WERE WE ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL?

After this gruesome quarantine which forced people to look inside their lives and it brought people to a simplification. People wear multiple kinds of shields for them to protect in the form of either emotional or physical. As an outsider to the fashion regimes, that people followed everyday as a part of their life and I always considered it a part of shields especially for women who protected themselves from the world.
Me being in the most beautiful country (Italy precisely Rome) started to notice artificial colours have been faded from the faces after the quarantine ended here. Although people have bought more products during this period in the start in order to keep them excited about life but due to the extended period of time it became necessary for them to look at their foreseeable future. We were running in the world wherever it leads us but when we are forced to stay at one place, it showed us the priorities for the completion of life. When the quarantine hit the first stop here I even started hearing the advices from my friend about simpler life to buy less and this friend is no less than a shopaholic. This shifted mentality was mainly due to economic conditions also and what people realized with the awaking of world after a pandemic. This change is not allocated to one thing also it is bringing simplification to everything around us be it personal or social.
This reminded me of a phrase that elders in our home advised about mostly

“People will not listen unless there is a drastic consequence to it”.

Social media platforms have been flooded with the consequences of having a materialistic life for years now but there was no significant change. So this led me to this question

“WERE WE ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL?” and now we realised it or is it something momentarily which will pass when the good time will come.