At the end of 1999 the whole world was waiting for the 'Y2K bug' — every computer feared a mass crash at the stroke of midnight 2000. But on January 1st nothing happened, and instead an intensely optimistic new century opened: the internet would change everything, the Nokia 3310 sold out everywhere, the iMac G3 turned the computer into furniture with its translucent plastic, and The Matrix put long black leather coats + sunglasses into fashion.

Visual signatures: liquid metal, lens flare, pale blue and pink, zero-gravity type, star and heart GIFs, Lisa Frank colours. The music videos of Britney Spears, Destiny's Child and Christina Aguilera were all this; so were Internet Explorer 5, the Windows XP Luna theme, and Apple's Aqua UI.

The 2008 financial crash shattered that optimism, and the Y2K aesthetic was dead for 10 years. Then NewJeans, Olivia Rodrigo and Bella Hadid dug the whole thing back up in 2022 — revived alongside TikTok's 'coquette,' 'balletcore' and 'cybercore.' Looking back at 1999's design today, it feels both tacky and brave.