How Guess Jeans signalled the return of low-slung jeans, baby tees and washed-out denim tones mirrors Gen-Z’s craving for nostalgia through the trendy Tumblrification, redefining a previous youth subculture into a retail context, shaping GUESS JEANS new campaign.
The pandemic was a traumatic period for vast Gen-Z's, particularly those who indulge in social media, where the common trope of our generation is: nostalgia. Everything has become a revival. We tap into our childhood, roaming around to retrieve what was deemed as lost. Our youth, how we interact with others. It has been six years since the events that shocked the globe. As we have grown up in an era where identity is constantly rapidly constructed, displayed, and reinterpreted online, catching up on what we missed. In response to this, the internet developed the tendency to turn cultural moments into categories, using “-ification” as a means of offering labels to manufacture something deeper than just aesthetics, it offers a framework for identity. We do this to tap into to revive what we have lost, our “lost futures”, what we yearn for as a nostalgic generation.
Earlier this year, I came across GUESS Jeans' new promotional advertisements for their jeans. It was smart and impactful. The billboard photos of L.A. micro-influencers, lo-fi imagery and the iPhone 5cs taken photos express exactly what Gen Z’s are searching for. Renewal and nostalgia. The campaign is reminiscent of Tumblr, reaching out to the millennials who were active during its peak and the Gen Z’s who are in search of something quite different. The yellow and bright coloured tag lines: “ what am i wearing? idk GUESS? ” Or “ i used to need love and now i just want to GUESS ” taps into our generation's way of reaching people. It reflects what you see on TikTok, the typical taglines against a screen of a person voicing something relatable and reflective, only we could get it.
