Students’ style countrywide is at an all-time low. Plagued by the efficiency and comfort of throwing on a pair of Adidas track pants and hoodie from your high school is ruining even the most fashion-forward of us all. The temptation to dress down is a siren call to throw in the towel on the day before it has even started — depreciating yourself to another eight-hour workday of switching between TikTok, Instagram and Netflix.
However, this new COVID-19 reality can be a chance to take a step into the more avant-garde avenues of stay-at-home fashion. If you can make yourself smile with your outfit, your mental state is already elevated — giving you the freedom to truly seize the day.
Maximize colour
The first way I have begun styling myself for self-amusement has been maximizing colours. In my first outfit, I sought to bring out the pastel yellow shirt (which has been cannibalized from a Dwight Schrute costume) with the cooler blue and purple of the shorts and jacket. Layering the two collars might have been a faux pas in the pre-Coronavirus world, but I don’t think the fashion police will be knocking down my door anytime soon.
Since thrift stores were deemed non-essential and subsequently closed, I have been in withdrawal from one of my biggest vices. My solution to this has been to kill significant hours of my day browsing various vintage online retailers. For my second outfit, I bought this embroidered Grateful Dead crewneck for a great price. Having a fresh sweater, especially during the monotony of isolating, can make a day great. If online shopping isn’t an option, I’d also recommend raiding your parent’s closet for secondhand clothes. I found this absolute gem of a vintage Carleton rugby shirt in my dad’s (pictured left).
In the time of social distancing, we can all step out of our comfort zone with our styling. With this in mind, for my third outfit I went with a very floral camp collar shirt that reminds me of summertime and is a fun change from my usual shirts. Moving from my typical T-shirt to anything else increases my enjoyment of all activities that day — even brushing my teeth is a joy when I can wear sunglasses, a Hawaiian shirt, and imagine myself on a beach and not in my parents’ house. Other fun items that can spice up a day of social distancing include jorts, a fanny pack, or a corny graphic tee. The goal is to make yourself smile when you catch a glance of yourself in the mirror.
Playing with the maximum amount of textured items has also been a goal of mine during this quarantine. In this last outfit, I loved the meshing of corduroy with the colourful knit sweater. The tweed jacket may be a bit much — feeling a bit too Leonard Cohen — but that’s the beauty of our current world order.
You can take fashion risks without fear of embarrassment.
Featured graphic by Jillian Piper.
