vim not loading vim-plug plugins

Question

Vim is not loading vim-plug plugins. When I run vim and do :PlugInstall, it installs the plugins and applies them:

This is what happens when I quit vim-plug interface using :q, vim goes back to normal, no plugin applied:0

Here is my .vimrc file:

set encoding=utf-8
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
set smarttab
set autoindent
set smartindent
set nowrap
set smartcase
set showmatch
set title
set ruler
set et
set relativenumber
set incsearch
set hlsearch
set autoread
set autowrite
set nobackup
set nowritebackup
set noswapfile
set nocompatible
set hidden
filetype off
syntax on

call plug#begin('~/.vim/plugged')

Plug 'VundleVim/Vundle.vim'

Plug 'powerline/powerline'
Plug 'itchyny/lightline.vim'
Plug 'kien/ctrlp.vim'
Plug 'jistr/vim-nerdtree-tabs'

call plug#end()

Answer 1

the plugins are loading, but powerline wasn't showing, because i had to add set laststatus=2 to ~/.vimrc