Before micro-trends, there were nomads. Most of Y2K and Gen Z aesthetic today rests on a number of tiny tweaks made to alter the status quo. The context to these tweaks are mostly unknown but to some. They are often borrowed from hidden and invisibilised nomadic cultures that have historically defined cool for the rest of the world.

They were the OG creators, collectors, accumulators and sharers of the most beautiful art and fashion objects. Nomads and their cultures upheld a constant state of flux, connecting Asia with the Middle East, Africa and Europe and blurring the boundaries between culture and religion in these regions. 

The routes through which they traversed became trade corridors and along them travelled silk and salt, spices and precious stones—but also stories, songs, technologies, and beliefs. The tenets of Buddhism, for instance, moved from India into Central Asia and China through such nomadic intermediaries.