Are you ready for your vaxxie?
WELCOME TO THE LATEST chapter of Strange Times on Planet Earth. In 2021, when it comes to Instagrammable accessories, ‘It’ bags and status shoes pale in comparison to the ‘I’ve had my Covid vaccination’ sticker. Meanwhile, the vaccination selfie – or ‘vaxxie’, yet another addition to your pandemic lexicon – has become a social media moment. The doctor’s couch is the new changing room/ pink wall/exotic beach.
Unsurprisingly, celebrities are leading the vaxxie charge, with everyone from Sharon Stone to Michelle Obama, Joan Collins to Jeff Goldblum posting pictures of themselves getting inoculated. Finally, a needle the A-list are happy to be associated with. Even the Dalai Lama got a shot of the shot for his 1.8 million followers.
For the politicians who’ve posted, like Kamala Harris and Alexandria Ocasiocortez, the vaxxie serves as an important PR exercise: it’s safe, I got it, you get it. The Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis made sure to get maximum exposure for his vaxxie moment, by posing topless. The thirsty internet duly took notice and the snap went the right kind of viral.
The queen of the vaxxie, however, is undisputed: Dolly Parton. ‘Dolly gets a dose of her own medicine,’ was the caption accompanying the pic of the country icon getting her shot of Moderna – the vaccine she donated $1 million towards developing. Not to stop there, she also posted a video of her singing ‘vaccine’ to the tune of Jolene (‘Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine / I’m begging of you please don’t hesitate’).
Since the vaxxie is having a moment, inevitably vaccination outfits are too. So what should you wear (or not, in the case of Mitsotakis)?
The short answer is, it doesn’t matter in the slightest. If, however, you do want to make an event out of it – and who could blame you? We haven’t had anything to look forward to for a year – then a sleeveless, cold shoulder or cut-out top is a savvy choice that would make the visit as swift as possible (nobody wants you holding up the queue thanks to a finickity get-up). Prada’s graphic holed sweater would be the dernier cri for safety-first fashionistas.
Perhaps the bigger point is to channel a mood. For that, we turn to the always exuberant Marc Jacobs. He got his second jab, tattooed torso on show, in sequinned bubblegum Comme des Garçons shorts, a leopard Celine coat and platform Rick Owens boots. If that makes you fizz with excitement about dressing up and living again, then there’s only one thing for it – in the words of Dolly: ‘Don’t be such a chicken squat, get out there and get shot.’