When people talk about early 2000s style, they’ll often talk about Juicy Couture and Von Dutch and rhinestones. They’ll talk about Paris Hilton and XL designer shades and evil Chihuahuas in Dior Saddle bags – tacky excess, basically. But if you were to have taken a walk through any UK town during this era, you probably wouldn’t have seen much of that. Instead, you’d have seen slouchy high street jeans and khaki skater belts and battered Dunlop trainers. Baggy knit hats and corduroy trousers and denim skirts with 20 denier tights. And maybe, if you were within the NW3 postcode, you’d have seen Keira Knightley and Jamie Dornan, both in second hand army surplus gear, their hands in one another’s back pockets, as though they were a single entity bound together by the tangle of their Glastonbury backstage passes.
Knightley and Dornan only dated for two years – between 2003 and 2005, when they were 18 and 19 respectively. Even so, they’ve become a source of intense stylistic fascination more recently, particularly in the autumn months (they are, to my mind, an “autumn couple”, style-wise). They rarely looked glam – even at major events, they often showed up in relatively casual outfits – but seeing these two mutually hot people embody the indie drabness of the era with such dedication feels almost electrifying in hindsight. At a time in which we’re so used to seeing couples with Instagram face and his-and-hers Bottega, this vision – of two then-emerging actors who looked like they just raided a Billabong sale – holds incredible appeal. The closest we have to this currently is Paul Mescal and Gracie Abrams, perhaps. Or Suki Waterhouse and Robert Pattinson at a push, though there really is no direct comparison.
While the Y2K revival for a while meant baby tees and -style glitz, we are seeing this more normcore interpretation of the era return to our wardrobes – which, for my money, is more in line with what 2003 looked like. The other night, for example, I went to SET Social in Peckham, only to be greeted by a sea of 20-somethings in brown or grey T-shirts, loose H&M jeans and eyelet belts. We are mere inches from the return of the peaked knit beanie. The classic Gap hoodie – that most preppy and plain of things – has experienced a second wave of interest on Vinted. With all that in mind, it’s no wonder that Knightley and Dornan – her in rain-splattered suede boots, him in corduroy and various V-necks – have become such a fixture on Pinterest boards and throwback fashion Instagram accounts.
Years after they broke up, Keira went on to marry a Klaxon, while he similarly married a British musician. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that they probably don’t spend as much time thinking about this era as we do. They have both moved on.
But though their youthful relationship might have gone the same way as a bedraggled festival wristband being snipped off on a hungover Monday, we will never forget the impact that this couple – and their extremely low-rise jeans and adjustable belts; zero swag gap between them – had on our lives, hearts and impending autumn wardrobes. RIP to their relationship, and long live normie indie fashion.
Off The Shoulder Boho Dress
