Nostalgia for an era you didn't really live through

There's something curious in the air: plenty of young people say they're nostalgic for years they never really lived through. The slightly blurry textures of old cameras, the interfaces of older devices, the clothing styles from two decades ago are coming back strong and feel appealing — even though we were too young, or not yet born, to have known them. How can you miss an era you never lived in? This paradox makes more sense than it seems.

A borrowed nostalgia

For a long time we believed nostalgia could only be about your own past. But you can absolutely grow attached to an era through what you see of it: the films, the music, the photos, the objects others share. It isn't a real memory, it's a reconstructed, almost idealised image. You fall in love with an atmosphere, an aesthetic, a supposed way of living — not with actual lived experience. This "borrowed" nostalgia is no lie: above all, it points to what we feel is missing in the present.

The charm of the imperfect

A good part of this appeal comes from a contrast. We live surrounded by ultra-sharp images, perfect sound, content polished down to the last detail. So anything a bit flawed — the grain, the odd colours, the blur — takes on huge charm: it breathes authenticity, the uncalculated, the stolen moment with no staging. Imperfection becomes a signature, a way of saying "this is real, it isn't retouched." The past, inevitably less smooth than our screens today, ticks exactly that box and feels warmer to us.

Making it your own

The most interesting part is that we don't just copy the past: we reinvent it. We pick an atmosphere here, a style there, an object we like, and turn it into a blend that's truly our own, plugged into today's tools. This kind of nostalgia isn't a retreat backwards, it's more like a box of ideas we dig into to slow down a little, stand out, or simply feel good. Loving an era you never knew, deep down, isn't about fleeing the present: it's about building a taste, an identity, out of everything that inspires us — from yesterday as much as from today.