What does Fashion Mean to us now?
In late October, as the world continued to muddle through the Covid-19 pandemic, Netflix took a shot at those of us who had stopped dressing up. The release of The Queen’s Gambit with orphan-turned-chess champ Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) wearing impeccably chic 1960s outfits inspired by Edie Sedgwick, Jean Seberg, Pierre Cardin, and Balenciaga for tournaments in Las Vegas, Paris, and Moscow, was enough to make anyone watching in their Lululemons squirm. Princess Diana’s appearance on The Crown was a close second.
Still, nostalgia feels a little out of place right now when the entire world fashion system is white knuckling through the pandemic’s wreckage, urgently trying to find ways to pivot into a plausible future. Fashion needs to opt-in to reality if it is to stay relevant. After such a terrible and terrifying year, it’s time to take stock and re-evaluate one of our most compelling; enduring; and, dare we say it, fun relationships: what does fashion mean to us now? Will we see a return to glamour and dressing up once a vaccine is found or are trackpants here to stay? Are the moments of escapism that glamour and fantasy fashion offer important or frivolous at
