Dressing Down During COVID? Don’t Fret, “Every Day You Get Dressed is a Win”

While many of us long to dress up, after nearly a year of COVID-19 lockdowns, dressing down is ok (for now).

COVID19’s effect on fashion and personal style

I miss dressing up.

I miss putting on that confidence-inspiring outfit that gets me ready to tackle the day. I miss walking into a meeting or dinner with a custom suit from Black Lapel and a fancy pair of dress shoes from the likes of Ace Marks.

COVID-19 has disrupted fashion, making it “hard to motivate people to rise to the occasion when there are no longer any occasions to rise to,” writes Kenya Hunt in an op-ed in the Washington Post.

In the article, Hunt, who is the Deputy Editor of Grazia UK, an online fashion publication, does an outstanding job relating recent style moments in popular culture, from Valentino’s Paris Couture Week collection to Bernie Sanders’ parka and mittens, to our everyday experiences assembling outfits when we have nowhere to go and very few reasons to dress up.

I look forward to the few times I get to dress up, and have even created some new opportunities to do so:

These days, the few opportunities usually center around a Zoom presentation for work, though my family has started having occasional “fancy dinners” where we make, and dress up for, a special meal.

Like many others, I’ve worn a lot more joggers and sweatpants over the past year.

And I have also seen Interest explode here on Modern Fellows for stories about affordable athleisure leggings and joggers, Zoom shirts, and blue light blocking glasses for working from home.

(Meanwhile, searches for suits are down significantly over the past year, and professional attire retailers are suffering.)

Just getting dressed is a win

Should we stress about fashion or worry about dressing down?

Hunt concludes that, while COVID-19 has caused most of us to dress more casually, that shouldn’t be seen as a setback. As she observes, “every day you get dressed, be it in sweatpants or Regency-era robe, is a win.”

You can (and should) read the entire article, “Any day you get dressed is a win,” at the Washington Post.

Also check out Hunt’s recently released book, “Girl Gurl Grrrl: On Womanhood and Belonging in the Age of Black Girl Magic.”

Photo credit: Photo by Derick McKinney via Unsplash.