This is an opinion article piece. Selena Drivas is a junior at Mendham who writes for Arts and Entertainment. All opinions expressed in the following editorial are her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Patriot. 

Have you noticed that fashion is changing lately during the pandemic?  Fashion has gone from bad to worse as people have moved to spending more time indoors and isolating.  People during the pandemic are spending weeks in their pj’s. After all, staying at home means you will not be seen by people.  Even if you are using Zoom or Skype chances are that you are only showing your face.  Fashion is as much for yourself to see but also for others around you.  Fashion is a statement that you are making about what you like and what is important to you.  Fashion can also affect your mood and mental health because of how you might perceive yourself. On the other side of things if you were looking to experiment with fashion and try something daring maybe quarantine is the perfect time to try a new style.  You do not have to worry about what others may think and why you might be wearing something you wouldn’t normally wear.  One thing that is certain is that the pandemic has influenced all aspects of fashion from how we purchase it and how often.  What and when we decide to wear more fashionable clothes and even some of the rules that dictated how we dress.

The pandemic has for the most part made a negative economic impact.  The one area that seems to have grown based on all the headlines is online shopping.  The move to online shopping however has not caught on everywhere according to Refinery29.  People are not shopping as frequently for new clothes as they find themselves wearing the same clothes all day long. Then with all the time spent working from home online many are burned out with the experience.  They don’t look forward to being online more for fashion shopping or even have the time for it. All fashion retailers are definitely getting affected.  The smaller fashion retailers who are leading the way on fashion changes are even more susceptible to the economic impact of the pandemic. They are not owned by large corporations that have huge marketing budgets to spend on websites, advertising, and the whole online user experience.  The larger fashion retailers may stand a better chance of making money since they have been doing online for years.  Some of the smaller fashion companies had to quickly adapt during the pandemic and grow their online services.

Worse than even online shopping, department stores are at risk of bankruptcy, and many department stores have already closed, according to the NYTimes.  Many Macy’s and JC Penney’s that have been around for such a long time are now closing their stores because of the slow down in the economy. Even before the pandemic, many department stores were already having trouble. NYTimes said, “Even before the pandemic, the firm expected about half of mall-based department stores to close in the next five years.”   The pandemic just accelerated these store closings.  Department stores were a great place not just to buy fashion but to also see it in person.  You could touch the fabrics clothes were made from.  You could feel the leather, see the exact color, and feel the texture of a pocketbook.  As much as technology has advanced there are some things that still fall short when you compare to online shopping.  Department stores also allow for that exact fit.  You can try things on and make sure the size is right for you.

Another outcome of the pandemic that has hurt both online and department store fashion is moving workers out of the office and making them work home.  Along with that move, the business dress code has also gone by the wayside according to the Atlantic.  In the current environment “executive” dress codes that had a set profile have been brushed aside.  Remember the red ties, blue suits, and white shirts reserved for men in high positions. The skirts, shoes, hairstyles, and makeup for women in executive roles advertised that they had now joined that elite group.  That office dress code also pushed fashion-forward as designers had to cater to this demand.  These days the jeans that you put on in the morning take you right through the workday well into the evening.  You don’t come home from the office waiting to change into those comfortable clothes.  Instead, you wear them all day and you could be an executive or a student just starting a new position.  The day also gets blurred as you never have that clear division of getting out of that “business attire” and getting back to your personal life.

Any follower of fashion will have to agree that there have been many changes brought about by the pandemic.  There are many arguments as to which changes that have happened will remain or will only be temporary.  All the emphasis on doing business online that is the current normal, is that here to stay or just temporary?  Do we think fashion will return to its pre-pandemic popularity and high profits for successful fashion designers or is this the era where we will see the end of some of these fashion designers?  How about the business dress code and expectations of business attire in offices.  These are all questions that are being asked.  The longer the pandemic stays with us the harder it will be to return everything to how it was before.  People will develop different habits in how they use fashion.  The innovative designers will pop up even in these challenging times to continue to create fashion though it may be delivered in a very different way.  Once the pandemic has been controlled fashion could provide a great escape for people to return to something that made them feel good about themselves.