Fashion store windows sparkle this dramatic and terrifying spring.
It was supposed to be spring after the pandemic, nobody had thought of war.
The return to so-called normality should be celebrated.
For fashion, that meant hanging almost the entire wardrobe plus accessories with tinsel.
Jackets and shoes, baseball caps and bags, there is hardly a collection that isn't in a generous mood when it comes to glitz and glitter.
Where to start?
Denim embroidered with colorful stones at Isabel Marants?
With Burberry's silver fishnet body suit?
At Louis Vuitton's thoughtful robe-à-la-française adaptation with shiny metallic panes?
With Zadig & Voltaire's suit in the look of an indicator light?
The list could easily go on, with each model giving way to other sequins in which the experiences of the past two years appear as if in a rear-view mirror.
And now?
How old things suddenly seem.
How trivial, for example, is the widespread idea that the iridescence of a wardrobe is there to draw attention to oneself.
No, it can't be about self-reflection and certainly not about bling-bling and fading in.
The performance has been cancelled;
one stands at a loss in front of these fashion shop windows.
A black crocheted stole found in a box in the attic comes to mind.
Shimmering lurex thread was worked into it so that the crochet glittered, not very much, but at least enough that a little girl at the next table noticed it during a visit to the café.
As if transfixed, it stopped in front of the stole and carefully touched the silver thread, as if to convince itself of its existence.
Looked at soberly, this is nothing but reflected light, which appears all the brighter to the human eye the more focused light falls on a surface that is as smooth as possible.
The fairy tale, and also the fashion, doesn't care at all.
Because this magic cannot be grasped.
Sparkling defiance against the hostile outside world
"Tree, shake and shake, throw gold and silver over me." At her mother's grave, Cinderella wishes for a dress in which the young woman can go to the king's ball.
Tolerance and diligence were of no use to her before.
Her desire to belong was finally denied.
She is left alone until a bird throws her silver dress down from the tree like a blessing and she forever leaves the place in life that her family had actually assigned her.
It tells of magical wish fulfillment, of resilience and a scintillating defiance of the hostile outside world.
If you will, this awakening is one of fashion's favorite themes.
In a way, sparkle is her psychic talent, a sequin-sized connection to the wondrous, which is why skeptics also call glitter a flatterer, a trickster, and an escapist.