The 2020's: The Decade of 'Anything Goes' Fashion
Image Courtesy: Vogue
In the age of technology, where the world of information is at our fingertips, finding a niche of anything to call your own is easier than ever. Food choices, political beliefs, career paths, and most prominently, fashion. The days of listening to a magazine and one celebrity on what’s “in” and what’s not are gone. Social media lets us glimpse into the lives of ample celebrities to take what we choose from their lifestyle. Fashion has always existed as a form of self-expression and, with the ability for anyone to discover their ideal look from the cell phone, the fashion pool spreads. As more and more styles of fashion become mainstream, focusing on having the brand new pair of American Eagle jeans everyone has is a thing of the past. More opportunity for discovery can directly correlate to a greater understanding of ourselves and the world we inhabit.
Social media giving rise to influencers, allowing people of any age range to share their personal tastes, and yes, “influence” the lifestyle of viewers has changed the game to a far more personal connection of discovering one’s fashion sense. With influencers existing in every subgenre of fashion, the depth of style only gets wider. As the 2010s raged on and more and more people got into social media, curating their feeds to their liking, they began to create a digital world to emulate.
This generation has priorities, no doubt, but two priorities of theirs are being genuine and a lack of judgment in terms of self-expression, including the ever-blurring lines of gender norms in terms of fashion. The recent Vogue photoshoot featuring Harry Styles is a prime example in the mainstream that being true to yourself, your comfort and your identity is the norm. You owe no one an apology or reason for how you choose to present yourself. We are more apt than ever to learn about cultures we may not understand, to educate ourselves on what once may have been confusing. As younger and younger people become involved in the fight against atrocities, the zeitgeist shifts from tearing one another down to tearing down that which keeps us as a collective down, which is reflected in how they present themselves.
Image Courtesy: Regina News
This past year we saw the fashion world reflected in the troubling year we experienced. A casual, homebound style and having a comfort aesthetic triumphed over semi-professional wear in a world where day by day reality seemed to get weirder. As our days got weirder, so too did the fashion choices. Think about this one: when has the entire nation ever needed a new staple of clothing just to go about their day? That changed with the mask. The clothes worn made statements, the rallying cry of “Black Lives Matter” became a commonplace sight on clothing to reinforce support for the ever-growing BLM movement. As we move slowly back to the normality of seeing people frequently, the self-expression we choose to take with us in the form of style is bolder. Gone are the walls of conformity. When the world we see is stranger than fiction, it should be A-OK to wear sweatpants in a meeting.
Strike Out,
Writer: Alex Cumming
Editor: Stephanie Peters
Orlando