4 Moments In Fashion That Defined 2021
This year came and went within a pandemic and a world in turmoil. In all of those generation-defining moments, fashion was there to help tell the story. While there were dozens of moments to choose from, I’m breaking down the four that stood out most to me.
Women in Afghanistan protest Taliban rule with the #donttouchmyclothes social media movement.
When the Taliban had control of Afghanistan from 1996-2001, it was mandatory that women wear Burqa (full covering) in public. Over the last two decades, though, those rules were done away with, and traditional Afghan dress became the new norm.
However, when the Taliban took back control of Afghanistan in August 2021, women in the region went on social media to express their fears about the dress rules that could be reimposed. Using the hashtag #donttouchmyclothes, dozens of Afghani women posted photos of themselves wearing traditional outfits after Dr. Bahar Jalali posted hers with the caption, “This is Afghan culture. I am wearing a traditional Afghan dress.” Others followed suit, showing new and old photos of colorful outfits, highlighting the pride and tradition around clothing. “Me wearing traditional Afghan attire in Kabul. This is Afghan culture and this is how Afghan women dress,” Waslat Hasrat-Nazimi wrote in her post.
Adam Sandler posts UGG boots and stained shirts on Instagram.
According to Google’s 2021 search data, Adam Sandler was the top-searched person for style. Surprised? At first I was too, until I remembered that Sandler is a casual dressing icon, never defined by a decade or trend, but always dedicated to comfort. Specifically, one outfit he wore on Instagram in October defined a nation. Standing outside of his trailer, Sandler holds onto his dog’s leash while wearing a dirty gray hoodie, white basketball shorts and a pair of UGG boots.
There is nothing special about it, but that’s exactly the point, isn’t it? His willingness to wear the most comforting clothes and make them a signature is exactly the type of style people are trying to emulate.
Amanda Gorman wears a bright yellow jacket to the presidential inauguration.
As Amanda Gorman, the youngest poet laureate to ever read at the presidential inauguration stepped up to the podium in January, she wore a bright yellow Prada coat. She was reading her poem “Call Us What We Carry” to millions of people who had never heard her name before, but would soon join a new audience of fans. The jacket was not the most important part of the moment, but it was punctuation on it. In wearing bright yellow, she made sure that she was seen, and that when people think back to the moment, she is unmissable.
Myanmar garment workers wear hard hats while protesting the military coup.
In early 2021 the military in Myanmar staged a coup to throw over the quasi-democratic government and impose full military rule in the country. In the aftermath, citizens took to the streets to protest the move — and on the front lines were garment worker unions.
Many of them stood wearing white hard hats and holding signs asking brands like Zara and H&M to support their right to peacefully assemble, instead of making them go to work. According to themes reporting in April, workers said they were being threatened for not coming to work and that their lives were at stake. “We were important because we started the protests and came out on the streets early and set a good example for other people across the country,” union leader Mai Ei Ei Phyu told the Times. “People are proud of us. I do what I do now for my son and daughter and the next generation, so they don’t have to live under the hardships of a dictatorship as I did when I was their age.”