Sweatpants and Silicon Valley
A look at loungewear in the modern age
Known as the “The Sunday Suit,” the first sweatsuit hit the market in 1939. Designer Emile Camuset of Le Coq Sportif, a French sporting brand founded in 1882, made the outfit for male athletes. Sweatpants were tied to sports during the decades following its invention, according to Shaun Cole, a cultural and fashion historian at the London College of Fashion.
Implicit in the name is the belief that sweatpants and sweatshirts should be reserved for relaxation and days spent at home or days for the gym. But 80 years later fashion blog Man Repeller published an article titled “How to Make Sweatpants Look Like the Fanciest Clothes You Own.” From sweat absorbing and post-workout comfort to loose yet fitted soft pants for everyday wear, sweats and athletic wear are a case of stolen identity. Perhaps this identity of being in-trend and appropriate to wear outside of your couch on weekends is not quite “stolen” after all but rightfully earned. Sweatpants represent the dynamism of definitions and expectations.
“Wearing formal clothing is thus related to psychological formality and social distance, whereas casual clothing is related to intimacy and familiarity,” according to the study “The Cognitive Consequences of Formal Clothing.” The study also states that, “For example, people who wear formal clothes describe themselves as more competent and rational, whereas people who wear casual clothes describe themselves as more friendly and laid-back.”
Yet, as seen in Silicon Valley, casual clothes are not the antithesis to rational behavior. Formal clothes in some cases stifle creative and productive thinking due to their tight fitting style. On one side is athleisure, consisting of yoga pants and leggings which demonstrate the facade of a healthy lifestyle highly sought after in today’s society. On the other side is the new trend of matching sweat outfits, responding to a need for “coziness” and a liberation from the confines of jeans.
Both shifts to casual clothing reflect a larger change in ideas regarding wellness. According to the World Health Organization, wellness is "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." Wellness goes beyond biology-based health and extends into other lifestyle choices such as allocating yourself downtime and associating yourself with healthy activities.
“In many ways, loungewear has become my street style,” Weinberg freshman Julia Koffman says. “Some days I’m motivated to put on a pair of jeans, but most days I’m happy just showing up to class in sweatpants and a t-shirt.”
She often wears matching sweat sets, but even though she feels comfortable wearing joggers or leggings to class, she says that something still stops her from wearing them to teacher meetings.
There are still people like Weinberg junior Alexis Barber who don’t wear sweats and leggings as everyday wear. Barber still associates loungewear with downtime.
“I have a rule where I will either wear a sweatshirt with leggings or jeans or sweatpants with a tight top, but never all sweats because it just looks frumpy,” she says. “I have a lot of workout clothes, and I’m comfortable going out in public in leggings and workout clothes; usually I wear these when I plan on working out later that day. I never really wear sweats unless I’ve checked out for the night or I’m just walking somewhere quickly.”
Barber makes an interesting point that she would like matching sweats since it appears more “put together,” but often they’re expensive. Brands like Aviator Nation and Spiritual Gangster, which carry more form fitting sweatshirts and joggers with designs, sell at aout $80 and above for just one half of the set. Lululemon leggings sell for $98 while Nike sells in a range from $50 to $150.
These higher prices indicate the shift of sweats and leggings to mainstream wear. Activewear now comprises 24% of apparel industry sales, according to the Future of Apparel study by The NPD Group. Could wearing these items be linked to “conspicuous consumption?” These looks convey the idea that one has time and money to go to the gym and workout class, or has the means to take relaxation time and wear sweatpants in public.
“I figure students are all dressing for each other, not for me,” Medill Professor Owen Youngman says. “I assume that I don’t have a clue what kind of clothes you need to wear in order to feel like you fit in on any given day or in any given season, and I have yet to have a class disrupted by someone’s fashion choices… which is not to say it couldn’t happen, but it hasn’t yet.”
The history of these clothing items as workout clothes or relaxation clothes perhaps allows the trend to diverge from being as pretentious as its price tag suggests. That’s the power of the dynamics at play, however. But, at the end of the day, sweatshirts will normally make people feel cozy and at ease physically, and leggings will always at some point be worn in the gym.