I’ve only had one haircut since winter, and I’m almost due for another, but I find myself less interested in maintaining the perfect coif these days. A similarly strange phenomenon has happened with my clothing choices – hence this stringy tank top that I would have scoffed at a mere six months ago – as much from the winter cold as for its cheese-factor. Now, it’s just the most comfortable and relaxed piece of clothing when I’m working in the garden or lunching on the patio. My entire wardrobe has undergone a comparable transformation, something I attribute as much to the summer season as to the new/old work-from-home situation that continues.
‘Summer hair, don’t care‘ is a mantra I’ve recently embraced, and this relaxed attitude has seeped into what I wear as well. In fact, it will be difficult to get back into the ties and button-down shirts that fall and work customarily require. There was an article in the New York Times that described an analogous shift in fashion, in the way its importance and influence has waned during this pandemic, and the way the entire fashion world has changed, possibly forever. It wasn’t as mournful as I expected it to be, not unlike this quiet summer.
It’s a new world, and embracing it is easier than holding on to antiquated traditions. Learning to let go is a lesson of summer that might do well to inform the coming fall…
