If you are anything like us, you’ve probably fallen down the CORTIS rabbit hole in the past couple of months. Since their debut in August 2025, the newest K-pop group from BTS’s and TXT’s label, BigHit Music, has been conquering every corner of the internet — and one of the markers setting them apart is their style.

Over the last few years, Y2K aesthetics have taken over womenswear by storm – crop tops, low-rise jeans, belly button piercings, and more early ‘00s staples have permeated the mainstream and become culture signifiers once again. However, menswear spaces haven’t taken up the style with the same intensity. That is, until now. Martin, James, Juhoon, Seonghyeon, and Keonho are among those spearheading the Y2K menswear renaissance, tapping into a new wave of skate-punk-inspired aesthetics.

Spiky hair, painted nails, beanies, tartan, studded belts, ripped tees, Chuck Taylors, and distressed knits were all key fashion elements in the early ‘00s during the heyday of skate punk, a subset of pop punk fronted by acts like Green Day, Sum 41, Blink 182, and Avril Lavigne — to name but a few.

Though CORTIS’s sound is distinctly influenced by hip hop, and they have said so themselves, their styling, led by Seoyoung Kim in tandem with stylists like Actoy, also borrows a lot from punk and its penchant for self-expression.

Influenced by the 1960s garage rock scene, punk emerged in the mid-1970s in the Anglo-American world as a subgenre led by teenagers. Bands like the Ramones led the charge in the US, while the Sex Pistols concurrently paved the way in the UK, crafting what we now immediately identify as the “punk” look. Think crop tops like the Ramones, Sid Vicious’s spiky hair, and Vivienne Westwood tartan. (Not coincidentally, Vivienne Westwood famously dated and later married Malcolm McLaren, manager of the Sex Pistols, even setting up the iconic punk boutique SEX together in London between 1974 and 1976.)

By the ‘90s, punk aesthetics had undergone another shift with acts like Nirvana in the US and Radiohead in the UK opting for a more casual look by way of jeans, sunglasses, loose shirts, and sneakers while still maintaining that “teen rebellion” core. (Fun fact, CORTIS’s maknae Keonho has actually said Radiohead are his role models.)

This aesthetic, fed by a desire to break free and stand out from alienation, later gained a more “commercial” appeal as TV broadcasts and the internet became more mainstream in the ‘00s, and the “teenage dirtbag” dream was born — only to then be phased out by the 2010s. Which brings us here.

If you are on the fashion side of TikTok, you’ve probably noticed siloed elements from the ‘00s gaining popularity, like cadet hats. However, only acts like CORTIS are committing to a full-blown aesthetic renaissance — and it’s not a coincidence.