Choose Your Character: Quarantine Fashion Edition

For all that didn’t happen this year—the concerts, the sporting events, the bar crawls, and the birthday parties—one thing remained constant: the fashion. It started with perfectly cinched sweatpants for baking bread and evolved into cheetah-printed chiffon inspired by Tiger King. We tuned into Zoom meetings wearing chic tops and very un-chic bottoms. (But hey, who could tell!) When Taylor Swift blessed us with folklore, we traded in tie-dye for chunky knits. Somewhere, in between it all, TikTok induced a boom in butt-leggings and strawberry dresses.

There has never been a better time to switch up your style, because who, in isolation, are you trying to impress other than yourself? As days blurred into weeks, months, and now one year of pandemic-induced quarantine, we continue to find comfort in clothes. Getting dressed makes us feel good, even when the world around us is not.

The tie-dye trend tapped our childhood for comfort. From shoes to biker shorts to masks to tanks, everything—all of a sudden—turned technicolor. Spotted on runways and on celebrities like Hailey Bieber and Rihanna, tie-dye was the talk of the town. Will the nostalgia stick past lockdown?

Download TikTok and there’s no turning back: The Gen-Z video app is addicting. All you need is a ring light (TikTok’s most-followed teen Charli D’Amelio has her own brand), some chunky chain loafers, and a pair of good butt-leggings, which if you know, you know.

When the world spun out of control, we dreamed in cottagecore. The beloved aesthetic, a mixture of innocence and bucolic escapism, soothed our souls and kept us cozy. Think: Mossy meadows, whimsical books, whicker picnic baskets, and nap dresses. Spotted on the runways of Dior and Louis Vuitton before taking over TikTok, cottagecore proved the perfect, pillowy antidote to our quarantine blues.

Zoom Fatigue (noun): The act of being over Zoom calls including, but not limited to, work meetings, birthday parties, and happy hours. What once was new and exciting is now a chore, and our outfits—fancy on top, sweats on bottom—reflect that.

Made of cotton candy-pink tulle and embossed with bright red sequins, TikTok’s viral strawberry gown became the dress of 2020. It also landed the strawberry an unofficial second place sexy fruit award (behind watermelon, for obvious reasons). The dress is Lirika Matoshi’s brainchild and has been described as “If Strawberry Shortcake & Lana Del Rey had a baby.” Raise your hand if you had something strawberry-printed in your shopping cart during the pandemic.