Every so often, I stumble across a Gen Z microtrend so outlandish that I’m sceptical to share it with my fellow editors. And yet, thanks to this weekly column, I get to cover it. If you’re thinking, “What could possibly be worse than freaky footwear, toe rings and toeless socks?” Well, body gems are back, in all their bedazzled glory.
Starting as a ’90s rave-culture signature, it wasn’t until the 2000s that the bejewelled body hit the mainstream. Back then, stylish dressers would bedazzle everything (think back to blinged-out Motorola Razrs, graphic T-shirts and bootcut jeans of the heyday). It wasn’t long before the It girls of the era started “gemming” straight onto their skin.
Think Mariah Carey’s bejewelled stick-on butterfly back “tattoos”, which added a healthy dose of personality to her red-carpet looks, or Christina Aguilera’s sparkly stomach at the Latin Grammy Awards in 2000; body glam was a thing. On magazine covers, styled with VIP ready-to-wear or splashed through the era’s biggest music videos, every moment became a rhinestone playground. The more sparkle, the better.
Yet as quickly as they arrived, body gems disappeared. Instead, fashion swung in the opposite direction, favouring all things minimalist and undeniably chic (or, as we here at Who What Wear UK like to call it, Phoebe Philo‘s personal brand of quiet luxury). Suddenly, there was no room for a rhinestones anywhere, let alone on your skin.
But now, with fashion’s pendulum swinging back towards a maximalist mood, the appeal of body gems (especially amongst Gen Z) couldn’t be more obvious. They’re fun, deliberately over the top, insanely kitsch and embody the colourful, playful and excessively experimental mood we’re seeing amongst the fashion set right now.
And thanks to the bottomless well of nostalgic fashion references on TikTok and Instagram, Gen Z has not only embraced body gems but remixed their playful past. Enter Zara Larsson, whose personal universe of aquamarine-meets-dolphin-meme-meets-futuristic-Barbie (helped by her insanely talented makeup artist, Sophia Sinot) has followers enamoured; in her world, bedazzling the body is a must.
Kylie Jenner, who recently revived her 2000s “King Kylie” persona, also likes a body gem, showing off her rhinestone-studded derrière and arm cuff at Coachella earlier this summer. Musicians including SZA, Gen Z pop star Adela and girl group KATSYE are also championing the return of body gems in a major way right now.
Gen Z isn’t simply re-creating the 2000s, though; it is taking the era’s visual language and turning the volume up to the max. Part nostalgic, part iconic and part (in my humble opinion) genuinely good styling, body gems are no longer relegated to being a forgotten relic of the past. No, they’re a tiny sparkly sign that maximalism is back.
Shop the Y2K Body-Gems Trend
