Vaxcore Is the Universal Pandemic Style Trend

As mass vaccinations (finally) rev up across the globe, eligible people are dressing for their clinical appointments as if they’re about to hit the red carpet for this weekend’s Golden Globes. Except it’s less Giuliana Rancic asking you to walk your fingers through a cringe ManiCam and more finding the right garment that exudes hell ya I’m vaccinated and I’m freaking stoked about it energy.

Call it the Bar Mitzvaxx or the First Immunion(ization), because vaxcore is the latest celebratory style trend, and it’s all about dressing to the nines to get 94.1 percent immune from COVID-19. (Ninety-five percent if you’re getting Pfizer.) It makes sense: Online, mention of being vaccinated holds weight, and vaccination selfies are a growing flex on dating apps like Tinder and Grindr to prove your “eligibility” as a safe partner during the pandemic — even that ideal Everlane boyfriend who just wants to build stability and maybe a backyard deck with you now needs to be vaxxed before being given serious consideration.

Still, before you stroll up to your appointment in the high-fashion pajamas you’ve worn all pandemic, consider… not doing that. It’s honestly encouraging how many vaccinated people stepped out in their best styles. This is especially true among fathers donning crisp collared shirts and dress suits.

There are a few different ways to approach your fit for Vaccination Day. Europe’s top himbos in office, for example, are making the case for stripping down and showing off that you haven’t skipped chest and arm days in quarantine. “Oh, Minister Véran, how coy you are! You pull your shirt up to cover the nipple — le tétine, hon hon hon — but the flex of your brow says, ‘I’ll show you if you ask,’” wrote my colleague Miles Klee of French Health Minister Olivier Véran giving us “girl coyly puts on man’s wrinkled oversized dress shirt the morning after sex” for his vaxxie (vaccination selfie).

But not everyone is trying to drop top at the doctor’s office, and some are taking a more regal approach: Actress Ashlie Atkinson donned an emerald sequined evening gown as if she were at the Emmys for her vaccination earlier this week.

Dressing for the vaccine is tricky, though. Your upper arm does need to be exposed, which unfortunately means we might see a dread return to the cold shoulder top. You know the ones from, like, 2017 — those frilly spaghetti strap tops with voluminous bell sleeves attached just above the bicep.

As for us d00ds, I propose we start opting for the simple dago tee. As spring approaches and temperatures rise, it’s time to dress like Christopher Moltisanti and stroll up in a black tank top. Put on a pair of trousers, a black belt and a gold chain and suddenly you’re not just vaccine-ready: You’re giving Gen Z ’90s-inspired e-boy (even if you were actually alive in the 1990s).

In a year that took away 60th-birthday parties (sorry, Mom), canceled high school graduations and postponed weddings, Vaccination Day is the one day we get to celebrate ourselves publicly and feel good about it. So go big. Hell, bring out the duct tape prom suit.

Vaccination Day is like your birthday in middle school when you passed out cupcakes to your classmates. This time, though, you finally get to receive the gift of a jabby-jab on your arm. That feeling of coronavirus immunity has to be better than winning a Golden Globe, anyway.

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Joseph Longo

Joseph Longo is a culture and entertainment journalist whose work has appeared in The Associated Press, Entertainment Weekly and more. He's still trying to understand what it means to be a Gemini Rising.