Beauty & Fashion
Image & style consultant Clifford Lilley talks about fashion during Covid-19
Clifford Lilley takes time to answer a few questions about the fashion business during the Covid-19 pandemic. What are the new shopping habits? Can we remain attractive with a mask? And what is the difference between being stylish and fashionable?
Vivamost: To be fashionable and to be stylish is that the same?
Clifford Lilley: Fashion and style are 2 entirely different things, which nevertheless, can’t live with out each other. Style is unaffected by fashion but without fashion, can be quite disastrous… and fashion without style, as we know, can be totally disastrous. And that’s how it is. OK? However, having said that, fashions, come and go and often the styles of the past are particularly stylish and withstand the test of time. Meaning, they become classics and can enhance anyone’s wardrobe and add a sense of style… I see style as a personal statement that doesn’t rely on the dictates of fashion. Fashion is something for the masses and is all about trends and shapes and the way designers see us wearing stuff. It constantly evolves and changes according to the whims of the designers and their influences.
Style is like slow food, it takes time to evolve and to appreciate the subtleties and idiosyncrasies of the ingredients, that is, the trends of the fashion world from which it derives its essence. Style distils them and ends up in a tasteful, timeless elegant expression of it’s own creation. Fashions fade but style lasts.
Vivamost: What has the Covid-19´s pandemic done to the fashion world?
Clifford Lilley: Well, firstly it has disrupted the entire industry. No action… no interaction and no satisfaction. Lockdown literally paralyzed the entire fashion world bringing to it’s knees. It made us think about what it means to “fashionate”. On-line flourished but the desire to buy and show and tell with fashion was greatly diminished because there was no audience.
Vivamost: What do you think of the shopping habits during the lockdown and after?
Clifford Lilley: The habits of the consumers changed in that they looked at things available online, ordered, returned and re-evaluated them and what their actions constituted. They began to think more seriously about where things came from, how they were made and what a “must-have” was all about.
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Vivamost: Have you changed your shopping habits?
Clifford Lilley: Yes. My shopping habits changed in that I realized how much I possess or own and how little I really need. So it became clear to me that “less is more” and that I can make-do with a jacket or outfit that is of good quality and style but not entirely of the moment. I embraced the classics and avoided trends. So what if it’s “so yesterday”… In fact “yesterday all our troubles were so far away, now it “looks as thought they’re here to stay”! Credited to Lennon- McCartney
Vivamost: What would be a tactic to bring people back into the stores?
Clifford Lilley: Serve champagne!
Vivamost: How can we remain attractive with a mask and how can we select the right one for each outfit?
Clifford Lilley: Your mask is a necessity and at the same time can be a fashion accessory. Coordinate it with your outfit. Matching colours and designs to harmonize.
Vivamost: The Zurich film festival is taking place and is only one week away. Do you have any tips for those invited to walk on the green carpet or who will be going to parties?
Clifford Lilley: Yes! Wear outrageous, fabulous garments to distract us from the solemn, dire situation we have found ourselves in.
About Clifford Lilley:
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Clifford Lilley, b’51 was born and bred in Simonstown, near Cape Town in South Africa in 1951. He is a Wahlschweizer and has lived in the Villa Egli in Seefeld Zürich for the past 40 years. Clifford has tried his hand at numerous professions from window-dresser to dancer, salesman to actor, ending up in the fashion business where he has made his mark as a stylist and image consultant to many, a well-known personage. He describes his style as classic-modern with a twist. Clifford’s world is a colourful mix, a cocktail, of shows, events, lifestyle, TV appearances, food, fashion, shopping and FUN, a combination, which he insists keeps him young – at least at heart! Everyone’s darling, he comes across as charismatic and loaded with energy but is at heart, a quiet nature-loving soul, who likes to read, especially poetry, draw, sketch, listen to classical music (and jazz), write sometimes when he is inspired, travel… and is quite simply described as a glamour-loving, “sympatische typ”. You decide.
