A pair of camouflage pedal pushers and a ’00s-era Ed Hardy T-shirt, a Karen Millen blouse and Nike parachute pants; a Plein Sud stretch-mesh top and rimless Chanel sunnies, low-slung Von Dutch jeans and J’adore Dior baby tees. Over the past couple of years, Bella Hadid’s unique relationship with clothing—and Depop sellers with names like @princesspeach310 and @electricheartz—has laid the blueprint for what young people on social media consider to be successful dressing: a certain recherché Y2K hype-girl, torn from the pages of Mizz magazine and beamed into an Erewhon in LA.
It was, at times, berserk, which is what made it so brilliant. And while so many of her contemporaries had begun to seek status through brands like The Row and Bottega Veneta—sartorial shortcuts to being seen as prestigious and having good taste—you got the impression that Bella was not dressing to be taken seriously as a fashion person. “I dress like a little boy,” she said in 2022. “You couldn’t catch me in a dress willingly at this point in my life.” But since reentering the public eye with a $25handbag last week, Bella seems to be taking a more measured, mellowed approach to getting dressed.