Stood at the precipice of a—thankfully—waning global pandemic, teenagers across the west are finally reemerging from a year and a half of strict government mandated lockdowns.
A recent article in The Guardian saw UK drugstore Superdrugs refer to this summer as a mammoth “sexplosion”, a sentiment that was again echoed by L’Oréal—the world’s biggest cosmetics group—who anticipated a summer of hedonism akin to the “roaring 20s”. Since lockdowns eased, the drugstore reported a 65 per cent increase in contraceptive measures, a 232 per cent increase in sex toy sales and a surge in emergency contraception and home testing kits.
And you might be wondering what that has to do with fashion. Well, it has everything to do with fashion. According to leading fashion historian Jo B. Paoletti, author of Sex and Unisex: Fashion, Feminism, and the Sexual Revolution, “Numerous aspects influence personal style such as age, class and ethnicity, but gender and sexuality has the dominant through time.”
“I usually say that fashion is pretty much like the societies it operates within” adds Dr. Anna-Mari Almila, Research Fellow in Sociology of Fashion at the London College of Fashion, “It reflects social realities, but can also reproduce, perform, and ultimately transform them. Generally speaking, the same would be true of fashion plus sexualities and genders, too. It is important to distinguish between those who design and market fashion, and those who wear them. The former can be open-minded all they will, but if this is not reflected in the wearers, things won't change much. And the other way around, too, although wearers are also capable of wearing garments in ways that they were not 'meant' to be worn, and to give them novel meanings.”
“Twin” is an artwork by Falk Gernegross (1973). The German artist, based in Lipsia, depicts apparently playful subjects that actually hide an underlying ambiguitỳ and restlessness which is typical of adolescence.
© PHOTO UWE WALTER, BERLIN. COURTESY GALERIE KLEINDIENST, LIPSIA.
Long before Covid-19, Gen Z were already pegged to be the torchbearers of the post-gender revolution, actively challenging social structures and the preconceived binaries of sexuality. According to Ipsos MORI report, Beyond Binary: The Lives and Choices of Generation Z, only 66 per cent of those aged between 16 and 22 consider themselves to be exclusively heterosexual – the lowest percentage of any generation to date. “I'm certain that any liberalisation in regards towards attitudes, say, minority sexualities and/or plurality of genders would influence fashion,” says Dr. Anna-Mari Almila, before reiterating that because the sartorial habits of today’s teenagers are still being researched, “the exact processes as to how this would happen, or indeed the exact processes of fashion itself, remain debated.”
Whether conscious or not, the inimitable parallels between the Summer of Love 1.0 and 2021’s second iteration can be seen and felt both on the runways, on the streets and on social media – and it’s been brewing for a while. In Feminism’s Effect on Fashion, a 1977 essay by Carrie Donovan for The New York Times, fashion designer Halston proclaimed: “Remember, we are all wearing signs; the way we dress lets people know where our head is at, all the time”– so what does that say about teenagers today? According to numerous sociologists interviewed for this piece, the general consensus was that the post-lockdown aspiration to buy back into fashion, and more importantly invest in looking good again, has never been more symbolic.
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