Time to experiment: Fashion and Trends during COVID

by: Emily Sousa

While the world was dealing with the global pandemic, people found ways to entertain themselves by entering the world of fashion. With multiple social media platforms at their fingertips, tennagers spread and developed new fashion trends and styles throughout the time of COVID-19. 

For many people, this pandemic and lack of human interaction was a time to focus on yourself and the things you enjoy, I know for me it was. And because of this, people wanted to try new things like the newest fashion trends. With multiple online stores and the added free time, it was the perfect time to venture out; try something new, or bring an old style back. 

To get more into these fashion styles and trends during the pandemic, I interviewed Wethersfield High School juniors Alex Jara, Abbie King, and Aliza Aijaz to see what they have seen and heard about the outfits and trends of the pandemic. 

Fashion is not just about the clothes you wear, it is about how it makes you feel. Fashion is a way to show the world who you are, like for Alex Jara, who said, “Fashion to me is the expression of oneself through clothing.” There are many different ways fashion can be a form of expression because there are many different styles, like for Abbie King, who said“Fashion is the style that a person chooses to dress in. There is a type of fashion that is definitely more trendy, and more stylish but fashion can be any way that a person dresses to express themself”. 

There were also many trends that have happened during the pandemic, during the start of the pandemic it seemed to be making or dyeing your own clothing, Abbie King said this about this early trend “There was a lot of popularity in the making or styling your own clothes, whether through tie dye, cutting clothes or even sewing” and Alex Jara who said, “Additionally, it was popular that people during the stay at home order bleach dyed their clothing also some people embroidered Nike logos on their clothes”. 

Moving towards the most recent times of the pandemic the 2000’s have been coming back, with the “thrifting aesthetic”, as said by Alex Jara becoming big, many people are thrifting clothes that are from earlier decades, mostly clothes that are inspired by the early 2000’s.

Besides the major trends of the pandemic there were also popular clothes items, and popular outfits. Some popular clothing items ranged anywhere from shoes to a print or style. Some examples from Alex Jara are “retro air Jordan’s, tennis skirt, cow print and pastels”. There were also popular outfits that everyone seemed to be trying like “blazers paired with more casual looks” as said by Alex Jara and Aliza Aijaz had this to add, “layering clothes such as; a long sleeve shirt under a short sleeve t-shirt”.

With all these fashion trends and outfits there needs to be a way to make them spread, in this day and age it is through social media. With media apps like TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube and more, it only takes one viral picture to start the newest trend. When talking about trends Abbie King states this, “When an influencer, or really anyone, posts something on their platform of them wearing something, that tends to spread, and people want to partake as well”. Another way was just boredom taking over, and you start shopping, like for Alex Jara, who said “I look at clothes online daily and because of this I am constantly seeing new trends develop”. 

As these new fashion trends seem to be for the younger generation, the reason many of these trends became so popular is because “that many people have not mastered their style yet and do not know what works for them” as said by Alex Jara, it is easier to try something new while being stuck inside, away from human contact. It could also be to fit in with the world around us, fit in with your friends at school, or fit in with the community as a whole. Or as said by Abbie King  “ for entertainment with the world we are in”.

It has been almost a year since the school first shut down on March 13th, since then the fashion world has grown at a rapid rate, with new trends and styles everyday. With a common theme of combining different decades and their styles with each other to get the multiple of style trends we have now. Remember to keep a look out because you do not want to miss the next go to trend.