Culture Diary: Loungin’, or How Capitalism Ruined Sweatpants

Photo by Mike Von on Unsplash

I miss getting dressed. Like most people, I’ve taken to calling jeans “hard pants” and pretty much avoid wearing them at all costs. At this point, I really only put them on to go grocery shopping, which is also my only real big outing these days. Otherwise, I wear sweatpants, leggings, and pj pants to sit around my apartment and to walk my dog in loops around my building. I’ve become the person who wears my slippers outdoors. Most days, let’s be real, I don’t wear a bra, and forget about makeup. Literally—I’ve forgotten how to wear makeup.

Sometimes I look at the dresses in my closet; the cute leopard-print booties I got on clearance from Madewell in March, when the pandemic still seemed like something we’d come out of in a month or two, at most; the pairs of colored tights rolled into neat rows on a closet shelf; and I feel something like nostalgia.

Earlier today, I got an alert about a sale at J. Crew Factory (I mean, they’re always having sales, but every once in a while, you gotta check it out). Cute sweaters for $30! Tartan blouses with puffy sleeves! T-shirts with clever sayings! A slinky cheetah-print skirt! Matching pajama sets! I clicked through page after page of discounted goods, only putting a solitary pair of gray sweatpants in my cart. Even the matching pajama sets seemed like too much effort, to be…