Jiahao Li

In this thesis project, I first explore the Smart style, a product of Chinese youth culture of the 2000s, and then examine the current revival of this style and what it means to a new generation of young people. I compare the two styles, with the aim of showing how young people today have reimagined the earlier style to create a new fashion trend, known as Y2K. I focus on the aesthetics of the products and on four independent online Chinese fashion stores carrying these items. In the course of my research, I interviewed Tsunami, the owner of one of the stores, to discuss her understanding of the 2000s style in China and its revival. By analyzing this phenomenon visually and historically and comparing the Smart style with today’s Y2K style, I examine what fashion means to marginalized youths in 2000s China and how young people have interpreted it and transformed it into the Y2K style to express themselves two decades later.