You have almost certainly seen one sitting in a bathroom drawer, tangled between a couple of hair ties and a forgotten bobby pin. The humble zig-zag headband – that ridged plastic comb you could pick up at any drugstore – has been quietly waiting for its comeback moment. Most of us filed it away as a relic of middle-school getting-ready routines and early-2000s movie montages. But when one of the most-watched women in fashion reaches for it courtside at the biggest sporting event of the summer, you pay attention. And when a major Italian fashion house follows up days later with a $525 version, you realize the zig-zag headband is no longer a throwback – it is the accessory of the moment.

A stadium moment that signaled something bigger

Hailey Bieber, the 29-year-old Rhode founder, swept her hair back with a simple black plastic zig-zag headband at Sunday’s FIFA World Cup final held at MetLife Stadium. She posted the look to her Instagram Stories, and the image traveled fast. She was there to support her husband Justin Bieber, who performed a song called Everything Hallelujah during the tournament’s first-ever halftime show. He shared that stage with Madonna, Shakira, and BTS, making it one of the most talked-about live performances of the year.

On its own, the headband might have read as a casual, off-duty styling choice. But what happened next made it clear the accessory was part of a much bigger fashion narrative. On Thursday, just days after the World Cup final, Miu Miu revealed a campaign starring Hailey Bieber herself. The Italian house presented its own elevated interpretation of the comb headband, crafted from metal and black calfskin, finished with a logo at the temple, and carrying a price tag of $525.

What looked like a spontaneous stadium accessory turned out to be a harbinger of a luxury collaboration. And suddenly, a piece of plastic nostalgia had a high-fashion pedigree.

An accessory with deep pop-culture roots

If the zig-zag headband feels familiar, that is because it already had its pop-culture peak more than two decades ago. The style reached its zenith in 2002, when Keira Knightley wore one to hold back her hair in the role of Jules Paxton in Bend It Like Beckham. That film became a cultural touchstone, and the headband was part of its visual identity. Even David Beckham, the soccer icon the movie was named after, was photographed wearing a zig-zag headband on several occasions off the pitch.

So the accessory is not arriving out of nowhere. It carries genuine cultural memory – the kind of detail that makes a trend feel earned rather than manufactured. For anyone who grew up in the early 2000s, seeing Hailey Bieber wear one now is a jolt of recognition, a bridge between something you used to own and something you suddenly want again.

The fact that Miu Miu chose to elevate this particular piece – rather than invent a new silhouette from scratch – says something about where fashion is looking for inspiration right now. Nostalgia sells, but only when the reference is specific enough to trigger real emotion.

Hailey Bieber’s full weekend of early-2000s references

The headband was not the only nod to the aughts that Hailey Bieber made during the World Cup weekend. After the match, the couple celebrated Spain’s win over Argentina at an after-party at The Twenty Two. For that occasion, Hailey changed into a vintage John Galliano for Dior slip dress – one more souvenir from the early 2000s and a silhouette that has been cycling back into the fashion conversation for several seasons.

This consistent thread of nostalgia extends beyond a single weekend, too. Her Gap denim capsule, released last week, works the same angle. The collection is cut to 1990s proportions and stamped with 1996, the year she was born. It sold out within minutes of the launch, proving that her audience is fully on board with the throwback direction she keeps leaning into.

From the drugstore headband to the Dior slip to the oversized Gap denim, every piece tells the same story: the late 1990s and early 2000s are not just influencing fashion right now, they are driving it. And Hailey Bieber is positioning herself at the center of that wave with remarkable consistency.

What this means for the rest of the summer

Here is what we know now that we did not know a week ago. A zig-zag comb headband – the kind that costs a few dollars at any convenience store – has been reborn as a $525 luxury item by Miu Miu, made from metal and calfskin with the house logo at the temple. Hailey Bieber wore the original version to one of the most-watched events of the year before starring in the campaign for the designer take. The accessory has not been this culturally relevant since Keira Knightley and David Beckham made it a staple in 2002. If your instinct is to dig through a drawer and find the one you already own, that instinct is exactly right. The best trends are the ones that were already in your hands – they just needed someone to remind you.