Women Wear Ballgowns to Get COVID Vaccines; Likely First Time They’ve Bothered to Get Dressed in a Year

After a year of quarantine, we’re all a little sick of our own sloth-like existence, slovenliness, and isolation. We want to get back to normal activities like showering, grooming, getting dressed up, and socializing as soon as possible. Thankfully, it appears the Covid vaccine is going to give us that opportunity. We just have to wait our turn to get it.

Some women lucky enough to get a shot in the arm are celebrating their inoculations – by dressing to the nines for their vaccine appointments. While medical professionals only ask that vaccine recipients wear short sleeves, these fine ladies are taking that edict and punching it up into black-tie territory by donning ball gowns.

“Wearing a sequined full-length gown to my vaccine appointment because it’s the EVENT OF MY YEAR,” 43-year-old Ashlie Atkinson tweeted recently with a photo of herself in stunning emerald formalwear.

She paired the frock with vintage earrings and a Jen Williams mask.

“this is probably how @danjlevy felt at the Emmys,” she tweeted when her name was called at the vaccination site.

Atkinson’s post went viral and inspired a slew of other women to get dolled up for their vaccinations, too.

“I got all dressed up,” Amy Aiello Lofgren told Today of her pink gown and floral jacket. “My friends were dying, they were laughing so hard. I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me? This is the biggest event of my lifetime,’ and I’ve been to some pretty fun stuff in my life!”

Even straight-laced academics are getting excited – and letting it show in their outfit choices. Amanda Levendowski, an associate professor of law and the director of the Intellectual Property and Information Policy Clinic at the Georgetown University Law Center, went all out for the occasion of her vaccine appointment. “I wore a bright blue, short-sleeved jumpsuit for easy vaccination access, and I wore it with a pair of light pink clogs,” she told Today. “It was really great, and they were both kind of quarantine purchases, and so I felt very celebratory getting to debut them on such an auspicious occasion.”

“We have had so little to dress up for lately,” Dr. Jenny Watts, a lecturer in behavioral sciences at the University of Central Lancashire in England, told Today. “When I was invited for the vaccine, friends sent messages of congratulations and we even discussed what (to) wear. It was as if a party or university ball was on the horizon. The WhatsApp group was full of questions: ‘When are you arriving? What will you wear? Which face mask will you choose for vaccine day?’ … It was a pleasant change to be out of the house and dressed smartly.”

Dr. Watts settled on a vintage lace black-and-white dress with a dark green cardigan and faux fur wrap. She accessorized with leather gloves and high-heeled leopard-print rain boots.

And if you thought this was a one-and-done kind of thing, think again. The women are already planning their ensembles for their second vaccine dose. Who could’ve predicted the vaccination line would turn into a catwalk? Vaccination chic just might be a whole new sector of the fashion industry! Now we’d like to see what dudes can do to match – or top – this new stylish standard.

Cover Photo: Ian Ross Pettigrew (Getty Images)

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