About

Capes In 2020 refers to a tongue-in-cheek campaign to make capes a popular fashion trend in the year 2020. The trend began with a post on Reddit's /r/unpopularopinion before growing into a popular subreddit, /r/thecaperevolution.

Origin

On December 27th, 2019, Redditor thecluelessclarinet posted a thread in /r/unpopularopinion titled, "Capes should be THE fashion statement of 2020; don't bother to change my mind."^[1] In the ensuing post, they wrote:

Imagine.
Capes. Once restricted solely to those of royal lineage, and supernatural beings (or of course your rare rich guy),should become the fashion accessory of 2020. Although capes are not A) readily accessible in a variety of styles and colors and B) Socially acceptable to wear any time other than Halloween, we should make them happen.
Capes are not only a way to keep warm in the dead of winter, but also they make you feel truly badass. Also capes can be considered casual OR formal. We can have sheer capes for summer and spring, wool and velvet for fall and winter. Capes can spread to each and every corner of the globe. I mean, you could have one for every outfit. Different patterns, colors, shapes, sizes etc.

The post gained over 30,000 points in three days.

Precursor

Prior to thecluelessclarinet's post, fashion publications published articles about capes potentially trending in 2020. For example, on December 23rd, 2019, Cosmopolitan^[2] published a piece titled, "IDK, Should I Be Wearing a Cape?"

Spread

After thecluelessclarinet's post, other Redditors expressed their enthusiasm for the idea. On December 28th, Redditor Ravacado posted a Starter Pack variation on the idea to /r/starterpacks,^[3] gaining over 35,000 points (shown below, left). On December 27th, Redditor Haxington posted pictures of Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars wearing capes, joking "People in 2020 be like" and gaining over 500 points^[4] (shown below, right).

The idea led to the creation of several subreddits, the most popular of which is /r/TheCapeRevolution,^[5] which gained over 18,000 subscribers in two days. There, popular posts include a picture posted by vjosiah,^[6] who showed off his grandfather's cloak, gaining over 400 points (shown below, left). User sgt_nerve tweeted a picture of an American flag cape, joking, "I nominate this as the ‘Presidential Cape’ to be worn by all future U.S Presidents," gaining over 3,200 points (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Editor's Note: Mid-year spike in interest was likely due to speculative fashion trends and not connected to growth in the meme.

External References