5 films that defined 2010s fashion

The 2010s were all about burying the fashion mistakes of the 2000s: poorly cropped jeans (or worse, capris), halter tops, Juicy sweatsuits, and ill-fitting hats. Not many have come out of the ‘00s looking chic. The 2010s served as a period of sartorial recovery. Recycling the old—like, stole-from-grandma old—became cool again (and a sustainable, eco-friendly way to get dressed), athletic wear became luxurious, and the line between gendered clothing became blurred. Though this decade saw many great fashion films of eras past—lush period pieces with extravagant gowns—there were just as many present-day films that captured burgeoning, hip styles of the new generation. Below is a small selection of films that feel both very current and, well, vintage—a big trend of the 2010s.

Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016)

The Cannes Film Festival premiere of the French auteur Olivier Assayas’s 2016 film Personal Shopper coincided with its lead, Kristen Stewart, having a huge fashion moment: she was breaking red carpet rules and pulling off rebellious cool effortlessly. Pairing couture dresses with tattered sneakers—gasp—Kristen Stewart was doing the whole high-and-lowbrow thing better than anyone. After a brief post-Twilight period of K Stew hate (for reasons such as: she’s awkward, ungrateful, bad at acting, blah blah), she fell back into the good graces of her fans while also solidifying her place as a fashion darling (she’s a Chanel girl, after all). In this strange film that plays out like a 21st century text message-fueled ghost story, Stewart plays Maureen, the titular personal shopper to a celebrity. She spends most of her days lugging around bags full of designer goods on her motorcycle, dressed raggedy—but also impossibly chic because it’s, you know, K Stew. While possibly being stalked by the ghost of her dead brother, she also experiences a bizarre sexual liberation from secretly trying on her boss’s fancy clothes—clothes far from her own style. Mixed with her own, humble wardrobe, Maureen embodies the high and low, as well as feminine and masculine styles.

Queen & Slim (Melina Matsoukas, 2019)

I know, I know, we promised to leave Juicy sweatsuits in the past, but this new decade introduced a new line of elevated tracksuits, and Queen & Slim’s Daniel Kaluuya wears his red velvet set with enviable suaveness. First-time feature director Melina Matsoukas had helmed music videos for the likes of Beyoncé and Rihanna, so she understands the importance of a head-turning, runway-worthy moment, even in dire situations. The film starts with a first date gone horribly wrong, and Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) and Slim (Kaluuya) find themselves on the run from the authorities after one racially charged confrontation with a white cop. Fugitives, of course, require makeovers, and while Queen’s first look was also very good (her camel-colored suede jacket is to die for), her all-white fit quickly gets soiled from a bullet wound. She changes into a zebra-print slip and snakeskin boots, perfecting pattern-mixing without a sweat. Slim’s tracksuit comes from the closet of Queen’s uncle, who spends his screen time in a slick Gucci one of his own.

The Love Witch (Anna Biller, 2016)

The beauty of Anna Biller’s dark comedy is that it looks and plays so much like a ’60s or ’70s sexploitation film, and just when you think it’s a period piece, someone whips out a smartphone or a modern car drives by, totally, hilariously breaking the illusion. So there’s only one explanation for its witchy protagonist’s groovy ensembles: she’s a total vintage nut. And being a vintage vixen feels very much of the time. Samantha Robinson’s Elaine is a silver-screen Lana Del Rey (not only is the resemblance striking but they both idolize the past). Elaine plays a beautiful woman with sorcery powers who seduces men then kills them—all while wearing haunted babydoll ruffles, swinging mid-century dresses, bewitching pendants, and the most striking teal eyeshadow. Biller, a Renaissance woman of a filmmaker, not only wrote, directed, and edited The Love Witch, but also crafted the sets and costumes herself. That means these looks are one of a kind, making them even more covetable.

Uncut Gems (Josh and Benny Safdie, 2019)

Though released in 2019, Uncut Gems takes place in 2012, and aside from the now brick-looking iPhone of a few years past, the film is strangely hard to place timeline-wise. Adam Sandler’s Howard “Howie” Ratner, is a jeweler working in Manhattan’s Diamond District, and the uniform feels both very The Sopranos and whatever is the coolest new trend seen on the streets of SoHo. He’s clearly been dressing like this—polos and leather jackets—since he started out in the gem game, and he’s also inadvertently become the style icon of nostalgia-chasing Gen Z-ers. Howie flaunts designer brands in an almost gauche way—with shiny Ferragamo buckles and transition Cartier glasses—which feels very in tune with how kids these days are wearing oversized monograms.

Ingrid Goes West (Matt Spicer, 2017)

I shudder to say it but Ingrid Goes West, a kind of Single White Female with a social media twist, is definitive of this decade’s fashion because the clothes in it are so…Instagrammable. That’s basically what draws the unhinged Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza) to Taylor (Elizabeth Olsen), your typical L.A.-residing Instagram influencer who leans heavily into that mid-2010s boho chic trend. In SWF fashion, Ingrid starts emulating Taylor’s style—straw hats and cute sunglasses—and they quickly become BFFs in the most shallow sense. And what do social media-obsessed BFFs do? They go to the very “Instagrammable” Joshua Tree for fit pics, of course—just make sure to take photos from a low angle.