I suspect if American influence were to be reduced at the very least, the less powerful America gets over time, that this would also affect the global fashion industry to a possible extent. That’s not to say casual clothing will be entirely done away with, as there was a distinction between formal and informal clothing in China before, most especially the differences between the more educated classes and those involved in agriculture. I suspect if the Philippines were to willingly ally with China the more America makes a lot of disastrous mistakes towards its allies, considering how Canada feels about it enough to have its citizens patronise local products more that it’s possible American fashion will be considered passe and unstylish by then. If something like hanfu were to get popularised big time here, alongside pre-colonial clothing, that it’s plausible the rural areas are going to be strongholds of western fashion as we recognise it as.
But primarily because rural areas are generally isolated from urban areas unless if the locals there have good Internet connections to get around in some way, also if you have people involved in agriculture that they’re more likely to dress practically. Though practical, agricultural hanfu did exist but I feel it’s still going to be part of a phenomenon that would be first popularised in cosmopolitan areas like suburbs and cities, albeit one that might affect Philippine clothing in very unexpected or perhaps creative ways. As a lot of hanfu are designed to have a 2D effect, that’s being designed without much regard for the human body. To the extent that if hanfu were to get popularised in the Philippines, Filipiniana (both the familiar variety and the precolonial one) might also be shaped by the same design philosophy hanfu always has.
That and Filipinos pairing or combining Filipiniana with hanfu in multiple ways, also if hanfu were to be first popularised in cosmopolitan areas alongside precolonial clothing that both of them will communicate the message that to dress in a nonwesternised fashion is to be fashionable. This might break away the Philippines’ tie to the United States in another way, where America will no longer exert much sartorial influence on us anymore. Perhaps even further than at present, given the current Korean influence here. South Korea’s also generally more beholden to the US than China is, so willingly allying more with China would further sever western ties that a South Korean influence wouldn’t do, given China’s a legitimate superpower now. Though it’s a question if such garments would even be normalised.
And if they do get normalised at all, that is both hanfu and precolonial Philippine clothing, then newer influences would be more fashionable the next time around. Familiarity wouldn’t necessarily breed contempt, it would however pave way for such characters to look to the Philippines’ other neighbours for inspiration. Something like Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Laos and Malaysia would kind of help matters in a way, assuming if both precolonial clothing and hanfu have gotten so popularised in the Philippines as to be rather normalised in the near future. It’s a matter of time when Indonesian folk clothing would also get popularised in the Philippines like hanfu might do at all, but it would still signify that dressing fashionably is dressing in a nonwestern way.
It would be no different if it’s Vietnamese folk clothing, Cambodian folk clothing, Thai folk clothing, Burmese folk clothing or Laotian folk clothing that gets popularised here, it would be no different if these also happens in the aggregate because by then if somebody dresses in a westernised way, they’ll also be seen as unfashionable and highly unstylish. Maybe not necessarily so unfashionable but in a way that stands out negatively because future Filipinos might align more with nonwestern countries like China and Vietnam, moreso if America really does stop being a superpower at any point in time that anything American will be seen as highly unfashionable. Sort of like what’s happening in Canada at present that it will willingly turn to alternatives, now that America has burnt the bridge real badly for it. Though revoking or minimising American influence in Canada would be logistically harder.
One it shares the same landmass as America does to the extent that it’s going to be hard patronising local products alone that if it doesn’t want American products in its stores anymore, it might as well get the same products from Europe instead, which is what Canada might already be doing. Two, if Russia were to get back Alaska (according to this prophecy) and also if America were to plunge into a civil war, likely due to its own doublemindedness as to be unstable over time, that Canada could get Russified this way. If I’m being honest here, I’ve actually been praying to God for various people to cope with such things if they were to happen in the future at all, be it the popularisation of Chinese customs and holidays here (if they’re Filipino) or the popularisation of Russian and Danish music in Canada. It’s possible they could get answered in an unexpected way, but it would still convey the plausibility of American irrelevance.
If American influence were to be nearly undone the world over, it’s going to be logistically tricky at first to make up for a loss of US influence in some industries even when this makes substitutes all the more necessary or appealing, especially if some countries might not have large comics or fashion industries themselves. The comics industry in Japan is much larger than in Russia that if Philippine publishing houses were to develop a habit of translating Japanese comics into the Philippine vernacular, it would do more than suffice for a loss of US influence here. Having Canadian publishers translate comics coming from Moldova, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Slovakia, Czechia, Russia, Lithuania and Estonia would be tricky, even in the aggregate as many of them don’t have particularly large comics industries due to a prior distrust of all things American.
It’s conceivable that the Philippine fashion industry might still buoy well with stronger East Asian influences (but this time also coming from China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia), the Canadian fashion industry would be in a more awkward shape because it’s this tied to the US fashion industry. The one situation where this would be alleviated is if Russia succeeds in getting Alaska back from America, that this is where the Russification of Canada begins in earnest and moreso if Canada even willingly joins Russia at all. A Russified Canada might be one where nearly all aspects of Russian culture gets popularised there, whether if this includes fashion at all, but the fashion part is just as tricky. Russian fashion brands do exist but they’re not particularly well-known outside of Russia, whereas American fashion brands are world-famous.
Given Calvin Klein, Guess, Abercrombie and Fitch, Forever 21 and The Gap are well-known American brands it’s inevitable they’ll be present in Philippine stores at all at present, but the loss of US influence would inevitably involve a loss of US influence in the sartorial sphere. It wouldn’t be a complete loss but it would still be felt in a big way, like if a US civil war were to happen again coupled with America continuing to alienate its allies that ultimately America might no longer be the tastemaker of the world anymore. The writing’s on the wall when Elon Musk turned Twitter into a superapp because he realised that superapps are popular in China, although short-form videos did get their start on Vine they only gained further traction when China’s Tiktok came along. It’s a matter of time when China’s Weibo gets popularised, but it’s plausible the more people turn away from Musk’s mishandling of the Twitter brand.
I don’t think casual clothing will entirely disappear as a version of it did exist in China, maybe not necessarily in the form we usually understand it to be, but I suppose if something like hanfu were to get popularised big time in the Philippines coupled with a similar popularisation of precolonial clothing here that a different version of informal clothing will be appear here. Or perhaps a different way of dressing stylishly and one that’s not beholden to American trends and influence anymore, where it might be fashionable to pair a hanyuansu Filipiniana blouse with a poqun (a wrap skirt with alternating sewn-in pieces of fabric). It might not be a stretch to witness hanyuansu ternos among Philippine women and girls once or after the Philippines willingly allies with China enough to observe a more sinicised Philippines from then on, but it still tells you that dressing like an American might be considered frumpy in the future.
A Russified Canada where Russian folk clothing gets popularised there would be no different, though it remains to be seen if additional influences from countries like Norway and Sweden may follow suit. Assuming if things like Armenian folk clothing were to even get popularised in Canada at all, that it’s likely it would be part of a possible trend of embracing nearly all things from both the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. That is the more Canada cuts off ties to America that turning to countries like Armenia, Georgia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Russia for sartorial inspirations is very likely, but the Russian influence is the likeliest of the all as it’s another superpower returning to former glory and that Alaska’s right next to time, So Canadian fashion would be subsequently and consequently Russified from then on.
One would wonder if a brand like Canada Goose might end up taking cues from its newest allies in the former Soviet Union wherein it could take advantage of things like camel fabric, which is already been a thing for years in Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan. To do so would be to import Bactrian camels from Central Asia, even if it risks posing certain problems like introducing yet another invasive species. But it is an intriguing likelihood the more Canada cuts off ties to America, that perhaps turning to Central Asian and Eastern European alternatives would be pretty feasible. This might be another step in Canada becoming less Americanised (less America-lite if you will), that taking sartorial cues from Central Asian countries like Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan would further sever symbolic ties to America.
This could extend to taking sartorial cues from Baltic countries like Estonia one day. But it’s going to be telling that when Canada does get sartorially influenced by the Baltic countries, that’s when nearly all ties to America have been symbolically severed by then. This would be exacerbated by not only a forthcoming US civil war in years, but also another World War where America gets defeated there. I remember Celestial having this dream of seeing women in ridiculously tight clothing and the like that it’s clear America is the world leader in popularising sexualised garments, that even if it didn’t orignate such attire it does popularise them in a way their originators don’t get to. There was even a time in the past where both short shorts and showing the midriff were considered very provocative, so it’s likely they’d still be seen as such in other countries where sartorial modesty for women continues to be more deeply embedded there.
Mind you Cher pretty much put midriff baring and provocative clothing for pop singers on the map that subsequent female singers like Madonna, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and the like would follow her lead, that they can even be considered Cherlikes (as in any video game reminding people of Dark Souls would be called Soulslike). Even after America goes away that somebody prophesises there might be another epicentre of evil that perhaps this person from whatever country that could be the next America will be someone else’s Cher, whoever they may be in the future. Cher might be one of the earliest female musicians to set or influence the template for the prototypical pop dame, as in she dresses provocatively, sings songs most men aren’t into and has a big gay following to boot, things singers like Britney Spears would inherit from in some manner.
America being Mystery Babylon carries weight in that the nation-state that will become Mystery Babylon is another superpower, the original Babylon having been considered the queen of kingdoms. One who will decline ingloriously, one whose own parent will witness it die. Celestial even said somewhere that America will be affected by a nuclear bomb that was mentioned in the Bible, even if it’s not above doing this to itself for as long as it’s towards indigenous territory for some reason. But these further nuclear attacks would take place in cosmopolitan areas like New York, among other cities though Chicago wouldn’t be spared either. This does line up with a passage in the Bible where Mystery Babylon (as personified by a woman) gets killed by the monster she rides on, in fact she’s even burnt to death that will befall America one day.
If Mystery Babylon is the mother of all abominations that it’s befitting America would popularise certain things that contemporary gay culture takes for granted, even if both Sweden and France were ahead of it when it goes to legalising gay activity. This includes things that gay men would usually gravitate to like musical theatre, campy female pop singers, house music and gay porn magazines, even if some of these things were there outside of America before. Although things like music and theatre aren’t inherently bad things in and of themselves, there are even things like Passion plays where people reneact the cruxification of Jesus Christ every Easter season. Music’s also been used in service of the church that there are localised versions of this matter in countries like Ghana and Vietnam for instance, but what America did is to create worldly versions of them.
Whereas church music often glorifies and honours God, house music (and most secular music in general) usually don’t. When it comes to the area of plausible deniability whenever such songs are neutral enough to be open for interpretation, there’s always the risk of failing to do what’s right even if people do make mistakes and try to learn from it the next time around. The thing with the Backstreet Boys is that they have a Christian member, sort of like with Hanson and Ace of Base (their contemporaries), but since Backstreet Boys are still very much in the public eye with Hanson having practically become a cult band and Ace of Base being defunct as of late, that this carries a particular set of responsibilities that Brian Littrell rarely, if ever, does at all. At any point where he could’ve gone the way of Zac Hanson, he prefers to remain in the world for some reason.
Both men are practising Christians but Mr Hanson seemed to have plunged deeper in his calling in the church after his band faced a backlash for his prior antics that it’s really wiser to be dedicated to God even if this risks committing social suicide to the public (well, half of their fans), than to remain in the world and commit spiritual suicide. I even prayed for those in Ace of Base to take their fans to church and stuff, lest they risk repeating the past in some way where a fan attacked them and killed one of their relatives. It kind of backfired before but even then this is a responsibility they ought to carry, lest it get into their heads all over again. There are likely some Backstreet Boys fans who do the same thing, though unfortunately Brian Littrell never seemed to be concerned for one of his fans going knee deep in her idolatry for them (though I struggle with this as well).
Perhaps it would be for the better for the Backstreet Boys to go away for good, lest they get much worse than they already are. The timing of their rise and peak went hand in hand with America’s brief moment as a hyperpower, wherein it was the only superpower for a time being, as to have unprecedented unilaterla influence all over the world. I remember some book where those in India would leer at the sight of the Baywatch women in red leotards, yet demand their daughters to dress more modestly. Baywatch was one of those programmes that rose and peaked in tandem with America’s time as a hyperpower, that in hindsight what was globalisation was really Americanisation. If the original Babylon is the daughter of Sumer, then America being Mystery Babylon is the daughter of Britain. Britain is also wicked and may get dissolved into three separate countries not seen since centuries.
This might mark the true end or decline of English as the lingua franca, but this would be more drastic in the Philippines that due to our close ties to Mystery Babylon, that English will no longer be spoken here as it will be replaced by Mandarin instead. Both Spanish and English will become extinct in the Philippines, especially as older generations die and western influence gets revoked, to the point where the Philippines becomes like any other East Asian country in most regards due to its inability to consistently lead a Christian life and never repenting (as what preachers have previously pointed out). America is really going into decline and may decline even further once both WWIII and a new civil war both start in earnest together. Whether or not the American fashion style will be undone has yet to be played out.
But supposing if God does answer prayers when it comes to interceding for somebody and anybody to cope with the popularisation of certain folk garments of other countries in places like the Philippines and Canada that it could happen, albeit unexpectedly where it might no longer be fashionable to dress like Americans anymore. Not that there won’t be any casual dress anymore at all, but that both Canada and the Philippines will follow their new masters more closely this time (Russia for Canada, China for the Philippines). Canadian fashion might end up taking more cues from European countries this time, Philippine fashion might become more heavily influenced by its closest neighbours from then on. But it’s not going to remain the same once American influence does get revoked or reduced the world over.