Welcome to the weird, glorious renaissance of denim

Do you remember where you were standing the day it happened, the infamous Spears-Timberlake double-denim ensemble? … No?

In case the internet has not kept the image alive for you: In January 2001, then-“it” couple Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears arrived on the red carpet of the American Music Awards wearing matching head-to-toe denim ensembles. In the years following, Spears’s floor-length, strapless patchwork denim gown and Timberlake’s all-denim suit — complete with a denim cowboy hat and a butt-pocket where a breast pocket would ordinarily be — became a punchline, a cautionary meme about how cringeworthy some of the fashions of the 2000s were in hindsight.