Did anyone else remember the days of Y2K fashion? Preppy girls wore tracksuits and stuff from guido stores. It was pink, blue, green, purple, and often leopard print. Rhinestones were necessary. Guidos wore Hardy shirts, bright Pumas, and spiky hair.

And then, there were goths. You might have gone that J-pop way and gone Gothic Lolita like I did. Or you might have explored cybergoth fashion. Or you might have stuck to black clothings. Ravers? They were basically the human version of parrots — bold, bright, and colorful.

Looking back, there was so much color in those days. As a person who looks like a cross between a rainbow and a hedgehog, I miss those days. Everyone had so much color! Heck, the same could be said of the 2012 era, since EDM was getting so big.

People put in a lot more effort in a good look back then. Around 2015, it all changed. So, what the hell happened in the past 10, 15 years?

Neutrals are now everywhere. From the cars we drive to the “sad beige” epidemic among creators, it feels like most people are starting to avoid wearing colors altogether. Coats are always black. Shirts are black, grey, white, or blue. Dresses are either black or khaki.

Even toys are starting to be made with colors drained out of them — a trend that has started the “sad beige” discussion on places like Instagram. The further down the line it gets, the less color we tend to see.

So what gives?

Neutrals were always popular in the fashion industry because they were easy to work with. A neutral color can be matched with anything and still look good and classy. Neutral colors also work to make backgrounds better for influencer-type videos.

By loading up on neutrals, influencers were able to make backgrounds bland, easy to match with, and also easy to change based on the holiday. Neutral wardrobes also looked better on camera, making accent pieces pop.

So, for fashion workers, a neutral closet is a closet that is versatile. Regular people caught on and well…here we are. Kind of.

Did you ever notice how dreary the world looks without color? Or how everyone just seems like they’re dressing more alike than ever? It’s depressing, right?

Well, what you’re seeing is a lack of color — and the quiet part about lacking color. Influencers still wear bright colors, often as a focal point for their outfits. Mainstream people kind of just quietly stopped doing that.

I believe there are several reasons as to why this is happening:

In other words, most Americans are too overworked, too underpaid, and too I-can’t-care to go whole hog on a color wardrobe.

When times are hard, people tend to get more conformist with their clothing. Standing out is a bad idea, especially in times where being the wrong skin color can get you arrested.

People are anxious. Anxious people, particularly those with social anxiety, want to blend in — not stand out. Wearing bold colors will not make you blend in. They will make you stand out like a sore thumb. I ought to know. I wear colors every day.

The anxiety isn’t just social. It’s financial, too. People are literally going broke trying to look rich, and that’s a sign of people overcompensating for their own financial insecurities. Rich people are famous for their love of neutrals. Regular folks want to project success so that success gets attracted to them.

The lack of color comes with a lot of minimalist designs, too. Minimalism is perfect for today’s society. We don’t know where we’ll live in a month or a year. Half of the time, we’re too exhausted schlepping from one job to the next.

How are we supposed to take time to put together good outfits when we’re always on the go and often living in shoebox apartments? Putting stuff in storage doesn’t work well, neither does taking the effort to find that perfectly-matching baby pink platform heel.

We may not like it, but minimalism makes sense. So does dressing for anxiety.

Finally, we also live in a white nationalist world. That’s a world that, by default, hates color. White nationalists want conformity and want to extinguish self-expression unless it’s expressing approval of the Nazis in power.

White supremacy movements traditionally wore outfits devoid of color for a reason. It’s a subtle way of showing that they don’t want people to speak out. To them, uniformity is king.

Anyone who grew up with Rainbow Brite can tell you that colors make the world go round. A colorless society is a society that looks sad, dreary, and otherwise just unexpressive.

In other words, the lack of color we’re seeing is a “depression wardrobe” for the masses. We’re depressed. We yearn for simple things that just make us look okay. In some cases, neutral pairings also quietly symbolize how polarized our culture has become.

Eventually, colors will come back to our society when we’re ready to celebrate and unify. Until then, wearing color will be the righteous act of rebellion for those of us who continue to express ourselves through fashion.