Justin Bieber has started wearing Y2k crop tops (ergo, so should you)

Time was, Justin Bieber was a bit of a style pariah. GQ‘s worst-dressed man of 2019, the baby-faced singer was an early proponent of the Scumbro movement and was one of the first people to wear Crocs in public. His hair was a mess – a bit like Boris Johnson’s, only worse – and most of his clothes were covered in stains.

Then the pandemic happened, and all of a sudden Bieber’s shlumpy wardrobe of gazebo hoodies and massive tracksuit bottoms started looking as appealing as it did on-point. Overnight, the “Sorry” star went from Beavis and Butthead-extra to full-blown style maven, appearing in Balenciaga campaigns wearing his trademark voluminous layers, and even nabbing a cover of American Vogue alongside his wife Hailey.

In the past few days, however, Bieber has shifted his sartorial focus in a surprising new direction. Leaving the streetwear-infused drapery of his 2021 uniform behind, Biebs has opted instead for a close-cut, Y2k-infused silhouette of cropped hoodies, high-waisted bootcut jeans, and oversized dad trainers (always, the dad trainers).

Appearing on stage stateside as part of his “Justice” world tour, Bieber cut a lithe figure, teaming a cropped white hoodie with a tight vest and flared trousers in Los Angeles; and an equally high-cut grey hoodie with (one presumes) the same vest, and a pair of flared red leather trousers by British designer Ernest W. Baker, in Denver.

Part-’70s rent boy, hanging in the Castro; part “Sexually Active Band Geek” from 2004’s seminal Y2K film Mean Girls, Bieber’s new look plays neatly into the e-boy aesthetic currently being pedalled by the likes of Evan Mock and Dominic Fike, but also the Guccified flare fits exemplified by both Jared Leto and Harry Styles – meaning that Canada’s most famous export might just have styled his way up to the top of 2022’s sartorial pyramid.

Beyond Bieber’s wardrobe the cropped look has also been given the seal of approval on the world’s most important runways. At Miu Miu, Mrs Prada put low slung bottoms and high-cut tops at the centre of her SS/22 collection, at Fendi, Silvia Venturini showed cut-off suit jackets, truncated at the base of the lapel, and at Vetements, Guram Gvasalia presented technical jackets with hems which finished just below the ribs.

Want to get the extra-cropped Y2k look yourself? Here are the pieces to buy right now: