Pandemic Blues or Creative Inspiration

It’s been a while since my last blog post. It has been too long in my opinion. Why? That is a question I ask myself. I’ve wanted to post on several cultural topics but never seemed to transfer my thoughts to the keyboard. In retroflect for several reasons thus, I’ve decided to provide a series of mini blogs. My goal was to remove the word COVID-19 from any postings regarding the fashion industry so I paused, waited, read, planned, hoped, and cried as I read emotional stories in my news feed. I became disheartened as I read about leading retailers filing bankruptcy. So I took a break from contributing to the blog and decided to focus on self-care which consisted of self-development. This meant taking time away from distractions, negative energy, social media, and even negative people in my life.

As I scanned my inbox each day, I noticed a plethora of adverts for self-care, free online viewings of art galleries, and free short courses to possibly occupy oneself during the quarantine. What I considered time to learn a new hobby, skill, craft, or meditation strategies. It was also during this time I began to lose hope, and doubt that the economy would improve. Saddened by these events I began to speculate the future of Fashion Week, the cosmetic industry, and the retail sector. My worries led to a social media break, at one-point deactivation of all personal accounts, leaving my only attention to fashion-related articles on my homepage. I eventually returned to my accounts and the news to remain informed regarding current events. As economies shifted, and governments slowly eased quarantine restrictions and many become content with working from home remotely. Consequently, the COVID-19 effect increased online shopping, learning, and social distancing all of which won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. I’ve listed a few links at the end of my blog for your muse.

Fashion Trends

How we shop for cosmetics and fashion will be different for at least another year and during these changes, creative director Alessandro Michele, of Gucci has decided to scale down to just two fashion shows a year and produce two seasonless lines a year. I wonder if other lines will follow this trend? Reducing the number of shows for fashion week 2020 is a good idea and perhaps into early 2021, in my opinion. Online sales definitely increased this spring however, some chose to put their shopping on hold until the lockdown ended, or quarantine restrictions began to lift. It will be interesting to see how designers and retailers operate later in the third and fourth quarters.