I used to do it all the time in college. I lived in a tiny, tiny town with nothing but a university and a Wal-Mart so I wasn’t about to get dressed up to go grocery shopping. Now I live in a huge city with no Wal-Mart and I haven’t left the house in anything less than jeans and a decent top in years. I would really hate to run into my friends or coworkers looking like I think I’m 18 or something. This is also the reason I don’t wear my hair in pigtails* anymore despite the fact that I think they are a good look for me.
*I mean like this, not like this. The latter isn’t a good look for anyone over 5.
I’ve done it - I used to live in a flat on the main street of my old city - Auckland, NZ. Next door to me was a StarMart (convenience store). If I was hanging around at home in my pajamas, I’d often just throw an overcoat over my PJs - usually a leather duster, to be honest - and pick up whatever I needed. Sometimes I’d wear shoes, sometimes not. It was never a full shop, or anywhere but the nearest convenience store, but if I felt like a coke, or a bag of crisps…
I’ve only done it…twice since coming to the UK. I walked down the street to the off-licence. Both times at night, when I was hanging around at home in front of the TV and I felt like a snack or a glass of wine.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone else doing it, though. Other than the friend I used to live with, that is.
Ottawa checking in here. Yes, my 12 year old daughter will wear her pajama pants to school, shopping, etc. as will a lot of girls her age(ish). I don’t remember seeing guys do this, and certainly not women say past the age of 20(ish).
Is getting dressed (from your sleeping attire) synonymous with “dressed up” now? Or was it pajamas but not having been used for sleeping, so maybe you were up, showered and then into a fresh pair of pajamas as lounge wear?
If the latter, well…that’s a personal choice, some people can make it look cute, some just look sloppy. But if it is a matter of jumping out of bed, and then wearing the same pajamas you have slept in to go shopping…well that’s just rather lazy isn’t it? And if you are changing into fresh jammies, isn’t it just as easy to pull on a pair of jeans?
I think you’ve hit on the basic point here: “get dressed up” vs “get dressed” what do they mean to you? I don’t get dressed up much outside of suits for work (and even they have Crocs under them) But I wouldn’t get the paper off the stoop without getting dressed. The idea of Tony Soprano walking down that long driveway in a bathrobe always bugged me.
I have a 13 year old who is not allowed to leave the house in her pajamas, no matter what the other girls might be doing. That is mostly her father’s rule, I am kind of “meh” about it. But he does allow and she does wear house slippers (except to school because they are against the dress code) everywhere. She recently got a pair that look like boots (and are super cute) so she chose to wear them as boots despite their construction as house shoes…they didn’t last a week before they were dingy and the soles were ripped from them.
I do wish that older women (and men!) around here would refrain form the pajamas in public trend or at least check a mirror before they do. There was a woman who appeared to be in her 50s in line in front of me at Wal-Mart the other day in her pajama’s and slippers…she looked more like the “mentally ill” subset than the fashion-forward trend setter that she was probably going for.
I’m uncomfortable leaning out my front door to my mailbox to get my mail in my pjs. It doesn’t help that our house fronts a busy-ish street and there is a bus shelter right across the street, though.
I used to see it all the time when I lived in a council estate on Dublin’s northside. I always took it as a badge of dole pride: “look at me, I don’t have to work”. Thought it was just a Dublin thing, but I have recently seen it in Hackney in London, and around the Blackbird Leys estate in Oxford.
Out of curiosity, what part of the store did you find them in? I’ve never seen flannel pants in a store that weren’t meant to be pajamas, and they’ve always been over with night gowns, sleep shirts, and other pajama options…
People wandering around in pajamas happens more often than I’d like (see also: why does “this” bug you?). I finally got out of the house to pick up a paper Sunday after two in the afternoon, and ran into a pajama wearer. She reeked of pot, so now I’m wondering how much of an overlap there is between doing things to impair your judgment and deciding not to bother dressing before leaving the house.
That’s interesting about highschool girls wearing them to school. I think our HS bans the practice in the dress code, but neither of my girls seemed to want to do it, nor does my neice now. They also never wore those horrid pants with some slogan on the ass, either.
Heh…I didn’t even think of that. My witnessing this trend for both men and women (oddly enough more girls and women and older men- rarely do I see a teenage boy in pajamas, although it does happen) is in the Kansas City area of Kansas as well as the St Louis metro area of MO and IL.
Anything with writing across the butt was/is banned in my house (again husband’s rule more than mine) and I think that is exponentially tackier than pajama bottoms.
I sleep in the nude so putting on pj’s to go to the store meant clean, fresh jammies and not clothes that had been slept in previously. And as far as appearance went I really didn’t care one way or the other what people at Wal-Mart thought I looked like and I find jammies to be the most comfortable clothing in the world so I never thought twice about it. Going to class, work, or anyplace other than Wal-Mart always meant jeans or slacks of some kind but Wal-Mart just never ranked high enough on the chain for me to put on real pants. In my world jammies=lounge wear, so the way other people feel about sweat pants is how I feel about jammies.
And the jammies at Wal-Mart era for me was in a very small town in East Texas that no one has ever heard of before.
Mitzekatze, whenever I think about sweats with words across the bottom, I think of Joy from “My Name is Earl” spray-painting a “JUICY” stencil on her cheap, plain sweats.
I’ll wear my pj bottoms to go to a drive thru but would never, ever go into a store in them. I would (and do) wear them to get the mail, which is located at the end of my drive and across the street. (I live in a fairly rural area.)
I’ll go downstairs to check my mail in my jammies and slippers. If I’m going any further than that (including the dumpster in the middle of our parking lot), I put on real clothes. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone at my local grocery store in jammies, though now that it’s mentioned, that’s probably all I’ll notice next time I run to the store.
Indiana here, and it is very common. I think it looks ridiculous. I do think there is a difference between sweat pants and pajamas, though- sweat pants or yoga pants at least have a little construction, and in fact some people can get away with wearing a normal top and it looks like they actually put in a little effort. In other words, I think sweat pants are at least marginally “real clothes” while pajamas are… well… pajamas. I think people around here do it more for fashion than for laziness, but when I see a girls in my college classes wearing pants with rainbows and unicorns on them, it looks downright dumb to me.
I know a grown man, in his 40s, who I have never seen wear anything but a hockey jersey and pajama pants. He has several of each so he at least changes them… but it is the silliest thing ever. He even wears them to work.
*though I suppose I should add to what I said earlier: what I wear for pajamas is one of a variety of band t-shirts, + hippie drawstring pants or a pair of Indian style drawstring pants, not actually anything sold as “pajamas” at all.
