Style trends today encompass a range of evening outfit options, from dresses to matching sets to cozy sweaters. But back in the early to mid-aughts, one nighttime look reigned supreme: jeans with a “going-out top.”
The going-out top was a staple at early 2000s house parties, bars, clubs, red carpet events and beyond. For millennial women, the term evokes images of halters, tube tops and bejeweled numbers from retailers like Forever 21, Express, Bebe, Charlotte Russe and Wet Seal.
“As someone who was in high school and college in the early to mid-2000s, I definitely feel a lot of nostalgia upon hearing the term ‘going-out top’!” said Sara Idacavage, a fashion historian currently doing research in the textiles, merchandising and interiors department at the University of Georgia.
“That period of time coincided with the meteoric rise of fast fashion retailers, so I recall it being very easy to purchase a lot of interesting ‘going out’ tops for a relatively small amount of money, which was very exciting for a young college student like me at the time,” she said.
The Allure Of The Going-Out Top
Affordable going-out tops were the natural pairing for the designer it-jeans of that time like True Religion, 7 for All Mankind and Citizens of Humanity, which felt like necessary investment pieces.
“The denim was the fixed part of the uniform at the time, so the top and shoes were where you could experiment,” said pop culture commentator and “Be There in Five” podcast host Kate Kennedy, who sells sweatshirts that read “going out top” in her merch store. “The back pocket of those jeans was a status symbol, and you spent so much money on your jeans that you had like $20 left for your shirt.”
A going-out top typically had some element that upgraded it to look a little fancier than a regular top ― like sequins, gems, lace, ruching, a bubble hem, or an alternative neckline. Young women strapped for cash could buy a variety of low-cost options to reflect changing styles, so these certainly weren’t high-quality, sustainable choices. But they were fun and somewhat versatile.
“I think the silhouettes of these tops were often more loose and forgiving,” Kennedy recalled. “Low-rise jeans left so much real estate in the torso, so these tops were longer and often empire-waisted and flowy. When I lived in my sorority house, women of different sizes would exchange going-out tops ― they lent themselves to different body types, whereas the…
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