Dressing Like It’s 2016 – Toronto Throwback
For this video, we went back in time. The idea was simple: Dress like it’s 2016 and spend the day in Toronto seeing how it actually feels now.
That meant pulling out old trends, throwback pieces, and even some questionable pickups. Some real, some not so real.
The Concept
2016 streetwear had a different energy. Bape, loud graphics, skinny stacks, hype-heavy fits. It was a specific era.
This was not about recreating perfect outfits. It was about stepping back into that time and seeing what still works and what does not.
The Bape Problem
One thing that came up during the shoot: one Bape shirt was real, one was fake.
That detail is more interesting than it sounds. In 2016, Bape was probably the most counterfeited streetwear brand on the planet. The ABC camo, the shark hoodie, the ape head graphic. All of it got replicated constantly, and the fakes were everywhere in the Toronto scene.
Part of the culture at that time was the performance of knowing the difference. Or pretending to. The counterfeit market was almost as big as the brand itself, which says something about how much cultural weight Bape carried at that moment.
Wearing both in the same shoot and seeing how they held up side by side was a pretty honest reflection of what that era actually looked like on the street.
Where We Went
We moved through a few spots across Toronto:
• Indigo @ The Well 486 Front St W
• Art Gallery of Ontario 317 Dundas Street West
• Greta YYZ 590 King St W
• Añejo 600 King St W
Each stop gave a different setting to see how the fits held up — from retail to gallery spaces to nightlife.
The Fits
Some outfits still hit. Others felt exactly as stuck as you would expect from 10 years ago.
The skinny jeans were the clearest example. At the time they were the standard for a certain kind of streetwear fit. Stack them high, keep them tight. That silhouette aged the fastest out of everything from that era.
Bape, on the other hand, still carries weight. The brand has stayed relevant in a way that a lot of 2016 hype has not. The graphics are loud but they have enough history behind them now that they read differently than they did then.
Fashion moves fast and going back almost 10 years makes that really obvious.
Watch the Video
Final Thoughts
This one’s less about fashion rules and more about perspective.
Some trends come back.
Some don’t.
And some are better left where they started.
Stay Tuned
More Veyra videos are on the way — different concepts, different creators, and more experiments like this.
Follow @veyra.app and subscribe for the next episode.