How the pandemic has shaped my interest in fashion

THEONTARION.COM

OPINION

“When I look at the styles in my closet, they are reminiscent of a different version of myself.”

RACHEL FIORET

The best word to summarize the past 18 months is ʻchangeʼ.

We’ve experienced change in our work and school experiences as they’ve shifted from in-person to online. There’s been noticeable changes in shopping as essential services have adapted to new conditions and many other stores have closed their locations to sell online only. With these social and lifestyle changes, our fashion choices have also been affected by the pandemic.

COVID-19 was officially announced as a global pandemic on my 19th birthday. I remember feeling extremely upset that day as I quickly scrambled with my friends in South Residence to pack up our dorms and go home, and that’s also when I made my first noticeable fashion change — switching out of my jeans and into pajama pants.

It never occurred to me until later that I felt no desire to wear stylish clothing unless I had a place to be. I used to love getting dressed up and getting my hair and makeup done until I was spending all my time in my bedroom where I felt there was no purpose to put the effort in to do these things.

I packed away my stylish clothes, for what turned out to be a long time, and only pulled out a nice shirt on the rare occasion I showed my face in a Zoom call. Daily messages from friends and family taught me that I wasn’t the only one doing this. As the world around us was changing, our lifestyles were impacted in ways that we might have never even thought were that significant before. Like with our fashion choices.

Style used to be an important part of my identity. I felt that if I could keep up with the latest fashion trends (such as wearing Carhartt beanies in 2019) I would feel validated by my peers. It was such an important form of expression, and retail therapy was my go-to activity on a bad day. I also enjoyed expressing my personal style — having a selection of different washes of jeans and multiple floral print blouses was how I felt good about myself.

After the past year and a half, I no longer feel this way when I sift through my clothes, because I noticed during lockdown that shopping and having a huge selection of trendy clothes is not what made me happy.

As I re-enter campus life, I’m conflicted about what to wear each day because when I look at the styles in my closet, they are reminiscent of a different version of myself. Before the pandemic, I was quite stressed over the minor details of how I looked before coming to campus. Now I feel that there are more important things to value, like finding more genuine interests and spending time with people. My mornings now consist of playing with my cat, reading a book, or talking to my roommates instead of perfecting my makeup and putting together the perfect outfit.

For me it’s important to recognize this change as something unique that has risen out of life during a pandemic. My advice for anyone grappling with a sense of identity change is that they should go easy on themselves. Our environment can force us to change or adapt our way of life, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. Try to think of the positive side of each change you might be experiencing.

Our environment is a significant factor in the ways our sense of self changes. CREDIT: UNSPLASH

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