Many teens have changed their clothing style over the Covid-19 pandemic, finding a new way to express themselves. Since last year, students have started dressing in punk, early 2000s, streetwear and fairy-inspired clothing.
During the long hours of quarantine, students used the time at home to experiment with their style. Freshman Anya van der Merwe found it easier to wear more unorthodox clothing during online school, rather than wearing them to in-person classes.
“I was in my house a lot,” van der Merwe said. “I felt that I could dress a lot more eccentrically and not feel nervous about it, because I wasn’t going anywhere.”
According to van der Merwe, her pre-pandemic style consisted of awkwardly oversized vintage clothes. But due to the pandemic, she’s been able to find more unique styles that she enjoys wearing.
“I get a lot of my ideas from more concepts or aesthetics [on the internet] and make outfits based around those,” van der Merwe says. “I have a lot of ways I like to dress. I like this fairy kind of vibe. Or a witchy, or a hippie kind of style.”
Freshman Valentine Lamkin has also noticed these fashion changes, as their classmates migrate towards more specific aesthetics.
“I feel that people have really found how to express themselves through their clothing and I think that’s cool, I like to see that my classmates are gaining a sense of how to express themselves,” Lamkin said.
Most of Lamkin’s clothing, they said, are thrifted as well.
Lamkin’s shopping changes are not just personal to them though. According to ThreadUp’s 2021 resale report, the resale market is projected to be worth $77 billion in the next five years. In 2020 alone, thrift shopping became a $36 billion industry. Over 45 percent of people between the ages of 7 and 35 said that they will not buy from non-sustainable brands.
“I’d say that 75%, or more of what I get is thrifted or in some way upcycled,” Lamkin added
Junior Paloma Thrailkill stopped shopping at new retail stores during the pandemic and found it easier to achieve her style by buying from thrift stores.
“Because things are cheaper and I can find more unique pieces, I hate the mall, and I hate retail stores,” Thrailkill said “I think it’s all fast fashion and it’s really bad for the environment.”
Joey Alldrin, a sophomore, agreed, noting that thrift shopping is more fun because you never know what you will find.
“I go to the Goodwill bins a lot, I don’t like supporting fast fashion, so I just work around what I see there,” Alldrin said.
Rowan Clark, a freshman, also noticed a shift in fashion sense, and appreciates the newfound variety.
“It was like everybody went in as a caterpillar and came out as a butterfly, or a moth,” Clark says.
Mazie Drummond, a senior, observed that Northwest Academy students have a distinct style special to the school.
“At Northwest Academy a lot of people like thrifting, kind of the vibe, so there’s a lot of vintage things going on and just like general preppiness and or put togetherness and or hippie vibes, that’s kind of what I like to do,” Drummond said.
Students were able to use fashion as a creative outlet over the pandemic feeling more confident in what they wear.
“I feel like I went into quarantine not really knowing how I wanted to dress at all and so I kind of just followed what other people did and I’ve definitely come out feeling like I have more of a sense of who I am and a way to express it through my clothing,” Lamkin said.
Reporting by Kamea Morita and Elliot Strom
When inquiring students ask me if NWA has a dress code, I say, YES – the code is to dress exactly like who you are, or imagine yourself to be. Be inventive, creative, and have fun. I love our students’ sense of fashion, whether it is fairy, goth, or carhart!