NU APPRECIATION by Angelina Oliva

I’ve officially rearranged my closet too many times to count and I don’t even want to mention the unhealthy relationship I’ve developed with online shopping—but that’s besides the point. The point is, those dreaded words you’ve heard over and over again that attempt to make sense of normalcy in a global pandemic, the words aimed at labeling the exact moment when being in constant, buzzing movement became totally, utterly silent. The new normal.

But what does that even mean?

I can understand why fashion is the last thing on everyone's minds right now, I don’t think I need to explain why. I know it was the last thing on my mind during the months of uncertainty and darkness. It felt selfish to spend too much time looking through runway collections or thinking about who was doing the best summer dresses of the season. How could I open a fashion magazine when the world is quite literally going up in flames and that dreaded six digit number count gets higher by the day? What kind of person would that make me if I chose to ignore the blaring sirens this vicious culprit, Covid-19, set off?

But that’s when the realization hit me. Fashion was never meant to be a monument, it’s not part of some mediocre viewing—it’s something you feel.

When I finally made it through the phase of despair and sense of empty hope during month five of a coronavirus, social justice seeking world, I stood back and took a long, hard look at the irreversible damage and decided to change the perspective. Because in reality, the “new normal” is too depressing to think about. But the changes this normal has left us with is what I chose to live by.

The September issue is the most anticipated construct for Vogue, and has a hand—if not THE hand—in defining what truest moments of the seasons have been, are, and will be. You could say I look forward to it every year, and I decided I didn’t want to let this new world take that excitement from me too.

Taking in the creativity and hope of creations like one of Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda dresses made me remember the parts of myself that I lost in these months. Seeing how Vogue decided to take time and commemorate their vital positions that never get recognized, and included every international version of hope from different vogues in the world, made me think about the characteristics of this new normal.

It’s not just a new normal, it’s a new perspective, a new outlook on life, a new found appreciation for things that’ve been in front of you all this time but you’re just now finding the beauty in, a new sense of gratefulness, a new desire to uplift every part that contributes to the whole, a new need for togetherness.

These are the changes this new normal has given us whether we wanted them or not, and it’s up to you to decide what to do with them. I know I have.