As millions
of more Americans become eligible for the coronavirus vaccine, fashion-minded
folks are giving extra consideration to what they will wear for their coveted
appointments. And as with Zoom, it’s an above-the-waist style story, especially
if there’s a vaccine selfie — call it a “vaxxie” — involved.
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Some have
taken their deliberating to TikTok, asking viewers to choose. Jane Tsui, 24, a
perky cosmetics chemist in Irvine, California, shared three bare-armed looks
this month, including a spaghetti-strap camisole hidden under a “classy” gray
blazer and a one-shoulder leopard-print top that offers “lots of arm real
estate,” she said. “Take your shot.”
But the
emerging vaccine-ready top seems to be the cold-shoulder top, thanks to Dolly
Parton. On March 2, the 75-year-old country music star posted a four-minute
video across her social media channels, getting her first shot of the Moderna
vaccine at Vanderbilt Health in Tennessee.
“Dolly gets
a dose of her own medicine,” she wrote on Instagram, a reference to the $1
million she donated last year for coronavirus vaccine research to Vanderbilt
University Medical Center, which worked with Moderna.
For the
occasion, she wore a sparkly navy blue knit top with cold-shoulder cutouts that
was custom designed by her creative director, Steve Summers. “I even have a
little cutout in my shirt — I matched it over here,” she told the doctor who
administered the shot, pointing to her other shoulder.
Her choice
kick-started a vaccine fashion moment. The next day, Hillary Clinton, 73,
chimed in on Instagram with a photograph of herself from 1993 wearing a black
cold-shoulder dress by Donna Karan. “Loved seeing @dollyparton bring back the
cold shoulder as a vaccination look,” she wrote. “Shall we make this a trend?”
Indeed, the
cold shoulder may not have seen this much action since the 1990s, when Donna
Karan sent Linda Evangelista down a fall 1991 runway wearing a white one under
a matching jacket. Women’s Wear Daily called it “silly,” but when Liza Minnelli
wore a black version to the 1992 Oscars, followed by Candice Bergen to the
Emmys (and then Clinton, in one of her early looks as the first lady), it
struck a glamorously accessible chord.
“Everyone
wanted it and was wearing it,” Karan wrote recently in an email. “It became the
biggest rage.”
As a top,
the peekaboo cold shoulder lent a feminine flourish to career clothes. “You
would layer a jacket over it, and then you’d take your jacket off, and it was a
surprise shoulder,” said Tom Scott, an assistant professor of fashion design at
the Fashion Institute of Technology. “You still saw a little bit of skin. There
was a subtle sexiness to it.”
The
silhouette remains one of Karan’s favorites and has been in regular rotation
ever since, evolving from its 9-to-5 roots to an all-purpose, day-to-night
style. “People always tell me they own a version of the cold shoulder,” Karan
said. “And what I love most is when I see young people wearing it.”
During the
early 2000s, it was a staple of the so-called going-out-top trend, when
nightlife held sway over fashion. It emerged again on some runways about six
years ago, when knitwear made a brief comeback, most notably in Phoebe Philo’s
fall 2015 collection for Céline, as well as Proenza Schouler’s spring 2016
collection.
These days,
the cold shoulder has less to do with “going out” than the ease with which it
allows wearers to be vaccinated. Lyst, the fashion search and shopping
platform, has seen searches for cold-shoulder tops increase 21 percent since
the start of March, according to a company spokesperson.
“I saw Dolly
Parton wearing a cold-shoulder top to her vaccine, so I bought a cold-shoulder
top for my vaccine,” Alana Hughes, 28, a public relations consultant from
Northern Ireland, wrote on Twitter this month.
And when
Wendy Brandes, 53, a jewelry designer and activist in New York City, went to
get vaccinated at the Javits Convention Center in New York City on March 5, she
wore a black cold-shoulder sweater that she bought on eBay around 2005. “I just
about fell over when I saw Dolly wearing one,” she said. “I knew I kept it for
this moment.”
Apparently,
she was not the only one. As she was receiving her Pfizer shot, the nurse told
her, “Everyone’s wearing these tops.”
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