Editor’s Letter

Let’s start with: I don’t know what happened this year, but it has been a lot. The world feels upside down. As we near the end of the year, it is fair to say this year has been a washout. A year that was bursting with potential and opportunity slowly got rained on and ruined.

When I started working on a concept for this issue back in the summer of 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the idea of a new reality was, or could be, was unknown. This certainly isn’t how I envisaged my Editor’s Letter to be. But with that said I am extremely proud of what the team has curated on the pages that follow. The publication is dedicated to fashion in all of its glory, with its ability to empower as we celebrate the beautiful art of getting dressed up. I read something recently by Bill Cunningham which said: ‘Fashion is the armour to survive the reality of everyday life.’ I don’t know about you, but I felt that, and that’s certainly been me probably unknowingly for the last few months as I change between 3 and 4 outfits a day. Sunday Best wanted to wave a flag for topics that don’t always get spoken about sadly, such as mental health and the things we can do to help and try to make ourselves feel better, now more than ever. It felt like these areas had already taken steps to transition into a better place but found themselves at a crossroad between staying safe with what you already know or taking that leap of faith into the unknown. At this point, the change felt imminent, and with that, we started to envisage the future. When I thought ‘Post Pandemic Positivity’, I thought: Individualism; the freedom to wear what you want when you want and using clothing as a means to do so, escape the mundanities of working life and the new alien ways of navigating it; embracing the idea of getting up getting dressed going out and looking FABULOUS albeit to the supermarket. Not keeping our Sunday best for best because simply: life is too short. In which I encourage you to wear the dress to the supermarket.

Fast forward five months, these thoughts felt ever more prevalent. The world has simply gone mad. Amid a year full of both challenges and, shall we say a few, contradictions it means we’ve been forced to slow down. The universe has heard us. I couldn’t help but wonder maybe things are more ‘normal’ than they’ve ever been right now.

As we find ourselves adjusting to WFH but often with only the company of a regular Monday afternoon ZOOM call, or a brief conversation with the postman who I now know is called Peter (at a distance). With that like so many, I’m now someone who exercises daily, mediates, and bakes. Lockdown in some ways allowing us to appreciate these simpler homebound pleasures within this new time. The brief suddenly became apparent: let’s dream again and start romanticising our lives. It’s important to remember as we enter lockdown 2.0 – this isn’t our first rodeo. We’re ready to adjust and thrive in this next stage of ‘normal’ and do it together.

LUCY DAVIS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF