• I’m considered a Gen Zer. While I like many of my generation’s trends, there’s some I won’t embrace. 
• Young people are loving trends that were cool when I was a kid, and I’m not ready to go back.
• Denim maxi skirts, low-rise jeans, and ballet flats are all the rage, but I can’t get onboard. 

Thanks to fashion’s cyclical nature, Gen Z has brought back trends I remember from childhood. 

As a 26-year-old who grew up in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I’m a member of Gen Z and can appreciate many of my generation’s fashion choices. I adore loose-fitting pants — good riddance, skinny jeans — I love my middle part and am surprisingly happy that Ugg boots are back, according to Vogue.

However, several of Gen Z’s fashion trends, like low-rise jeans, ballet flats, and denim maxi skirts, were popular when I was a kid — and I’m just not ready for them to return. 

I’ll never go back to low-rise jeans

Throughout the early 2000s, it wasn’t cool to wear loose, high-rise denim. Just consider SNL’s 2003 “Mom Jeans” sketch. Low-rise, skin-tight jeans were in, and baggy jeans were out.

But in the 2010s, as fashion tends to do, loose, high-waisted pants became cool again. And until then, it’s been acceptable — if not encouraged — to wear pants that reach your belly button.

Over the past few years, Gen Z has reclaimed low-rise pants, part of my generation’s affection for Y2K style. While it’s still cool for pants to be less than form-fitting, the cut is getting lower and lower, and I simply am not ready to give up my high-waisted pants.

I’m not ready to wear a denim maxi skirt again

Denim maxi skirts were prominent when I was in elementary school. I remember having one before they inevitably became uncool again.

Now, stars like Emily Ratajkowski and Gigi Hadid are bringing the trend back to life. Denim skirts haunt me via my TikTok’s For You Page, and I can’t escape the calf-length jean skirts. 

I think the skirts can look cute, but I don’t know if I can get over my elementary school memories, and I don’t see myself buying one any time soon.

Ballet flats can be cute, but I don’t love them

Ballet flats, like denim skirts and low-rise jeans, have made a recent resurgence, per The New York Times.

I don’t have the same deep-seated aversion to ballet flats as jean skirts or low-slung pants — I just don’t think they’re for me. I don’t see myself pulling them off, and I also don’t think they’re the most practical.

Especially living in New York City, where I walk almost everywhere, I can see ballet flats getting worn down easily — and also getting dirty and stinky from walking sockless around the city.