Masks and Modernity: How the Face Mask Reflects Today’s Culture

Image Courtesy: Burberry

In the post-lockdown era, it’s rare to see anyone express any wistfulness or longing to return to the old routines of the past. If you take a look online, people are living new lifestyles in an attempt to reclaim their lives from what felt like a complete loss of two years. There's a greater emphasis on going out, traveling, and partying with friends. However, one COVID hallmark has found permanency in people’s lifestyles: the facemask.

On social media, there’s a growing trend of incorporating facemasks into everyday outfits. While this was common during the pandemic for reasons of public safety, nowadays, the mask has evolved into a fashion accessory. People choose to incorporate the mask to add another dimension to their looks, and while this emerging trend may seem to be a novel phenomenon, fashion trends have always reflected the conditions of society.

According to Stanford legal scholar Richard Thompson Ford in an article from Stanford News, historically, fashion has always been used as a way for people to “express new ideals of individual liberty, rationality and equality…” This can be seen from the French Revolution, where populist groups opted to reject the aristocratically favored breeches, to the US Suffrage movement, where women who aligned themselves with feminist ideology wore long trousers as a departure from the norm of restrictive dresses. People make certain clothing decisions to manifest their inner world to their outer world, and whether this expression is political, cultural, or simply individual, it’s clear that fashion is a powerful tool for personal liberty.

So, what does this trend of masked fashion say about our world today? 

Besides being a public health tool, masks also serve to obscure parts of an individual’s face. In the later stages of the pandemic, we’ve seen the alienation people felt unmasking themselves after two years of hiding their facial features.  People were shocked to see how others' faces diverged from their expectations of them. In the heyday of COVID-19, masks may have been a nuisance to some, but to others, they served as a welcome reprieve from the anxiety of showing their face to the world. People were able to be obscured in public without the fear of standing out from others. This current mask trend may reveal the insecurities many continue to struggle with in an age of worsening mental health. 

On the other hand, this ambiguity of how people look under the mask may add an element of mystery and intrigue to a person’s outfit. When celebrities or influencers have themselves and their brand logos plastered onto every product they sell, this sense of purposeful anonymity in an outfit gives viewers a sense of curiosity about the wearer of the mask. It draws them in like a secret. So, the trend of wearing face masks may also reflect societal exhaustion with the vast amount of curated faces oversaturating media today.

While society still continues to recover from the pandemic, it’s clear that some of the norms of that time may be here to stay. In several Asian countries, masking when sick has been an established norm for years before the pandemic. With the rising trend of masks being used as a fashion statement, alongside people's fears of a COVID-19 resurgence, masks may become an established norm in the US as well. Regardless, as we move further and further away from the pandemic era, fashion historians generations down the line will see the face mask as a crucial reflection of our contemporary day and age.

Strike Out,

Writer: Ellen Dong

Editor: Kaninika Dey and Laila Musleh

Boston