There used to be a time when I would dress up every day. Get up at 5:30, go to the gym, curl my hair. Put on makeup. Put on one outfit. Take it off. Try another. Still not right, try on something else. Arrrgh! Nothing looks GOOD, and now all my clothes are on the floor, it’s now 8:15, I’m half naked and if I don’t get dressed right that second, I’m going to be half an hour late for work.
These days, Jasper normally wakes me up at 5:30. We go out into the living room. I read him about 20 baby books (it takes about 5 minutes). We play with trains. I push him around the house in his bobbycar. Then at 8:15, in my sweatpants, I slip on a pair of shoes, brush my hair, and drop the baby off at daycare. Then start work, still in sweatpants until noon, where I take a shower and that’s it. Afterwards I might just put on a cleaner pair of sweatpants. Or I might wear a pair of skinny jeans… the super stretchy kind. And that’s pretty much my sartorial schedule.
The fashion blogger who wears sweatpants when they’re not posting outfit shots is nothing new. I’ve heard many fashion bloggers admit that most days they’re in sweats, working all hours of the day semi-disheveled. Yet, you wouldn’t know it because everything looks beautiful, all the time on their blogs and social media.
It’s great, don’t get me wrong, I love an escape from my unmade bed and microwave burritos. But I wonder how much my life can I really share on a fashion blog when my actual favorite pair of pants is a pair of last season’s Uniqlo sweatpants.
Maybe it’s just a phase.
Or maybe everyone, everywhere is just tired of agonizing over what to wear. The pendulum swings both ways. After years of the the fashion industry trying to top itself in ridiculousness, or as Suzy Menkes noted, the Circus of Fashion where she complained how people wore crazy clothes to fashion shows in hopes of getting internet famous. Because you know, once you’re internet famous, your life is complete.
Or maybe, fancy sweatpants are now a staple for fashionistas everywhere? The Cut listed both sweatpants and sweatshirts for their “stylish basics.” Here’s to hoping. Even though wearing sweatpants as a fashion statement is just as ridiculous as wearing a giant cherry on your head. Yesterday, The Gap launched their new ad campaign, “Dress Normal” which, as my dad likes to say, “Normal is a setting on a dryer.” I’m guessing The Gap is meaning “normal” by understated and somewhat boring.
I actually kind of like it. Elizabeth Moss just needs to unbutton that top button though.
The point being, is that when fashion trends take a turn for the understated, what then happens to the conversation. Does the conversation quiet down too? Do people move on to talk about other things because talking about how this pair of sweatpants is cool, but those pair of sweatpants are terrible gets to be a bit tedious?
Do we all suddenly realize there is more to life than looking good, even while wearing sweatpants?
In all seriousness though, those sweat pants from Uniqlo last season were really good. I wish they would bring them back.
Wearing: Sweatpants: JCrew (Why am I showing the J.Crew after talking so much about the Uniqlo ones? To keep you guessing!) Tee: JCrew • Zip up hoodie: Target • Bag: Proenza Schouler • Flats: Jenni Kayne
Comments 20
I don’t read ALL of your postings Jennine. There is after all only so much that I, a 61 year old male, can glean from a women’s fashion blog. I do enjoy your writing though and enjoyed this post and quite related to it. I pretty much committed myself to be a musician from my early teens and for most of my life have done music on a serious, if rarely profitable, basis. There have been times though when as you point out, that obsession simply gives way to exhaustion, confusion and finally inertia from just having gone back to the well too many times and agonized over minutia too many times. The beloved topic simply becomes a muddle of seeming mediocrity and meaningless trivialities. I have stepped away from my music, retired ‘for good” on a number of occasions. Some lasted a long as 5-6 years. Eventually though, the thirst for the discovery and joy that music provides me returned and being rested and renewed by other interests and activities I found myself taking up again with the same sense of wonder that propelled me in the first place.
I have read enough of your writing to know that you are a fine writer and know you at least enough to know you are also a fine, intelligent, thoughtful and moral person. I think if writing about “this pair of sweats v. that pair of sweats” becomes a bore, an act of labor and pointless toil, that there is plenty of stuff that you can (and should, imho) write about with honesty, verve, and in an original and compelling fashion. You have a lot to say and an enviable facility and ability to say it. And….if writing about “this pair of sweats v. that pair of sweats” remains interesting, by all means carry on! Best wishes.
pf
Author
Thank you so much Paul. You always manage to say the right thing! I guess every subject is subjected to monotony, futility and exhaustion. We all have our ups and downs, and even if we try to be inspired, sometimes it just doesn’t come. I remember coming back to blogging feeling refreshed and inspired, but ultimately, it’s not fashion that I needed, but the act of being creative.
But it’s nice to know some people will indulge in my musings, even if they’re fashion related!
I love sweatpants and I think it is easy to achieve chic goal with skinny jeans, leather trousers, but for sweatpants- there you need to got real knowledge how to wear some things .
Author
hahah, let’s hope so!
i just bought a pair from target that i LOVE. who am i? what happened? but, yet, i love.
Author
Oh… I am actually going to Target this afternoon… will have to check them out!
Normcore makes me really sad. Even when you wear sweatpants, you still look cuter and more stylish than Elizabeth Moss does in that ad.
Author
Haha, normcore makes me kind of sad too. I put on off-white jeans today just to break my sweatpant streak.
Elizabeth Moss… its that top button! And the ballet flats. Theys got to go.
I like Elisabeth Moss in that ad! She looks fresh and free-spirited and effortless. The whole premise of the “Dress Normal” campaign is “dress like no one’s watching” and “define your own sense of normalcy,” which I guess plays into not preening for street style photographers and dressing like peacocks, and not looking like you tried too hard (even if you probably agonized over which pair of New Balance sneakers to pair with your black skinny jeans).
Fashion moves in cycles. The minimalism/90s revival/normcore aesthetic right now is probably a reaction to the arm parties, dizzying digital prints, and more-is-more colour combos of recent years. Give it a couple seasons and the pendulum will probably swing back in the other direction.
Author
Oh, I didn’t really get that… I guess it’s one of those ads that needs to be explained. Then again, “dress like no one’s watching” pretty much equates to sweatpants for me.
So true about fashion cycles! That’s what keeps us talking about it!
I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while. While I’ve always liked your posts, your recent pieces are a delight. I love your strong voice, your observations, your arguments.
That’s all :)
I’m mostly in lounge wear when I am at home but when I go out, I at least throw on a dress.. but sometimes it’s the same dress all the time. I sometimes wonder if I started a style blog (a second one), if I’d be able to come up with something new all the time… without spending money constantly.
I LOVE sweatpants, especially the new ones that can be worn out of the house. I love boyfriend jeans and flats as well. I love dressing so that I don’t have to think about my clothes from the moment I walk out the door.
Frankly, when you’re focused on children, the last thing you can be bothered with is a fancy, tight, uncomfortable outfit, tights you have to tug up, and makeup that’s going to smudge.
I used to care, like you, when I had time to care. I like myself so much better now that I don’t care, beyond being dressed properly for what I’m doing, be that the playground or a friend’s wedding.
Men get to dress for comfort while being appropriate. Why can’t we?
I’m just beginning to feel like everyone’s sick of the incredibly polished. People like the real and favor it because it makes life easier for all of us. I feel like this is where the norm core trend is stemming from. And you know what? I love it. Gimme all the norm core.
No sweatpants I can’t do it. I wear flannel PJs in my house, and boyfriend jeans with sneakers when I’m out.
Unless I care. In which case it’s Valentino Tangos and a pale blue MaxMara peacoat. But still BF jeans:). Just add more jewelry and wear the expensive watch. Life is short, and should be fun.
When I got married I wore tulle. One can’t succumb to boredom altogether.
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Hey Jennine! I have to say that I really love this post! I work from home as well and then also coach a girls gymnastics team for fun and I have to say that I feel your dilemma. So many times I get frustrated when I actually want to get ready on weekends, bc I discover that I no longer carry anything “trendy” due to my career shift and sometimes I find it hard to write about fashion when I’m finding myself living in my sweat pants. But, I think that fashion is such an enduring, advantageous and a piece of iconography that the conversation and infatuation will never die. It may calm down as we have in our sweatpants, but it will still be a topic of conversation until people just stop making clothing! Even if it is horrible! But, hey I still think you look pretty fashionable in your sweat pants!
I think everything which belongs to us which shows our personality that the fashion if you wear sweatpants and its suits you then you are a fashionable person. Thanks for sharing you thoughts with us.
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Jennine,
I feel like you are spying on me because this is exactly my life!! Even the photograph of your outfit looks like it might be in my closet. I used to work as a buyer in the “fashion”/retail industry and everyday I was put together. It sort of was a game to see what everyone was wearing to work everyday. Now I’m a mom of two young kids and a personal stylist working from home. If I’m not out with clients or networking, I’m wearing my favorite pair of H&M sweatpants. Now that the drawstring look is everywhere, its hard not to wear them and buy more. I have the same problem I see in so many of my clients, not enough time to get my outfit together. I do manage to get my act together a bit more on weekends but I think there can be a balance of mixing both this sort of relaxed vs put together way of dressing.