Why can’t the fashion industry go beyond clothes?

Payal Singhal, for instance, talked about social anxiety in a post-covid world while presenting her spring-summer collection, The New Normal, through a photo essay on Instagram. It showcased friends debating the idea of stepping out for the first time since the lockdown. “We are staring at a mental health crisis and there’s an urgent need to do something. Limiting fashion to just clothing is a myopic approach,” she says. She doesn’t discuss politics—“opinions can be twisted to one’s advantage and I don’t want to put my family’s safety at risk.”