OverDressed for Life

Imagine – a standard house dress c.1950. Today this is a dress someone might wear to a special occasion.  Ha! Image from Fashion: The Definitive History of Costume & Style, DK, 2012. 

We’re not going out and showing off what we’re wearing the same way. Things like stiletto shoes, skinny jeans, corset dresses feel unimaginable for a long time in terms of not having reasons to wear them. Soft, drapey things were already a place we were heading toward, but now they’re a psychological comfort for people. There’s been a comeback of things like house dresses and flats for home. We’re looking for security blankets in what we’re wearing.

Sarah Liller, San Francisco based fashion designer.

This quote is from an article in the Datebook section of the SF Chronicle, The Coronavirus and Social Movements Gives Fashion a Reality Check, July 3, 2020 by Tony Bravo. Click here for full article. 

Yes! Let’s bring back the house dress.

What is the pandemic’s effect on fashion? We were already pretty casual and if there’s any shift it will be toward even more casual. Picking up takeout food a few weeks back I noticed a guy getting out of his car in shabby shorts and slippers. Clearly he rolled out of his house and into his car in what he’d probably been wearing for days. As we spend more and more time at home, we’re getting out of the habit of dressing and the additional stress of moving about in public is taking a toll on what little desire some of us had in making any effort at all.

I agree with Ms. Liller that people now more than ever want comfort and a feeling of security, which can be found in loose-fitting draped clothing in soft fabrics. So long anything tailored. I see cotton knit unstructured jackets, large scarves, slouchy hats, baggy pants, oversized t-shirts, chunky sweaters … silhouettes that we can snuggle into and feel protected. What I will look for is different takes on these standard items of clothing. Perhaps textured fabrics, creative layering, interesting use of accessories.

What I hope to see is masks everywhere on everybody. Fashionable people will get creative with their masks, but any mask is a positive statement in my book.