forgotten fads of the 2010s: wrist candy

were you even alive in 2011 if you weren't stacking bangles upon bracelets upon bespoke watches on your wrist?

in my view, the wrist candy trend was created from two forces that had a chokehold on early 2010's fashion: Instagram and the '80s. 

It's no secret that fashion runs in trend cycles. Every two decades or so, you'll see the same trends pop up: the maximalism of 2000s fashion references the unapologetic loudness of the '80s. In the context of the minimalist-leaning '90s, this makes perfect sense: after a decade of sleek silhouettes and neutral hues, wouldn't you go crazy with colors and layers?

This attitude towards fashion carried on from the noughties to the early '10s. We stacked rose gold and turquoise bracelets on our wrists as much as we possibly could while pairing them with with neon skinny jeans, hipster nerd glasses, and pussy bow shirts. 

The other, obvious influence here is Instagram. The platform launched in October 2010, and before long, fashion bloggers took to the app to share photos of their outfits. Wrist candy, simply put, is photogenic as hell. Bright, sparkly, and trendy: it's one of the first fashion fads to have gained popularity solely for its social media appeal. Speaking from personal experience, there is nothing practical (or comfortable) about wearing a stack of bracelets on either wrist. After my brief wrist candy phase, I renounced jewelry entirely because I was so sick of wearing it. It's only been within the past year that I've begun to wear necklaces again. 

one of the first things I posted on Instagram. I was so proud of my wrist candy. But truth be told, I never wore this outfit out of the house. 

It goes without saying that wrist candy is not one of my favorite trends from this era. It feels too polished and glam for my liking now, though I was obsessed with it back in the day. And even if I think it's basic, seeing these kinds of stacked bracelets makes me annoyingly nostalgic: