Fashion is Still Important
It seems that will never change
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When all of this pandemic stuff first started, I didn’t care what I looked like. I relished in the fact that I could sit at home in no make-up, comfy in my sweats. When I headed to the office, my look was far more casual than it ever was there. We had been split up and there was only a handful of us at a time, all delegated to our offices/desks. Jeans, sneakers, and tees were my work staples for the first couple of weeks. Sure, my t-shirt may have been Karl Lagerfeld or fancier than your average plain pocket tee, but my hair was in a ponytail and not a stitch of make-up graced my face.
After having to do my hair every day, make sure my make-up looked the right amount of natural, yet striking, it was exciting to be able to schlepp off to work with barely prep. I didn’t feel weird for looking extremely casual and leaned into the look, as my own boss was often found in yoga pants and runners as we tried to hammer through tax season. The thing about pandemics is that taxes are still essential. The government, while handing out billions, still wants their money from last year.
I didn’t worry about perusing my favourite online stores, about taking a trip to Marshall’s or Saks off Fifth to see what I could get my cheap yet snobby hands on. Magazines seemed to grind to a halt with a surreal moment of reading about times unchanged in magazines that had already gone to press. How could you cobble together a fashion magazine when no one was out and about being ritzy and glamourous? When no one was showing off their latest designs? Sweatpants and ponytails reigned on social media and no one seemed to bat an eye.
For casual people, this was their time to shine. For those of us who only seem to dress like we’re headed to Fashion Week in Paris or a teenager who couldn’t even fathom the idea of putting on real shoes, we were in a bind. We secretly relished the idea of sitting around in our comfy clothes while our ‘going-out’ dresses, splashy tops, and fashion accoutrements sat forlorn in our closets.
I figured maybe I’d stop caring about fashion, that I’d live a more minimalist life with a uniform of clothes that I already own. I already own enough clothes to get me through the next couple of years with enough classic styles to float…
