We wish we could forget those 2000s monstrosities, but they’re too great a weight to bear. From jeans under dresses to crimped hair and frosted tips, here are 20 of the worst crimes against fashion.
1. Forehead Headbands
There’s nothing wrong with a good headband. They keep hair out of our faces during a workout, make for cute accessories, and are just practical in general. What doesn’t make any sense, however, is wearing it smack dab in the middle of your forehead.
2. Jeans Under Dresses
We’re not sure why this was ever a welcomed fashion choice, but this trend haunted red carpets and school hallways for years. The idea was simple: wear regular jeans under a summer dress and parade around in public—and the result was as bad as you think.
Photo by Matthew Moloney on Unsplash
3. Lace-Up Clothing
Who here remembers lace-up jeans? What about lace-up jackets with nary a zipper in sight? If you don’t, you’re one of the lucky few spared the sight of criss-cross laces in lieu of flies or shirt buttons.
Photo by Devon Divine on Unsplash
4. Lowrise Pants
Listen, the 2000s were incomplete without lowrise pants—so low, in fact, that you spent the day in constant fear of accidental flashing. Even worse, jeans weren’t the only victim of this trend. All pants had to hang at their very lowest or you weren’t in fashion, man.
Photo by Matthew Moloney on Unsplash
5. Uggs
Summer, winter, it didn’t matter. Uggs were all the rave and believed by many to be the perfect accessory. You could wear them with shorts, tuck your skinny jeans into them, or traipse around red carpets…you shouldn’t have, but you technically could.
Photo by Thibault Penin on Unsplash
6. Pajama Pants
Pajamas are hardly a “fashion trend,” but what made them special in the 2000s is how often people wore them. You caught them in schools or in public, and for a while there pajamas weren’t reserved for the bedroom.
Downtowngal on Wikimedia Commons
7. Vests
When you think of a vest, your mind probably goes to a nice three-piece suit—you know, something classy. Well, not in the 2000s! Vests were shoehorned onto every outfit and it didn’t matter how stupid it looked. It was the style.
Photo by René Ranisch on Unsplash
8. Thick Belts
We’re not talking about your everyday belt, we’re talking about those statement pieces women wore directly under their chest. Braided belts or gigantic black ones with silver clasps were the weapon of choice, and we’re glad they’re finally gone.
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
9. Oversized Clothing
To be fair, oversized clothing was a craze in the ‘90s, too, but it sadly stretched into the early 2000s. It wasn’t enough for a button-up shirt to be large, it had to be at least three times too big. One gust of wind and you were toast.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
10. Striped Highlights
Thank goodness we’ve veered into natural highlights nowadays. But those who survived the 2000s also survived dreadful striped highlights that didn’t match, were far too loud, and for some reason—everywhere.
Photo by Lindsay Cash on Unsplash
11. Huge Ties
We have Avril Lavigne to thank for this one. You weren’t cool unless you shopped for the gaudiest tie and ruined an outfit with it. But how else could you tell the world you weren’t like other girls?
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
12. Overly Long Jeans
Perhaps the only thing worse than lowrise jeans was destroying the pant leg. Nothing looked more fashionable than overly long jeans, left to scrape across every floor until the legs were a sad, tattered mess.
Photo by Mediamodifier on Unsplash
13. Converse With Everything
Arch support? We didn’t need no stinking arch support. Ballet flats and Converse sneakers were the only footwear options, and you would like them. It didn’t matter what you wore or where you went either.
Photo by Jaizer Capangpangan on Unsplash
14. Crimped Hair
Look, we like potato chips or french fries as much as the next person, but there’s no reason hairstyles had to emulate them. This style was so popular that special hair irons existed specifically to give you the worst look known to man.
1000heads on Wikimedia Commons
15. Fedoras
Thankfully, fedoras are a thing of the past—especially after association with “m’lady.” But before we came to our senses, just about everyone buried their big fashion brains under these goofy hats.
Photo by JOSHUA COLEMAN on Unsplash
16. No Eyebrows
Before the caterpillar look made its way onto faces, the style was no eyebrows at all. You either plucked them so much that they all but vanished or drew pencil-thin lines. Either way, it didn’t look good.
Photo by Andriyko Podilnyk on Unsplash
17. Black Hair With Accessories
Move over, terrible highlights. Jet black dye was just as atrocious (and even more damaging for hair) and just as popular. To make matters worse, the look wasn’t complete without an abundance of hair accessories…or highlights that were somehow even louder.
Photo by Greg Trowman on Unsplash
18. Frosted Tips and Spiky Hair
It’s sad to think that even our biggest celebrity crushes once walked the red carpet with frosted tips—and that we liked it. For some reason, you just weren’t hip without blonde hair tips spiked to the heavens.
19. Rubber Bracelets
Remember those chunky rubber bracelets that read “Livestrong” or “Puma”? Yes, you know the ones—and outfits weren’t complete without at least nine of them on each wrist. Just tragic.
Photo by Roberto Sorin on Unsplash
20. Polo Shirts
Forget about breathability in the summertime! Put on a lime green polo shirt, pop the collar, and make your way into town. Don’t worry, everyone else did it, too.
