Jelly is back: Gen Z reinvents Y2K trend with personal touches

Colorful jelly shoes and bags — once a staple of Y2K fashion — are making a comeback in Korea as Gen Z consumers embrace the retro trend and put their own spin on it.

At around 4 p.m. on June 16, colorful jelly shoes lined the entrances of stores at a wholesale footwear market in Dongdaemun District, eastern Seoul. Some merchants demonstrated how customers could personalize the shoes with decorative charms and accessories.

"I decided to buy them after seeing friends on social media decorating and wearing jelly shoes," said Seon Ye-rin, a 27-year-old who purchased two pairs of jelly shoes with a friend that day.

The jelly trend extends beyond footwear. The so-called jelly Birkin bag, a semi-translucent plastic handbag inspired by the shape of the luxury brand Hermes' Birkin bag, has also emerged as a must-have accessory among young adults.

Kim Seo-ha bought a jelly Birkin bag for the first time in May and purchased another a month later. The 31-year-old also added different accessories to match each bag's color.

"I usually pay close attention to trends, and lately I've seen quite a few people carrying jelly bags on the street," Kim said. "The design is cute and the material is lightweight, so I bought one without much hesitation."

Fashion accessories made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), commonly referred to as "jelly" products, are enjoying renewed popularity. Jelly shoes and bags were once staples of Y2K fashion, but are experiencing a resurgence roughly two decades later as demand grows among Gen Z consumers.

Both sales and search volumes for PVC fashion products have surged recently, according to women's fashion and accessories platform Ably.

Searches for jelly bags jumped nearly 95-fold from a year earlier, while transaction value rose about 88-fold from May 16 to June 16.

During the same period, searches for jelly flip-flops increased roughly 37-fold, while sales of jelly sandals rose about 10-fold.

Zigzag, a women's fashion platform operated by Kakao Style, also reported strong growth. During the same period, transaction values for jelly bags and jelly shoes increased 337 percent and 2,512 percent, respectively, from last year.

"PVC products have emerged as a major late-spring and summer fashion trend this year," a Kakao Style representative said. "Demand for personalized fashion has also grown, with sales of decorative accessories used to customize bags and shoes increasing more than 20-fold from a year earlier." 

Experts see the renewed jelly fashion craze as the intersection of the ongoing retro trend and Gen Z's strong preference for self-expression.

They note that Gen Z consumers, who are accustomed to showcasing their tastes and identities on social media, increasingly use fashion items as a way to express individuality and distinguish themselves from others.

"I look at how other people decorate their jelly shoes on social media, but I don't want to copy them exactly," said 27-year-old Lee Ji-eun, who was shopping for jelly shoes at the Dongdaemun wholesale market. "I came here because I wanted to choose my own accessories and create a pair that's uniquely mine."

A total of 89 percent of 1,200 Gen Z respondents expressed interest in content that helps identify individual preferences and personality traits, according to the 2025 Gen Z trend report by market research firm Open Survey.

About 61.7 percent said they primarily obtain such information through social media.

"After the original trend faded, PVC fashion accessories were largely marketed to consumers in their 40s and 50s," said Kim Chang-ho, a professor of distribution and marketing at Namseoul University.

"But their popularity among Gen Z has created new demand. The purpose may differ from previous fashion trends, but the industry clearly saw market potential, which is why companies are expanding related product lines, including decorative accessories that allow consumers to express their individuality."

BY NOH YU-RIM [[email protected]]