Scarlett Metz is stylish beyond her years.
In fact, the high school freshman’s favorite streetwear was originally rocked by hotshots of the early aughts like Britney Spears, Kim Kardashian and the fist-pumping cast of “The Jersey Shore” long before she was born in 2009.
But now, the trendy teen and her fellow Gen Alpha fashionistas are giving the outdated imprint a hardy push back into the spotlight.
“Ed Hardy has become a main staple in my wardrobe,” Metz, 15, from Queens, tells The Post. “It’s very cute. I like how the designs are edgy and go back to 2000s style.”
Yes, the roaring tiger, tattooed hearts and smiling skull graphics donned by misfit millennials during their youth are now being virally revived by cutesy teeny-boppers everywhere.
Emma Rogue, a vintage boutique owner on NYC’s Lower East Side, tells The Post it’s not the only 2000s fashion house — a 2005 brainchild of late couturier Christian Audigier and the namesake of San Francisco ink master Don Ed Hardy, 79 — that’s having a second wind.
“Ed Hardy is always a top seller,” said Rogue, whose Stanton Street shop shares her last name. “But Von Dutch, Carhartt and Stüssy are definitely in demand with middle and high schoolers, too.”
‘I was obsessed with Ed Hardy back in the day and totally here for the comeback. Ed Hardy never died for me.’
Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi
Indeed, tots, tweens and teens can’t seem to get enough of the gaudy stuff. Pop stars like Charli XCX have even dedicated hit tracks to the grungy garb that’s yet again taking over classrooms and cafeterias.
“A lot of people in my school wear Ed Hardy,” a 15-year-old NYCer told The Post. She shops the line at off-price department stores like Marshalls, or through online marketplaces like Depop and eBay.
“My favorite thing is the sweatpants,” added the youngster, who chose to remain anonymous for privacy. “I think they look really good and I love the style.”
Google Trends analytics found that web searches for Ed Hardy have skyrocketed in the post-pandemic fashion world, too.
Interest in the apparel line, now owned by Iconix Brand Group, has remained steadily high in trendsetting states such as New York and California, per the report. It’s even graced the bods of tiny tastemakers during posh New York, Paris and London fashion week shows.
Hollywood haute girls like Bella Hadid are to thank for resurrecting the nearly dearly departed duds — which virtually flatlined in 2009 when “uncool” reality TV dad Jon Gosselin draped himself in the punkish threads.
But Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, 36, exclusively tells The Post that even during Ed Hardy’s darkest days, she always knew it would one day reclaim its stake in fashion.
“I was obsessed with Ed Hardy back in the day and totally here for the comeback,” said the MTV icon. “Ed Hardy never died for me.”
Hadid, 27, who’s influenced 20-somethings and younger to do everything from wearing granny panties to getting “ponytail” facelifts, was spotted in Gotham sporting a white Ed Hardy top as far back as 2021. The shirt featured art of a redfish catching a wave in the brand’s signature Japanese-inspired print.
And in February, “Unholy” songstress Kim Petras, 31, introduced a spring 2024 collection with the trademark entitled “Ed Hardy x Kim Petras.”
Crop tops, booty shorts, tanks and hats from the collaboration are stamped with the Ed Hardy logo in cursive.
Its recent resurgence comes as the avant-garde antithesis to the more glitzy-glam cuts of the Y2K-fashion reboot.
In recent months, Hadid has been seen in Manhattan toting a crimson bowling bag accessory from Von Dutch — the trucker-chic label that famously outfitted the likes of Jay-Z, Halle Berry and Paris Hilton at the turn of the century.
Timothée Chalamet and rapper Travis Scott have also proudly donned Stüssy gear, inspiring a fresh wave of interest in the badass throwback brand.
“It’s just this nostalgic aesthetic that kids want to emulate,” said Rogue, adding that older folks are also getting in on the funky fun.
“I even see people in their late 20s and early 30s coming in to buy Ed Hardy,” she revealed. “It reminds them of high school.”
Adeja Crearer, 28, says wowing in a flashy Ed Hardy mini skirt with its colorful etchings and logo plastered across her bottom makes her feel young again.
“I was a preteen during Ed Hardy’s heyday,” Crearer, a digital news producer from the Upper East Side, tells The Post. “It’s a style that brought everyone together back in the day, and it’s having that same effect again today.
“It’s making millennials cool again.”
But Big Apple celebrity stylist Samantha Brown warns old-heads against going overboard with the garb as it’s rising from the ashes.
“With this trend… it’s best left to the younger folks to experiment with it now,” Brown tells The Post. “It has a fresh and youthful feel if you’re a teenager, but for those of us in our thirties, it feels a little inappropriate to revisit these items.”
