The Nostalgia Cycle Will Come For Us All
On becoming cooked...
I turn 27 on Tuesday.
All I see on my phone is that guy playing John F Kennedy Jr. and American figure skating champion Alysa Liu. They’re different. But the same. But also super different. I’m there for the Junioraissance A preppy slice of 90s nostalgia reimagined and dramatized into 10 hours of steamy TV. The Calvin Klein suits, backwards kangol, big khakis, and headbands are of a generation I was not a part of but surely one that anyone my age likes, pins, and lionizes.
And then there’s Alysa Liu. She’s 20. She wears Von Dutch. Skates to PinkPantheress. Dyes her hair with bleach blonde halos and blings her smile with ice I was previously unfamiliar with. Peppered in with some world class skating, Liu’s steez has captured the nation in ways not seen since the historic team up of Jimmy MacElroy and Chazz Michael Michaels. I’m there for this as well. She’s a certified individual. Cool if we’d like simmer down and reduce it. But the Liuaissance also makes me feel generationally cooked. She’s nostalgic for a time I am not. It’s a cool anchored by 2004 instead of 1994. The earliest digital age instead of the last gasps of analog. Her Paris Hilton Simple Life vs. my Real World. JFK Jr drip is once again having its time in the algorithmic sun. Sure. But in the same way a 45 year old still thinks it’s a vibe to dress like they’re at Woodstock. The real moment is Alysa Liu’s. As Shohei says in that New Balance ad…she’s got now. That’s a sobering realization. I am no longer on the cutting edge. Part of the mercurial and sought after 18-24 demographic. I’m pre-9/11 cooked. Predisposed to hold tightly on the good old days of 1994, when I was negative 5 years old and everyone apparently looked unbelievable at airports. I guess the nostalgia cycle has run its course. The new good old days are ‘04. A steez pool I’d feel wrong dipping my drip into. Here I' am still thinking about repping a suit/kangol combo and take my 12 speed through the West Village.
So to any college kids popping their boots to Stateside, charging their Motorola Razr, and pre-ripping their American Eagle cargos, I have sobering news for you.
Someone born in 2010 just bought their first pair of skinny jeans. A North Face zip-up fleece might follow. Maybe they’ll even learn about Foster The People. Or the great Friends With Benefits/No Strings Attached war of 2011.
Unfortunately, the nostalgia cycle comes for us all.
More on Friends With benefits this week on Elevator Pitch…
One Fit For the Weekend
A friend sent me this photo of Gyllenhaal from Presumed Innocent. The fit is nothing to newsletter home about…but check out the glasses. Gyllenhaal puts them bottom shelf. A few buttons from the top. Ground floor. Below sea level.
Might try it out with my riderz this weekend . Thanks Chuck.
Sea level = goated