If this year’s Costume Institute exhibit, About Time: Fashion and Duration, or the constant COVID discrepancy between the time in your mind and the time on the clock didn’t solidify the notion that time is mutable to you, maybe the runways will do the trick. Looking at 2021 collections of acid yellow, tangerine, tomato, cyan, and maroon will cause déja vu; each color-blocked look has an almost exact parallel to one from the 2011 collections.
Back then, color blocking was on the precipice of becoming a defining aesthetic of the twenty-teens, boosted by Raf Simons at Jil Sander, Prada, Prabal Gurung, Thakoon, and so many other designers who spliced up their clothes in contrasting vibrant hues. At J.Crew Jenna Lyons pushed the look mainstream, turning the world into a rainbow of super-saturated flash.