Last week, I traipsed to Snappy Snaps to get film from a disposable camera developed. This same camera has been left behind at a Halloween party, dropped in a mosh pit at Reading Festival and clattered around in my coat pocket for about 6 months. All this hassle, and a third of the photos I got back were grey and fuzzy. As the lenses on our phones get better and better, it seems that the demand for slightly blurred, yellowing film increases exponentially, with celebrities such as Gigi Hadid and David Dobrik creating whole social media accounts to house their "'posables", and Vogue magazine recently declaring a £5 camera "the next it-girl accessory". Why are disposables suddenly back in fashion?
It may seem predictable that as our clothes (and the clothes we see on social media) are increasingly influenced by past decades, other aspects of our lives follow. In 2019, vinyl records outsold CDs for the first time in forty years and you only have to glance at Instagram to see myriad ‘nostalgia accounts’ - home to a decade of fashion and celebrity culture, mostly summed up through photos of young Leonardo DiCaprio and shots of Paris Hilton with a flip phone. But do these sudden cravings for yesteryear go deeper than appearances?
Let’s face it, in this climate (political and physical) it’s all too easy to despair, and en masse nostalgia seems to be an effective coping mechanism - particularly in the virtual world. Escaping to another decade where all flaws have an appeasing sepia tone and Britney and Justin wear all denim outfits without a care in the world is bizarrely... soothing. A kind of mac and cheese for your brain, but more aesthetically pleasing. It’s no original statement to say “I was born in the wrong decade”, but at a time when the world’s many flaws are on full display at all times, from all angles, I think it’s perfectly logical to yearn for another time (even if that 'other time' is only 15 years ago).
That isn’t to say that living at the time we do is a bad thing - we shouldn’t take the rights and advantages that modern life affords us for granted, but it's also okay to lament every now and again. Our world is literally on fire. If that isn't stressful then I don't know what is. And as much as we need to be aware of what is going on globally, averting your gaze for a minute is sometimes the only thing that will retain our sanity; you can’t keep your eyes open all day if you don’t sleep at night. And if that moment of mindfulness comes in a fit of Instagram-induced nostalgia, then wear slip dresses and Doc Martins to your hearts content, swap your iPhone for a disposable camera and binge watch 'the OC'. But please, let’s not bring back low rise jeans?!
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