know that Y2K originated from the Y2K bug in computer programs at the beginning of this century. Therefore, technology is the most important and unavoidable element of Y2K. Even everything in it is based on the rapidly developing electronic information technology. At the beginning of this century There has never been an era before where the common memories of the whole world were rendered by the same aesthetics and popularity.
As the first era to be impacted by electronic technology, the new lifestyle brought by computers and mobile phones made the 2000s, full of trendy terms, seem like a dream.
On the other hand, the popularity of the Internet has given rise to a new kind of utopianism: technology will be able to solve all problems – but with the arrival of hope, fear of the unknown also comes, and the excitement and excitement brought by technology to people are endless. A mixture of anxiety and uneasiness.
Contradiction
When hope comes, so does the fear of the unknown. The excitement and anxiety that technology brings to people are mixed together. This sense of contradiction unique to the era also laid the foundation for Y2K aesthetics.
In the series of movies “The Matrix” released in 1993 and 2003 respectively, the male protagonist Neo, who once lived in the virtual time controlled by the matrix, had a confrontation with the matrix system, and humans and robots reached a consensus at the end of the third film to welcome the Matrix. The new and equal settings corresponded to the audience’s inner feelings about the complexity of technology at that time.
In 2019, when the Y2K aesthetic is gradually becoming mainstream, “The Matrix” also announced the confirmation of filming for the fourth part.
Future
The possibilities brought by technology triggered a comprehensive futuristic fantasy in the Y2K era. After the Space Age (Space Age) that broke out in the 1960s due to the impact of the moon landing, futurism has once again swept the fashion industry-different from the previous epidemic. At that time, it was only limited to clothing, but this time it launched a comprehensive fashion culture from design, visual communication to concept.
Culture
“Technology makes everything possible”, this slogan also implies: everyone is equal in the face of technology. The will of freedom and equality constantly defeats the decadent rules established in the past. Rave culture, which represents this consciousness, was the underground culture that was popular at the time and profoundly influenced the Y2K era. It is also the Asian culture that is closest to us and the most powerful in history.
We have also talked about Rave Culture before in the article 2000s Rave Fashion: Learn From The Fashion Masters.
