Pandemic, but make it fashion

The cultural response to coronavirus is a modern twist on a retro classic

Twiggy.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Terry Fincher/Express/Getty Images, HUSSEIN FALEH/AFP via Getty Images)

The history of fashion is a history, also, of disease. Italian survivors of the Black Death, newly rich off wealth inherited from relatives who weren't quite so lucky, pushed medieval clothing trends to become more elaborate in style and design. In the 1800s, when "consumptive chic" was all the rage, women's clothing emphasized the willowy waists of wannabe tuberculosis sufferers; later, when having TB fell out of favor, the disease wiped out the trend of long Victorian skirts, the fear being that trains might sweep up germs in their folds. And when the AIDS crisis struck, male designers suffered a blow from the resulting homophobia and "the fear that nobody would want to buy a blouse or underwear because it came from a designer who, in the mind of mass America, probably stitched each of those garments with his own diseased hand," as one publicist told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1986.

Now, with coronavirus threatening to become a global pandemic, the clothing and wellness industries are once again being shaped by the miasmas of paranoia, misinformation, and modern-day influencers. Websites from British Vogue to Tatler have published articles in recent weeks with tips on how to "avoid freaking out about the coronavirus" or how to "get apocalypse-ready with inspiration straight from the runway." On the one hand, the fashion industry's opportunism is just capitalism — a health crisis threatening billions of lives is another chance to make a buck. On the other hand, it's a reminder of what's been proven over centuries: that we've long sought comfort in snake oil, especially when it makes us look good.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.