I received a meme the other day with two pictures one was of a man dressed in a Conan the Barbarian type warrior outfit and the other photo was of a man wearing pajamas. The caption read ” What I thought my apocalypse outfit would be and what it is”

 

 

During this time of economic disaster, if we’re lucky, we find ourselves working from home. Our cool work outfits might look something like pajamas now.

Sure we see some people. I’ve never had more Zoom and FaceTime invites than in the last couple of weeks. These invitations range from meetings with old associates, to new clients to happy hours with friends that long for human interaction, even if its through a computer screen.

Before I worked in the industry, way back in high school, I had a flair for fashion. I loved the idea of expressing myself through clothes. I would add some unique flair to my little outfits or accessories, and actually there were even times when I would set little trends or notice my teen friends duplicating my outfits in someway.

As I grew up I accumulated a closet swollen full of clothing. When I got in to sustainable fashion the idea of up-cyling and re-cycling my closet was something that I jumped on board with. How interesting it was to go in to my closet and rehash or repurpose something old into something new.

During the quarantine of 2020 I noticed something interesting. I devolved into wearing leggings and t-shirts daily with a baseball cap.

One day I decided to put perfume on, put on makeup, do my hair and wear a cool dress, Versace actually, while I worked from home. I didn’t even have a Zoom meeting. It was just for me. I realized something profound that day, as I sat their in my somewhat uncomfortable get up for no reason, fashion generally isn’t for yourself. Fashion is for others. The very notion of sequestering, or quarantining is anti fashion, simply because fashion is a form of visual communication.  Basically fashion really isn’t that fun if no-one can see it. The whole point of fashion is to tell others something about yourself through your apparel; through the aesthetic or theme you set as you walk through the door. Its the mood you create with your appearance. It is shallow and deep at the same time. It’s shallow because it is all about a look. It’s deep because you’re communicating to people’s subconcious. You aren’t just letting people know that you’re rich, or tough, or sexy. You’re affecting people through the colors you wear or the way you wear an outfit, telling them you’re happy, nonchalant, or confident. Half the time the wearer isn’t even fully conscious of all that they’re projecting. And sometimes people are not trying to project anything to anyone about themselves, but they still are.

It is easy to read various things about a person by how they are dressed.

With that said we look forward to the whole world being able to fully express itself through all means including fashion.

Long Live Fashion!