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Over a hundred thousand years ago by which I mean last May I began to see photographs on Instagram of what appeared to be a beautifully-designed book by Molly Young. The cover was a closeup of Jean Honore Fragonard’s “The Love Letter,” in which an ingenue, in an absurd ribbon hat, clutching a bouquet and love letter, hunches forward and grins.
The Things They Fancied, read its buttery yellow title.
It was both not a book and so much better than one: a zine.
The Things They Fancied is a collection of researched essays on the ridiculous things rich people have fetishized throughout history, like pineapples, and rodent pets, and pubic hair grooming. It was a bit of a balm for a moment when the pandemic painfully exposed our stratified world, and it also felt like a diversion (it’s very funny!) and a keepsake from this time (it’s beautifully written). It almost felt inaccurate to call it a zine, with the Xeroxed-page connotations of that word.
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It’s an understatement to say 2020 was a tough year for fashion. Department stores closed, indie labels shuttered, and consumer spending tanked. At times, the future of the industry seemed incredibly uncertain. Many of us even questioned its relevance: In the midst of a pandemic, a social justice uprising, and a looming climate crisis, what’s the point of new clothes?
This wasn’t the time to throw up our hands in defeat, though. Designers who embraced change and viewed 2020 as an opportunity to redefine fashion’s importance, rather than diminish it, delivered some truly unforgettable moments. They gave us new ways to engage with fashion through video games, livestreams, augmented reality, and even DIY experiments and, in many ways, helped bring the business back down to earth. For the most part, we all experienced those things the same way: safely behind our screens. It was a unifying and humbling exercise,