Rosé brought the exposed underwear trend back to New York City. The Blackpink member was spotted in Manhattan on Sunday, wearing a coordinated bra layering top and exposed boxers beneath her oversized, dark charcoal-wash pants, adding her signature spin to the resurgent Y2K trend.

The singer is the latest celebrity to embrace exposed underwear as an off-duty, streetwear style. The trend harkens back to and coincides with the rising Millennial nostalgia trends of the ’90s and early 2000s.

Miu Miu’s spring 2023 ready-to-wear collection incited the reappearance of the trend. The style was a major motif among the sporty, streetwear-inspired pieces from the collection, which debuted during Paris Fashion Week in October 2022, featuring layered elements and exposed underwear waistbands throughout. Other labels and fashion houses soon followed suit.

Ester Manas’s fall 2023 ready-to-wear collection featured exposed underwear styled in a similar manner to the current trend, with low-rise waistlines that showcased underwear and lacy lingerie pieces.

Among celebrities, Rihanna was ahead of the curve. The singer mogul has been styling underwear as outerwear for years now. One of her first outfits featuring the trend dates back to May 2015, when she sported her Puma briefs exposed beneath her wide-leg, baggy and ripped denim.

The exposed boxer style toys with a gender-fluid aesthetic, offering relaxed fits within a nostalgic framework.

There has also been a cheeky reinterpretation and reclamation of the exposed underwear trend, which recalls looks worn by Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and others. Visible thongs, derogatorily referred to as “whale tails” in the early 2000s, have also been reclaimed by a new generation.

Aguilera memorably styled the trend at the 2000 MTV VMAs in New York City. The “Beautiful” singer wore a dress by Trish Summerville, which featured an exposed underwear element as well as an exposed midriff. Contemporary iterations of the trend draw inspiration from the styles worn by Aguilera and Spears, among other stars.

The subversive fashion statement aligns with the bra layering trend, which experienced a major resurgence in 2024, thanks to stars such as Sydney Sweeney, Kristen Stewart and Katie Holmes.

More recently, Luis de Javier’s spring 2025 ready-to-wear collection, which debuted during Paris Fashion Week in September 2024, featured variations on the exposed thong version of the trend.

Much like the pop stars of the early aughts, Blackpink’s Rosé leverages her celebrity to set trends and experiment with fashion’s latest niche looks. The Puma global ambassador previously wore the oversized power suit style during an appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” coinciding with the rise in women’s tailoring and power suiting moments.