There’s a stretch of New York City’s SoHo neighborhood that’s become a paradise for young shoppers.

“I just go to, like, the same five stores, I feel like,” said 22-year-old Angela Jang, who’s out browsing with a friend.

That includes clothing stores like Princess Polly and older ones like PacSun, which, in my day, was known for graphic tees and flip flops — styles, I’m told, are “in” again.

I play a game of what’s “in” and “out” with Jang, starting with Abercrombie & Fitch.

“I think it's in,” she said. “I, like, started getting my going out tops from there.”

Hearing the phrase “going out tops” makes eyes go wide. For millennials, it meant any strappy, sequined something you’d wear to the bar. This year, searches on Google for “going out tops” hit an all time high. 

How about American Eagle?

“Out,” said 20-year-old Melanie Marin.

“Definitely out,” echoed her friend, 21-year-old Miguel Romero. “Especially with the new marketing stunt they’ve been trying to pull? Out.” (Romero’s talking about the controversial “Sydney Sweeney has good jeans” ad.)

What about Hollister?

“I think that’s in,” said Marin.

“It’s in,” confirms Romero.

“They just did a new drop where it was, like, the throwbacks to, like, 2010s, like Hollister collection drops,” said Marin, about the brand’s baby doll tops, embroidered jeans and fleece shorts that say words like “surf” across the butt.

The resurgence of Y2K culture has been on trend for a while now: low rise jeans, wired headphones, bucket hats and so on. Plenty of companies are successfully riding this wave. Bath and Body Works is expanding to more than 600 college campus stores. Abercrombie & Fitch just raised its outlook for the second quarter in a row. 

But plenty are also failing. Claire’s, the tween accessories chain, is in bankruptcy and planning on closing hundreds of stores. Forever 21 is in the same boat. 

So, as millennials increasingly age out of a coveted advertising demographic, and Gen Z ages in, now is a make it or break it moment for retailers that defined the ‘90s and early aughts.

“We’re calling them the throwback generation in so many ways,” said Corey Seemiller, a professor at Wright State University who studies Gen Z. “There’s this sense of nostalgia for a simpler, less stressful time.”

A time when politics, advertising and technology weren’t all-consuming and overwhelming. Seemiller thinks this is why young people are going low-tech. They’re gathering on Pinterest — more than half of the app’s users are Gen Z — and they’re buying Walkmen and digital cameras.

“Those types of gadgets in some ways are symbolic of that nostalgia of those times of simplicity,” she said.

Gen Zers were born between the mid 1990s and early 2010s, which means they’re sentimental about an era they didn’t really experience. But for brands trying to tap into this nostalgia, just regurgitating Y2K trends isn’t enough.

“If you’re in a spot where you need to find and chase that then you’re probably already behind and missing the mark somewhere,” said Andrew Roth, CEO of dcdx, a Gen Z research firm that’s worked with brands like Chipotle, Crocs and Simon Malls.

Roth said that strategy results in everything looking and feeling the same. What also doesn’t work are ads that feel like stunts. Social media has made Gen Z weary of cheap grabs for attention. 

So what is a successful take on nostalgia? Roth points to Gap’s new “Better in Denim” campaign, featuring the girl group KATSEYE. The ad is set to a very millennial song “Milkshake” by Kelis, which came out in 2003. 

The 90-second video is a callback to those old Gap khaki ads: all dance, no talk, taped on a plain white set. It feels old, but new — a TikTok-ified version of ‘90s Gap.

“What they’ve done well is blend a mix of novelty and nostalgia,” said Roth. “I think the brands that balance that well, they understand who they are and where they’re trying to go.”

It’s a tall task these days. With social media, fads move so fast that “micro-trends” is now a Gen Z term.

“You know right now it’s like, you buy something online, you go back online, a new thing is out,” said Marin. “I think it definitely does feel faster now.”