Can year 1 gear be upgraded to the same values as Taken King gear?

With the release of taken king I have binge played it for several hours and the one thing I noticed is that uncommon gear now outranks my legendaries and exotics. Now I'm a little annoyed by that considering how much time I spent acquiring that gear only to have it be declared lower tier. Not only that but I much prefer the look of my exotic equipment over the minimalist design of the new equipment. My question is, is there any way to upgrade my gear to match the same values that the taken king gear has? For instance, a similar way to the house of wolves' etheric light upgrades? Am I just better off getting accustomed to the new gear instead?