You’ve gotta be Y2Kidding me!
Millennial mouths are outraged as a designer has just slapped a steep price tag on a beloved 2000s arts and crafts creation.
“Miu Miu done lost their rabbit a-s mind selling gimp keychains for $480,” groaned a youngish grownup on X, née Twitter, of the Italian label’s new line of luxury accessories.
Gimp lanyards — also known as Scoubidou, boondoggle or craft lace to hand-eye coordination hobbyists worldwide — are little do-it-yourself creations, handmade through a specialized weaving technique.
Kids of the early aughts spent lazy Saturdays and summer camp bonding sessions threading and knotting colorful strands of plastic together to make flashy friendship bracelets, necklaces and backpack or keyring ornaments.
But now, the popular pastime that cost crafters less than $5 to create — not counting the precious time it took to get the mini structure’s boxed base just right — is being hawked for nearly $500 on Miu Miu’s site.
And it’s got Gen Yers bent out of shape.
“$480 for gimp is crazy,” spat a naysayer on X. “I’ll go to Michael’s and make a box keychain right now.”
“Companies started commercializing childhood fun and it’s so wild,” barked another, in part. “A $480 gimp box keychain?????? WTF.”
However, despite the online uproar, the pricey frippery, praised by Miu Miu for its “playful and distinctive style” and offered in either leather or fabric, is currently sold out.
The twisted trinket is far from the only nostalgic knickknack to recently be resurrected from its Y2K grave as an ultramodern must-have.
Tamagachis, the tech toy that taught tots of the 1990s how to raise virtual pets, are now all the rage amongst the twenty-somethings of Gen Z.
Whippersnapper Zoomers have, too, taken a hard turn towards taking snaps with digital cameras and listening to chart-topping songs on cassette tapes.
And although Miu Miu’s costly gimps are causing a bit of controversy from a faction of miffed millennials, a few less agitated folks within the demographic seem to appreciate the fashion house’s haute nod to their once trendy handiwork.
“Miu Miu just unlocked a core childhood memory with this keychain,” fawned a fan.
