This subject was alluded to in another thread as being controversial around here, but somehow I have missed seeing any threads where we’ve ever discussed it. No, I don’t need a link. We’ve rehashed controversial subjects around here since before time, so let’s discuss.
I say no sweatpants in public. Unless you are extremely ill with something that precludes you from putting real pants on and you wear them to the hospital. I could possibly concede that it’s okay to wear them to the corner convenience store, like just to get the paper, but only if there’s no line and you have exact change, and you run the whole time, flinging the money at the cashier as you dash back to the car, hiding your face in shame the whole time.
One time I had a date come to pick me up to go to dinner wearing sweatpants. He lived in Phoenix and said something had happened to his other pants and that’s all he had. What, you couldn’t go to freaking Walmart and buy a 20 dollar pair of pants? I went, but I didn’t have fun, and I didn’t see him again. Sheesh- sweatpants out to dinner.
Sweatpants are not attractive on anyone, unless maybe you’re 20 and have a juicy behind, and are wearing those sweatpants that announce it, but even that’s iffy. It just looks like you don’t give a crap what you look like or how you present yourself. It’s like not brushing your hair and going out with bedhead, which is something I see all the time. Sweatpants are for the comfort of your home. Only.
I’m not sure. On me… a 50 something, overweight mom… Not so much. I look like I’m probably, actually, sweating in them. I’ve seen some young women who look really cute in “work out” clothes.
I’m assuming we are making a distinction between sweats and “jogging suits” which are comfortable pants with matching jacket which I would wear to the grocery store.
Then again, I’ve been known to drop the kids at school in my pajamas and long denim duster coat and then stop, on the way home, at the corner store for smokes and coffee.
The question is, what kind of sweatpants? Five dollar Jerzees in bright green? Only if you’re home sick with the flu. There are so many variations I can’t give a definitive answer. Who the hell dresses up to go to Walmart?
While I wholeheartedly agree with this rule, I’m subject to breaking it. Some days I’m in the “don’t give a fuck” camp when it comes to how I look at the corner store.
I’m in the ‘home or at the gym’ camp, at least at my age. Pants that I wear in public have zippers or at least buttons and only one of me is supposed to fit inside of them. A year or so my mom gave me a purple ‘jogging’ suit that I was supposed to wear in public but it’s never left the property and I never wear both pieces at once. There’s no such thing as a corner store where I live and it takes just as long to put on sweats as it does real pants if I’m going to drive into town.
Goodness. What do I care what people I don’t know wear to the corner store? Don’t I have better things to worry about?
Unless your clothing is touching me or making noise or something, I don’t really care. If I cared so much about aesthetics, the lurid red and green of 7-11, and those nasty looking taquitos, would be the first thing to go. Then maybe I’d start thinking about the dressing habits of strangers briefly glimpsed in a public place.
I’ll wear whatever the fuck I want to wear, thank you very much, and if any maiden aunts faint at the sight of me in dingy college shorts, that’s their problem.
And as ever, it took fewer than ten posts for the oh-so-enlightened “I’m too deep to care about appearances” folks to get their dingy panties bunched up.
Hey, if you don’t give a fuck, good on you. Just don’t be surprised when people’s reaction to “I don’t give a fuck” is less than positive.
Hey, I’m all for looking sharp when I go out and about. I work at home, so I’ll often wear the same mismatched but comfy clothes for days. But when I go out, I’ll usually put on “real” clothes.
Ditto for “occasions.” Going out to dinner, going to a movie or concert, meeting up with other people, work, school, weddings, funerals – by all means I expect people to wear decent attire.
However, if somebody else wants to run their errands in sweats, it’s fine by me. What business is it of mine? And WTF do you care what other people are wearing at the grocery store?
I had a roommate once who would change out of her clean, matching sweatpants and sweatshirt into jeans, T-shirt, and shoes to go get the mail – at the indoor mailboxes ten feet down the hall from our door. PLEASE.
I’m one of those who do care about appearances. I hate it when people show up at events dressed too casually or sloppily, and I’m usually a bit overdressed for everyday occasions when I’m away from home. But I don’t think people should have to worry about being a fashion plate when they’re running personal errands.
I think that most of the responses are about what people themselves would wear in public and not about what anyone else should do. I couldn’t care less if someone else wants to walk around in a garbage bag. I’m not sure why people are taking it personally.
And I don’t care when other people wear sweats to the grocery store. Seriously, it’s nothing to me.
I just can’t imagine *myself *ever feeling as though it’s not worth the truly minute effort of making myself presentable. Maybe it’s just that my experience is that I’m always running into people I know (or people I might like to know!), and why would I not take three extra minutes to be cute, just in case?
You make it sound like they’re indecent. Nonsense. Bathrobes, pajamas, and underwear-only are for the comfort of your home. Sweats are fine and dandy for when you’re out in public doing something completely nonformal and/or moderately athletic: jogging, playing softball, doing yardwork.
There’s “leaving the house in sweats” and then there’s “going out in sweats”. Subtle difference.
Leaving the house to get your mail, to walk your dog, to go for a run - acceptable sweatpants situations.
Going out to places where you will be interacting with people, like at the store, or to class, or the restaurant or the kid’s preschool - unacceptable sweatpants situations, IMO.
If you’re sick. or injured, or having a day where you hate yourself and everything and would rather hide under the bed and cry all day but you can’t because you need to go buy cat food for Ms Fluffybutt, then exceptions can be made.
I guess that in my mind, sweats are in the same category as pj’s. I wouldn’t wear them out unless I had no other choice, because they’re not really clothes. I’d feel undressed and embarrassed if I ran into anybody I knew.
Ditto. These are my rules for myself…not for anyone else. Though I may think “Jeeeez…I could never do that” when I see someone wearing bunny slippers and her husband’s pajama bottoms at the local Sunday breakfast joint.
I live in L.A., where pajama-like athletic wear is ubiquitous on women 16-40. Interesting detail, though, these casually-dressed women always have their makeup fully done.
I myself wear loose athletic wear to bed. Some weekends, I could just get up, put on a bra, and walk out the door and nobody would turn their head at Trader Joe’s, because that’s how everybody else is dressed. I just can’t make myself do it, though.
