The way we wore

A model wears Balenciaga. Photo / Getty Images

Mod, disco, glam, grunge: there's an adjective for every decade of style, so how to describe the one that is about to come to an end?

Will it be remembered best for the bohemian trend of 2004? The high-low mix made popular by Sex & the City's Carrie Bradshaw? It-bags? Celebrity fashion "designers"? Or by the numerous recycled looks of the past that popped up throughout?

We close the decade with an big shoulder obsession - hello 1980s flashback - but looking back to the start probably gives us a better clue as to how it will be remembered. February 2000, London Fashion Week: Posh Spice modelling a pair of tiny hot pants.

This moment should have prepared us all for the celebrity obsession that was to come.

Like the decade itself, fashion was all over the place. Heck, have we even decided what we're calling it yet - noughties, noughts, 2000s? Fast fashion got faster and faster, with chain stores adopting trends straight from the runway and making high fashion looks available to the masses for a much cheaper price.

The rise of the internet encouraged and fed the public's appetite for the new, forcing fashion to respond with trans-seasonal pieces, resort lines and cruise and pre-fall collections (weird weather apparently caused by global warming didn't help, either). No more waiting months for that must-have handbag: people wanted it "Right Now".

It was a different type of materialism, however, than that seen in the 1980s: we spent lots on fashion (before the financial crash), but this time around it wasn't just on all things flashy and designer. Low fashion was in as much demand as high fashion, if not more.

It wasn't limited to a select few, either: this was the decade when fashion became fashionable. The once exclusive industry was democratised, thanks in large part to the internet and reality TV. Fourteen-year-old bloggers became well-known fashion figures, fashion shows were available to watch online just minutes after they happened and the ins and outs of the modelling world were laid bare by Tyra Banks.

Like everything else this decade, fashion became obsessed with fame: celebrities became fashion designers, fashion designers became celebrities and we began to idolise those who write and cover fashion as well (The Devil Wears Prada, Ugly Betty, The September Issue).

There was, of course, much more to the decade than Posh Spice in hot pants and actress Sienna Miller saying "no more" to the boho chic look she had spearheaded. But the power of celebrity over fashion during the noughties (yes, that's what I'm calling it for the sake of this article) cannot be denied.

So how will we remember this decade of style? We take a look back at some key fashion moments.

New Zealand loves fashion

The local fashion industry was boosted with the launch of New Zealand Fashion Week in October 2001, an annual event that has grown over the years to help build the profile of the local industry. Labels including NOM*d, Zambesi, World, Carlson and Gubb & Mackie showed at the inaugural event, which began life at the Auckland Town Hall. The local scene exploded soon after, with the launch of young labels such as Deborah Sweeney (2002), Lonely Hearts (2003), Cybele (2003), Juliette Hogan (2004), Stolen Girlfriends Club (2005) and Twenty-seven Names (2006).

The virtual world

The internet changed fashion. Fashion website Style.com launched in September 2000, making full fashion shows readily available to the wider public, not just those who were invited. By the end of the decade, everyone has their own blog where they can pass judgment on all things fashion, with some bloggers becoming as influential as the traditional press. Street style blogs such as The Sartorialist became sources of style inspiration, and relative unknowns became famous on the internet by posting photos of their everyday outfits.

All hail Balenciaga

Balmain may be fashion's current obsession, but it is Balenciaga who has defined each season with standout collections that repeatedly send the fashion world into a tailspin - and trickle down to chain stores. Fall 2006 featured bold silhouettes and riding hats, while spring 2007 looked to the future with metal leggings and glasses akin to science goggles (a play on the sci-fi expectations of the past of how we'd be dressing in the 2000s). Then designer Nicolas Ghesquiere went multicultural, with the influential Fall 2007 collection that featured jodhpur style pants, collegiate blazers, ikat prints and tasselled scarves that sparked a short trend for keffiyehs.Then there were the bold florals of Spring 2008 and the sharp latex Little Black Dresses for Fall 2008.

Leg it

Shiny, printed, cut out, mesh, suede, lace: there is a pair of leggings for all occasions. In 2008 Lindsay Lohan even launched an entire fashion line called 6126 dedicated to them.

There's a backlash of course, thanks to women deciding to expose their everything and wear them as pants - one of the most horrific trends of the decade.

Fashion gets real

The world may have been in a panic over swine flu this year, but the spread of the parasite known as reality television was to prove far scarier.

Fashion wasn't immune with America's Next Top Model (2003) and Project Runway (2004). And Gok Wan and Trinny and Susannah taught us how to look good naked and what not to wear.

As well, Elle, Marie Claire and Teen Vogue opened their doors to reality cameras.

Bohemian rhapsody

Remember back in 2004 and 2005 when everyone was wearing floaty peasant skirts, fur gilets, coin belts and cowboy boots? The 1970s boho look, popularised by actress Sienna Miller, swept over chain stores and epitomised the fast fashion of the decade.

It bags

The term "it bag" may have been first used in the 90s, but it was the noughties where the idea of the must-have designer handbag really took off. Handbag sales kept fashion houses alive, as women spent up large on the Chloe Paddington, Balenciaga's Motorcycle Lariat, Marc Jacobs' Stam and YSL's Muse. It bags became ostentatious and flashy - and much ripped off - until we all grew tired of the phenomenon in 2007.

That dress

Roland Mouret's Galaxy dress was so popular that it became known as "that dress" and was worn by pretty much every female celebrity photographed in 2005. It was expensive and limited, but women everywhere wanted a figure hugging dress of their own. Chain stores everywhere jumped into action, selling much cheaper (and far less flattering) versions of their own.

Skinny jeans

The 70s had flares, the 80s had acid wash, and the noughties will be forever known for the decade where we all - men and women - struggled to fit into very skinny jeans.

Sex, the city and fashion

The designer name-dropping and product placement in the film may have ruined its appeal a bit, but remember when Sex and the City was actually good? Stylist Patricia Field shaped our wardrobes in the early half of the decade, with her distinctive mix of vintage and designer.

The show's fashion-obsessed star, Carrie Bradshaw, wore oversized corsages, pearls, aviators and scary high Manola Blahnik heels, and made us all want to wear them, too.

Size zero

Every decade has a debate over thinness - Kate Moss sparked controversy with her heroin chic look in the 90s and there were concerns over skinny Twiggy in the 60s. The noughties were no different, with the debate over size zero. Stylist Rachel Zoe was bought into the debate in 2005, when she dressed her super skinny celebrity clients Nicole Richie and Mischa Barton and more in her signature look of masses of jewellery, 1970s inspired dresses, a tan and huge bug-eye sunglasses.

The look was so ubiquitous that her clients - and subsequent followers - were dubbed Zoe-bots by the media.

Celebrity designers

No longer content to just act or sing or appear on reality TV shows, celebrities began to launch clothing labels, too. Gwen Stefani established L.A.M.B in 2003, Justin Timberlake started William Rast in 2006 and Jennifer Lopez launched JLO by Jennifer Lopez, Sweetface and JustSweet. While most celebrity fashion lines have been hideous, some were actually ... good. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen launched The Row in 2007, the same year Twenty8Twelve was established by Sienna Miller and her sister Savannah. And shock of all shocks, Victoria Beckham's fashion line launched last year sells well and rates well with critics. (British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman owns one). But the biggest shock? Lindsay Lohan appointed as "artistic director" at Ungaro earlier this year.

First lady style

Michelle Obama injected excitement back into First Lady style in 2008, with her penchant for cardigans, oversized pearls and wearing young designers - such as her inaugural gown by 26-year-old designer Jason Wu.

Designers diffuse

Fast fashion seduced even the biggest of high fashion names, with key labels teaming with chain stores to produce diffusion lines for the masses. Karl Lagerfeld designed a collection for H&M in 2004, sending women into a buying frenzy.

The Celia Birtwell for Topshop collection in 2006 reportedly sold out in three minutes, with the British high street store going on to release collections with Gareth Pugh, Christopher Kane and model Kate Moss. H&M has worked with Comme des Garcons, Viktor and Rolf, Stella McCartney, Matthew Williamson, Roberto Cavalli, Jimmy Choo and Sonia Rykiel. Uniqlo teamed up with Jil Sander.

The idea of a designer working with a chain store is so common at the end of the decade that the question is no longer why a designer would potentially cheapen their brand by doing it, but why they would not?