Is your RAT kit the new ‘It’ jewellery?
After ‘mask earrings’ and ‘microbe danglers’, experts wonder if antigen test jewellery is the next bizarre trend in a pandemic-stricken world
Recently, Robert Cavalli, founder of the fashion brand, Triple RRR, and the youngest son of Italian fashion designer, Roberto Cavalli, reposted an image of a girl wearing antigen test earrings on his Instagram profile and the photo instantly went viral. His followers gave the idea a thumbs up, calling it genius and #essential.
The photo was originally posted by Carolina, a Spanish national, on her IG profile. She captioned it saying, “I’m working on making more! I will start selling soon.” The image was soon picked up by many online fashion portals.
Last year, a Londoner had gone viral for posting a picture of himself wearing antigen test earrings with many praising his sustainable and creative way of declaring his Covid negative status to the world.
Infusing sarcasm into his caption, Cavalli wrote with the picture, “Fashion week began. Enjoy,” taking a dig at the ongoing and upcoming physical fashion weeks at Milan and Paris. “When I read that Giorgio Armani (Italian fashion designer) was cancelling his live shows, Armani Privé at Haute Couture in Paris and Milan men’s Fashion Week, I applauded his decision. With the rise in omicron cases, I believe physical fashion weeks should not be organized,” he says. However, it appeared that he also found the idea creative and funny. “Instead of throwing your negative plastic antigen tests in the bin, if these can be recycled to create a fashion accessory, then why not!” he says.
Meanwhile, closer home, many in the Indian fashion fraternity are amused by this fun and ironic take on the pandemic. “In dark times, we tend to seek humour as a way to lift our spirits,” says fashion designer, Nachiket Barve. Lifestyle influencer, Harpreeth Suri, says that embracing our worst memories and putting a creative spin on them has been a universal hack for moving forward. “The antigen test earrings are bold and punny. At the rate at which people are carrying out RATs, these too can become a trending accessory that speak of modern times. Bizarre is indeed the new normal!” she says.
Fashion designer Rina Dhaka agrees, “Creativity is inspired by the environment we live in. After showing off their Covid negative status on dating apps, young people might want to wear it literally on their sleeves. It could become a funny, quirky way of saying ‘Look, I’m negative, you’re safe around me’.”
