My Hopeful Demise of the Puffy Shoulder Sleeve

As an ‘90’s fashion activist, I can’t say 2020 has displeased me with it’s revival of hair scrunchies and mom jeans. Quite frankly, 2020, whilst implementing masks and hazmat suits as normal streetwear, has presented us with several trends that affirm the unique, unprecedented year we have stepped out of. It’s been magnificent watching the evolution of fashion become increasingly gender non-conforming, and spectating as each individual stepped into their own era of style.

While 2020 has challenged us in many ways of our thinking and doing, it has also challenged us to find healthy outlets of expression during quarantine and isolation. For some, finding an outfit that resonates with our being might affirm our identity and thus, become a guiding light in the tumultuousness. Others might cozy up in a corner with the most comfortable sleepwear and read a book, sipping their third DIY hot chocolate bomb of the day. My reality is finding any activity I can do to distract myself from checking my work schedule to be reminded that I’m laid off until further notice. Alas, the realities we have left in 2020 and bring forth with us in 2021 are valid, and how we cope with them is relative to each person. I am so proud of us for pulling through another year, embracing the new trends, ignoring the fake news, and allowing our voices to be heard from the rooftops.

With all of the progressive and flattering styles we’ve encountered in 2020, there is simply one fashion trend that must remain in the past. For the sake of moving on and fully healing from the year that was 2020, it is time to cut ties with puffy shoulder sleeves. Understandably, they were once a fad. Unlike tracksuits however, a return of the puffy shoulder sleeves is simply a detriment to society. Allow me to explain.

I can’t vouch that a sophisticated wardrobe would include tops that were questionably sold in the children’s department. One reminiscent watch of Anne of Green Gables and the maximum capacity for puffy sleeves has been reached. As we enter the year of 2021 that continues the legacy of progressiveness that 2020 has ensued, it is only just. A woman is now the vice president of the United States after all, which means no one should be subject to the puffy shoulder sleeve of the 19th century, right? …Right?

Puffy shoulder sleeves have so eloquently made their presence among humans of all body types alike, but I must ask what the fashion designers have against us broad-shouldered ones. Mannequins dressed in faux leather and high heels, topped by none other than a top with 2 poufs, makes me lose my inhibitions. I stand face-to-face with a full-body mirror in the fitting rooms, squirming my right arm through the first puff, while my left arm mimics. Expectant to be freed from my judgement and experience a new revelation in the world of fashion, I am perplexed. Who is this staring back at me? James Harrison of the NFL? Dwayne the Rock Johnson? Blasphemy. The shoulder sleeves laugh as my quarter-life crisis begins. I quickly take off the shirt and remember that it is not working for me, it is working against me. I make my way to the black long sleeves.

Admittedly however, anyone who wears their outfit with confidence is winning. It is the courageous who might walk out of their front door sporting a puffy sleeve. And candidly, as much as I want to cancel them for the sake of my own wardrobe, those who brave the sleeve and do so with pleasure are my superheroes. Despite all the odds stacked against the puffy shoulder sleeve, those are the individuals who rock them, and remind the world why the trend might never cease to exist.

I wish nothing but positive esteem and good grace to follow us into 2021. It brings me great joy knowing that old ways of thinking are being challenged by progressive action and acceptance. Most importantly, I hope to see a world of people step into this new year with love and generosity. I just hope to never see anyone doing so while wearing a puffy shoulder sleeve.