The world right now is being consumed by an epidemic and the widespread panic is causing mass hysteria; fire is catching.
If the histories of art and fashion have taught us anything, it’s that life is reflected in art. In the 20’s we had the prohibition, and how did people respond? Rebellion. The prohibition birthed the age of the flappers. Women shortening their skirts, cutting their hair, and wearing their wealth in terms of pearls and other fine jewels for the world to see. In other words, modesty was just a 7 letter word. The prohibition in the 20’s also gave birth to organized crime, and in the 30’s men started dressing like mobsters from The Godfather. In the late 50’s and throughout the 60’s, Space Age fashion was primarily due to the influence of the Space Race and the Cold War. In the 90’s, hip-hop and rap music started growing in popularity in response to all of the racial injustice and police brutality. What makes the music significant was the fact that it was actually about something, struggles and strife, and it gave people an outlet for all of that anger. And because fashion imitates life, we also started to see what is now known today as hip-hop fashion. Due to the influence of Tupac, Easy E, Dr. Dre, N.W.A, and MC Hammer, jeans were worn low and baggy, midriffs were exposed, snapbacks were worn backwards, and every man on the planet owned a couple of wife-beaters and a gold chain. People were also wearing substantially less color compared to the 80’s. The dark times paralleled what people wore.
Now with 2020 surrounding the coronavirus, how will fashion respond? By exercising a form of modesty: turtlenecks and long sleeves in the summer, high-waisted skinny jeans without rips, and shoes that come up higher on our ankles exposing less skin? Or maybe the addition of long silky Aubrey Hepburn Breakfast-at-Tiffany’s-hand-gloves and Billie Eilish mouth-masks?