Face Fashion...yeah that's a thing

What can I say, the year had its fair share of ups and downs, and with the growing concerns of the pandemic, the public was left alone with online shopping and time to spend their savings. 2020 introduces us to the things that regrettably became “trendy”, one thing that stood out the most it stepped into my life and took control.

The Face Mask! It has crept its way into your accessory drawers and is considered when laying out the next day's outfit. At first, the plane Jane surgical mask or the left-over N-95 mask I had hanging out in a box of paint supplies was enough to get me to the grocery store and back, however a week into wearing these atrocious, smothering apparatuses I was hit with an idea; “What if I paint this thing?” I mean, If I must do this when I leave the house and it is now considered a safety requirement, I may as well do it in style. I realized that after my N-95 white mask became a small graffiti mural the world was adopting the customization aspect as well. Soon enough I would see men on corners with a table and displays of sports logos, cartoon characters, and patterned masks for sale, I knew the public had a new hot item.

This had officially become a side hustle; Walmart’s fabric section was bare; the elastic, thread, and needles were nowhere to be found and I was late to the party! As the face masks became the world's hottest must-have, I bought into it, as we all do from time to time. I had to navigate through the basic uses and issues of wearing this thing. The breathing ability was the first obstacle, while the surgical one was light and easy to breathe in, the new trendy cloth ones that came in many colors were heavy and harder to breathe while wearing. I found myself breathing harder, which was probably a necessary lung exercise, it was also uncomfortable. The harder breathing caused my glasses to fog up, uncovering the fact that I should probably consider switching to contact lenses.

Regardless, my collection expanded, and I started to obsess over the color combinations. I found myself saying,” Oh I don’t have a yellow mask, I have a few yellow shirts that I can’t wear now because I don’t have a mask that will match it, so I guess ill wear red today.” As the mask epidemic became our way of fashionably coping with our depleting mental health things began to get weird.

I was seeing Masks with matching Hats or Socks online, and memes referring to walking out the door and forgetting said face wear. By this point, the mask trend had gotten out of hand, and I was officially over it. Then the worst part of the trend was born… THE FACE SHIELD!

Now I am not the most fashionable person on planet earth, but no one is going to catch me in one of those. Not only do they look stupid they literally cover nothing, but it is also the portable window for human beings, in my opinion. I already deal with glasses on my face, how would glasses, the face mask, and shield interact? I would probably die of asphyxiation before walking out the door, or even worse trip over my feet because the fog is overwhelming, and I cannot see a thing!

The Masks themselves have gone through a transformational journey of their own, and now that I can reflect from the other side of time, I can pick and choose the phases that I am willing to accept and throw the remaining in the garbage. My shortlist is as follows; Surgical, n-95, and cloth masks with vented layers. The ones that can disappear for good are simply the face shield, the bandanna as a mask, and the neck gaiter.

Not only did these colorful accessories make their way into our wardrobes, but they also had their controversies; to wear a mask or not to wear a mask that has been the burning question of the population, and I believe these the cringiest of “face protection” items came from. As an act of rebellion people bucked the system by using random household fabrics to avoid wearing the suffocating yet protective face wear. Sparking Social Media demonstrations as to why one side is more right than the other side, further dividing us. However, we all have the freedom of choice.

As 2020 wrapped up and wearing protective face wear was solidified as our new normal, I understand the value aside from the annoyance of these thin layers of fabric. I feel safer when I am in public and I have not fallen victim to this unspoken virus. So, I will continue to use the masks as I fantasize of a day where we can walk out of our homes without them and not go into an automatic state of panic!