Many of us remember the Millennium as a big celebration and a party that went on for a good few days after (and for some of us before 2000 hit). But what did the Millennium bring for the fashion industry.

Well, it started off seeming to be rather bleak. It was not the future that was inspiring fashion and Arts it was the past. Designers were getting creative ideas from what had brought us forward in fashion… they were looking deep into the past. Rustling papers, old books, photos and old designs and started to bring them to life. Vintage clothing was becoming the talk on the catwalks, it was no longer a memory but a current fashion flare of inspiration to thrive designers forward. So it was not the future of 2000 that was bringing the new fashion trends but the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. Designers were clashing bold colours by late 2007 and this became very popular and many designers attempted to incorporate this into many of their collections.

Beforehand ’00s considered the moderate look of the Nineties in high style. Subsequently, designers began to use more colorful, womanly, extravagant, and ‘anti-modern’ looking. Name brands became of particular importance among young people and many celebrities launched their own lines of clothing. Tighter fit clothing and longer hair became mainstream for many men and women. Rap music also had a considerable influence on popular fashion, in the early part of the 2000s.

For many of the own-label designers who emerged in the early years of the twenty-first century, financial elements became more and more crucial. Many new young talents found they now depended upon investors (to whom, in intense events, they would even give up their names) and were always weighted down by the risk that their partners, motivated by market reality and the want for fast returns, would seriously confine their autonomy.

The middle of the 2000s celebrated the comeback of a more feminine look. This began with the return of the dress. The figure-hugging look was dissolved in the summer of 2007, when designers began to try out flowy, tunic shapes. Lustrous, block colour also became a focus. Menswear has become progressively more significant as well and has too gone in a slightly womanly direction, especially evident after the middle of the decade.