The pandemic has drastically changed the US: the coronavirus has infected more than 7.4 million Americans to date, countless schools have switched to remote learning, and entire industries have ground to a halt. Amid all of this upheaval and change, Montgomery County students have found themselves reconsidering their relationship with fashion.
For many students, lockdowns resulted in more free time, which enabled them to spend more time thinking about clothing. “I’ve been exploring new clothing styles by shopping online and looking at Pinterest,” says Wheaton High School student Emily Tran. “My style has shifted a lot because I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I really want to wear.”
Social media platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok, played a key role in Tran’s exploration of different clothing styles. “I’ve seen a lot of people follow trends from social media,” she explains.
Montgomery Blair High School senior Esther Tang also started honing her own style during quarantine with the help of social media. “TikTok was my main influence,” Tang says. “People posted style videos and vintage looks were making a comeback. So now I’m very into the whole ‘small shirt, big pants’ style.”
Yet Tang also had concerns about ethical clothing production. She states, “I didn’t want to… buy from companies that use children to produce their items.” Tang solved this dilemma by buying from small thrift accounts on Instagram. “It’s still brand name stuff,” she says, “but cheaper, and the money goes to small businesses.”
While Tran and Tang started exploring fashion with the free time they had, Montgomery Blair senior Lillian Zhou became interested in fashion for entirely different reasons. “Over quarantine, I was having trouble making each day different — they were all blending together,” she explains.
So Zhou turned to makeup as a way of adding excitement to her daily routine. “Since I’m just sitting at my desk all day, wearing nice clothes and putting on makeup gives me more to look forward to,” Zhou says.
However, not all students have gained more interest in fashion during the past few months. In fact, lockdowns may have encouraged quite the opposite — Montgomery Blair senior Anika Dasgupta says, “I realized that fashion is a construct. Why try to look nice for the world when you can wear comfortable clothing all day long?”
Dasgupta explains that she feels no pressure to dress up for school anymore. “I’m taking full advantage of the fact that no one can see me from the clavicle down,” she elaborates, referring to Zoom webcams. “I can wear fluffy pants and shorts, which I wouldn’t ordinarily.”
And Dasgupta is far from alone. According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of sold-out sweatpants soared 39%. Even Tran, who has dabbled in fashion during quarantine, agrees that her style has veered towards casual wear. “Before quarantine, I really liked skinny jeans and leggings, but now I wear looser jeans and sweatpants,” she says.
Tran believes this shift may be permanent. “A lot of my peers have been wearing baggier clothes as well, so I won’t be alone in wearing comfy clothes once we go back [to school in-person].”
Quarantine has shaped student fashion in profoundly different ways — encouraging the rise of new styles through social media, giving students more time to explore fashion, and popularizing casual, comfortable clothing.
Article by Isabella Fan of Montgomery Blair High School
Photo by Ashley Neyra of Watkins Mill High School