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Fashion forward By Kaylee Tornay of the Mail Tribune Jun 05, 2020 04:48 PM A A Noheli Serrano can list a few things about her style that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed. Since she’s been leaving her home far less frequently, the makeup she used to apply daily is now an every-couple-of-weeks occurrence. She’s been dressing more for comfort and functionality than personal expression. “That’s kind of the culture of right now,” the senior at Southern Oregon University said. “That’s how something global affects our day-to-day life ... how we present ourselves to each other.” If Serrano’s critical thinking about the impacts of stay-at-home orders on her wardrobe seem especially keen, that’s because it’s been honed over the final weeks of her college career. She’s been a student in an International Fashion, Textiles and Communication class this spring that has looked at exactly those types of impacts, from the macro view to the deeply personal. Though the closure of the SOU campus meant the class couldn’t include its usual lively face-to-face discussions or direct work with textiles and in-class materials, professor Precious Yamaguchi and her students found unexpected new dimensions to their study of the fashion industry amid the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. No result had perhaps so blatant of a connection to the course than the rise of face masks among the United State population, as health officials began to recommend even the use of fabric coverings to try to prevent the spread of the disease. Though surely there have been some instances in which people have thrown on whatever mask they could get their hands on for the simple reason of being safe, as masks became more widely available, Yamaguchi said, style and individuality quickly begin to rise to the surface. “At first, it’s something that is very conventional, but people are now considering what kind of design is on (the masks),” she said. “It’s this idea of normalizing certain types of apparel for certain experiences and environments. We see them becoming normalized in what we put on every day.” Those fabric face coverings, while a young trend in the American wardrobe, have for years already been commonly worn in many East Asian countries. Yamaguchi and her students observed the evolution of the homemade fabric mask trend, from the earlier ideas promoted in YouTube tutorials, of a quick design with fabric and hair bands, to the more sophisticated designs that communicate personal taste through patterns and even catchphrases. “People who were not professional seamstresses were communicating to each other (about) how to make masks and also how to sell them,” Yamaguchi said, noting that sometimes they were people without any previous experience making their own clothing before. “And then when you go on Etsy now, it’s ... so many masks to choose from.” Masks inspired a number of her students in a photo shoot assignment they submitted early in the term. Yamaguchi encouraged her students to incorporate their own thoughts and revelations from the pandemic into the assignment, in which they were to use fashion and apparel to communicate a sense of identity in a given moment. Allison Eatmon talked her roommates into donning masks and trekking colored smoke bombs out to a remote location near Dead Indian Memorial Road for her shoot. “At the time, we were still in this pretty serious version of quarantine,” she said, so asking her roommates was the logical choice. The red smoke that captures the eye in Eatmon’s series of photos represents the coronavirus itself, she said: impossible to control, disorienting and hard to understand. Her models wore clothes inspired by a punk rock look, hinting at rebellion and revolution. “I wanted to visually represent that fear that people felt,” Eatmon said. Serrano opted to let the clothes do most of the talking: her series depicts her putting on a dress for a special occasion, only to take it off and put it away again, because she has no outside reason to wear it. “All dressed up and nowhere to go,” Serrano said. The class also examined the impacts of the pandemic on movements of textiles as supply chains were bogged down and factories closed. In recent weeks, they’ve discussed the protests over the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, including the impacts of looting during some protests on large brands and small, local apparel shops. “Even protests have a fashion code,” Serrano said. “Protesters are wearing face masks, not only from the pandemic, but also to protect themselves from tear gas. ... Everything’s connected. It’s all like a circle.” Yamaguchi also had her students discuss how the American public consumes cultural products and trends pioneered by black people and celebrities, as part of the context to the tension capturing wide public attention again. Essentially, it means “taking accountability for how we consume a lot of black culture,” she said. “Therefore, we also have to stand up for it and fight for it,” she said. Both Serranno and Eatmon said they’re walking away from the course with lasting takeaways. “This time of quarantine has given me a lot of perspective and made me appreciate the things that I have, and really humbled me as an artist, as well,” Eatmon said. “I’m going to be looking at fashion a little bit more closely,” Serrano said. As she moves on to graduate school and a career, she said she’ll be asking herself, “What do I want my clothing to say about me and our current circumstances?” Reach Mail Tribune reporter Kaylee Tornay at [email protected] or 541-776-4497. Follow her on Twitter @ka_tornay. Photo courtesy of Allison EatmonStudents in the International Fashion, Textiles and Communication class at Southern Oregon University created photo pieces that captured their thoughts and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.