I can live with the return of the 2000s style, but unfortunately Tecktonik is coming back!

I’m not a fashion queen. I’ve never read a “Vogue” or an “InStyle” – so I have little idea what the rich and beautiful wear.

BUT: I am a great observer. And what I’ve been noticing lately are those sparkling belly piercings and the freshly tattooed “butt antlers”.

It had taken a long time. We have been following the developments on Instagram and TikTok, but now I can formally announce it: The 2000s are back!

This is confusing to me. I would like to explain why. I was born in 1995. That means: I was socialized with the grotesque paparazzi photos of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Christina Aguilera.

At that time, to me, Britney was the most beautiful woman in the world. Christina definitely had the coolest style. And Paris? Well, that was on MTV too. But I’ve always loved your little chihuahuas.

From eight to twelve (or so) I wanted to be like the three of them: maximum bleached hair, super thin eyebrows, ultra-low rise jeans and brown lined lips with extra glitter lip gloss.

This is exactly how many girls there are in Zurich today. Jeans low on the hips, thong visibly pulled up, platform sandals, cropped Guess shirt and a huge gothic cross tattooed on the back.

I like that the girls have the courage to walk around like that. But it remains strange: as a child I couldn’t style myself like Britney, Christina and Paris and today I’m just too old. Twice I was able to experience the fashion of the 2000s, twice I was excluded – or more precisely: I am currently excluding myself.

Because by the time I was a teenager, fashion had changed drastically.

We Millennials are one step ahead of the Gen-Z of the 2000s. We know a terrible episode would follow the 00s: Tectonics dominated the fashion world. This dance style from the 1990s made a comeback around 2008.

At least at my high school, Tecktonik had a lot of influence: the really cool girls had black, long, straight hair. My eyes became extra black and I went to the sunbed excessively and used olive oil in the summer to get a real tan. If you wore leggings or very tight ‘Rörlijeans’ and a tight – ideally pink – shirt, you couldn’t go wrong.

We moved into the vastness of the Internet in a microcosm consisting of MSN Messenger and the online platform Netlog. At the time it was completely normal to write: “Heij HüBsChii, gömmeR nachheR no id BaDii? XD <3»

In terms of fashion you could describe this time as Netlog-Tecktonik-Modelz or Sodom and Gomorrah. Dear users, I don’t want to see the photos either, but I have to warn the young people of today.

That was the Tecktonik style:

‘Netlog models’ were regularly chosen – the most beautiful of the most beautiful. Relics from this time can still be found on YouTube today:

I can live with the currently ubiquitous 2000s fashion. But I appeal to today’s youth:

Please don’t bring back the Tecktonik style.