Dressing Up to Stay In: The Power of Fashion in a Global Pandemic
Fashion is expression without words. It’s the conversation starter on the street, on the subway or in the nightclub toilets. We don’t judge books by their covers in 2021, but if we did, your outfit is the most accurate cover you could design. Fashion is an art that is celebrated in capital cities across the world every year with a series of fashion weeks attended by millions, keen to sneak a peek at the latest trends. Fashion is a greatly important aspect of human history and culture, and even if you ‘aren’t into fashion’, it still provides welcome autonomy over one aspect of our hectic lives. The clothes you decide to wear on any given day have a direct influence on how the world perceives you. Fashion is powerful. It’s exciting. It’s my motivation. But how have attitudes to fashion changed this year as a result of the global pandemic?
A national lockdown with lawful orders to stay at home completely omitted the reason for us to make ourselves presentable – what each person took from the news highlighted just how unique we are. For instance, for one of my friends who is currently juggling a psychology degree alongside anxiety and a busy weekend job in hospitality, lockdown provided a well-deserved break from the extra stress of presentability and the excuse to live in joggers for a few months. Following this moment of pause from caring about her appearance, she has re-emerged with the desire for an evolved style to match an evolved personality. For me - a recently sacked, overthinker living far away from her boyfriend for 5 months - it was a chance to express myself and experiment with my fashion without fear of judgement. Getting dressed once a week and taking some photos for my Instagram reminded me what I already had in my wardrobe and let me find so many amazing people on Instagram doing the same thing with their time. I’m not going to say I’m grateful for lockdown because no one realistically can be, but it gave many of us time to really consider the value of our clothes and the power they hold to design our own personal book covers every single day. Here are two lockdown-fashion rollercoasters about how this unorthodox year allowed our fashion to grow alongside our personalities:
Abby: Fashion and clothes, until recently, have been something I’ve related to needing to wear. Lockdown was somewhat of a relief for me as I no longer had to think about what I wore and also felt the global pandemic was of greater concern than whether I had gone on my daily walk in the same outfit for the past 3 days. However, when restrictions began to lift, and summer crept in (along with her questionably ‘better’ Scottish weather), I panicked. The haze of the last few months of comfort, leggings and oversized hoodies now left me in an identity crisis. What was my style? I came out of lockdown feeling considerably different internally than I did going in and reinvented my style to follow suit. Lockdown gave me more spare time than I’ve ever had in my life, therefore I’ve been exposed - mostly through social media and fashion-conscious friends - to the joys of clothes and accessorising. I spent a lot of time trying to discover what I really liked and what I didn’t but most importantly I pushed myself to take new fashion risks. Realistically, no one cared what I was wearing, and I decided to take a little more pride in wearing things that made me feel happy. Now that we are in lockdown number three (four? five?!), Fashion is something I’ve clung to in order to keep sane. Protecting your mental health is more important than ever given the current circumstances, and I’ve found that making an effort with what I’m wearing, whether it be my favourite jeans; trying a new trend; styling a sweater vest, or even just layering necklaces to change a potentially bland outfit, completely changes my outlook on the day. It gives me purpose and, most importantly, individuality.
Erin: On the contrary, I have always been a lover of fashion. With an array of (faux) fur coats and brightly coloured denims, colour is my life. When most people were relieved about being able to work in their pyjamas from the sofa, I was devastated. I worked in Topshop until the pandemic hit, and going from putting every ounce of expression into my outfits to losing my job and sitting at home in my dressing gown every day really hit me hard. I felt I had no purpose. As dramatic as it sounds, fashion is my perk-up on a hard day and I was not working from home like a lot of people; I had been sacked to save a wage during a global pandemic. All my motivation was gone. Like everyone else, I lounged about for the first few weeks but then I discovered TikTok, more specifically, fashion TikTok, and I got my mojo back. I put on my best outfits, had a mini photo shoot in my room, and never looked back. I realised no one on my personal Instagram really cared, so I made a separate Instagram (@egsgarms) and started posting one outfit a week to give me a sense of routine and creativity. I slowly gained followers and experience, and a hell of a lot of knowledge about the industry and sustainability, and now we are here, with over 2.2k followers, @egsgarms is still going strong! I am now a fashion blogger, sustainability activist and brand ambassador for a few small businesses. It’s weird to think that if it were not for that time-stopper of a year, I may never have had the time to explore my individuality and gain confidence like this.
Lockdown allowed us both, like so many other people sitting in their homes, to truly appreciate the power and serotonin of a stunningly bright outfit that we took for granted every time we moaned about three birthday dinners in the same month in 2019.
