Any millennial living in the late 2010s and early 2010s can tell you that it was not a good time for fashion. You had the ModCloth girls inspired by celebrities like Zooey Deschanel going toe-to-toe with the guys in white skinny jeans and Kanye West-inspired sunglasses who believed the subculture could age faster, while others existed at the intersection of the two, sporting skinny jeans. and thick-rimmed black glasses with vests. Basically, they looked like Ellen DeGeneres.
It’s not a style one typically associates with the NBA, but as Adam Kester points out in a recent video, it bizarrely held the basketball world in a stranglehold from about 2009 to 2013, when everything the world woke up and realized there was no need to play. wear business casual attire to the club.
Kester calls it a “hipster/preppy/nerd look,” but functionally, players were just walking around like they’d raided Ellen’s wardrobe. He then goes on to describe the fits of a few key players during this period, starting with Russell Westbrook, who “always had a tight shirt with some sort of pattern on it, a tie, tight khakis, maybe some slacks.” bright colors. » Meanwhile, Kevin Durant constantly walked around with an incredibly tight backpack across his chest, looking like a stereotypical nerd from an 80s teen movie, just without the pocket protector and calculator.
Kester goes on to describe some staples of everyone’s wardrobe during this era: cardigans, skinny pants (usually khakis), ties, and bow ties. Additionally, unusually colored pants were common, as were printed shirts and flannels. Kester includes a crazy photo of Steve Nash in a salmon-colored sweater and patterned bow tie, paired with a white shirt and khakis – and therefore managing to tick every box with just one outfit.
Finally, there were thick-framed glasses, many of which had no lenses; you didn’t need a prescription to rock them, and many people didn’t, mistakenly thinking they looked cool.
Commenters were happy to try to find the source of the trend and give it a name. Many agreed that “hipster” worked great, although others suggested “swag business casual.” Which begs the question: where exactly is the loot?
Whatever you call it, let’s just hope no one tries to revive it the same way they’re reviving Y2K fashion right now. Let him stay dead and buried.
