# "Their clothes looked like they had slept in them." How can you tell? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 5, 2025, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-clothes-looked-like-they-had-slept-in-them-how-can-you-tell/1017922 "2025-05-05T20:19:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-clothes-looked-like-they-had-slept-in-them-how-can-you-tell/1017922/21 "2025-05-06T13:46:18Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Not only disheveled and wrinkled but it makes me think of specific wrinkles. Like a long crease that implies you were laying in your rumpled shirt for a long while. This. There are wrinkles that imply a shirt has come out of the wash and not been sufficiently ironed. And there are wrinkles suggestive of normal wear. But, having, say, a long diagonal fold right across the front of a shirt or pants is a giveaway that you’ve laid down in those clothes and stayed in that position for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-clothes-looked-like-they-had-slept-in-them-how-can-you-tell/1017922/22 "2025-05-06T17:35:24Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > If it’s a Walk of Shame worth mentioning, you didn’t sleep in your clothes 😉 Thank you for saying that so much better than I would have. But I had the same thought as you did when **Beck** mentioned it. OTOH, for a really worthwhile Walk of Shame night prior, your clothes may have spent the night under the coffee table, flipped onto a lamp, slept on by someone’s pets, etc. So not exactly pristine even if you didn’t sleep in them. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-clothes-looked-like-they-had-slept-in-them-how-can-you-tell/1017922/23 "2025-05-06T17:42:51Z")
Pilgrims and pilgrimages are a thing today and apparently always have been. Before the Christian Camino route there was a Pagan Camino route of pilgrimage which was basically the same but continued to the coast. . It is common on the Camino de Santiago (way of St. James) to be automatically considered a pilgrim as opposed to a hiker, though both are possible and both are recognized. In Spain, it is common to treat a pilgrim as if they were Lord Jesus Himself, as they might be. So that pilgrimage is not only for the pilgrim theirself, but for those who live along ‘the way’. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-clothes-looked-like-they-had-slept-in-them-how-can-you-tell/1017922/24 "2025-05-06T19:50:16Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > The phrase presupposes the kind of clothes that normally should be pressed, or hanged overnight, and look neat when worn, but that now look excessively crumpled on you. My wife made me change my shirt for a funeral, saying I “just look rumpled…” “Have you never _met_ me? Turning any clothing ‘rumpled’ is my super power!” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-clothes-looked-like-they-had-slept-in-them-how-can-you-tell/1017922/25 "2025-05-06T23:17:33Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Pilgrims and pilgrimages are a thing today and apparently always have been. Before the Christian Camino route there was a Pagan Camino route of pilgrimage which was basically the same but continued to the coast. There’s a movie called The Way, about one of the pilgrims who walks the Camino Santiago. Along the way, he befriends a gypsy, who tells him that the real Way doesn’t end at the Iglesia, but at the coast. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-clothes-looked-like-they-had-slept-in-them-how-can-you-tell/1017922/26 "2025-05-06T23:51:22Z")
Does the guy have his Polo shirt on inside out and he doesn’t realize it? Does the woman have a little party dress on that looks like she had an accident in a sushi restaurant? They slept in their clothes, some of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-clothes-looked-like-they-had-slept-in-them-how-can-you-tell/1017922/27 "2025-05-07T01:33:12Z")
Great that we have two totally different conversations going on simultaneously. I’ll bet that Pilgrims on the Mayflower [really looked unkempt](https://www.history.com/articles/mayflower-journey-pilgrims-america) after sleeping in their clothes the whole voyage. > [@](#): > > The passengers practically slept on top of each other, with families erecting small wooden dividers and hanging curtains for a semblance of privacy. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-clothes-looked-like-they-had-slept-in-them-how-can-you-tell/1017922/28 "2025-05-07T10:37:21Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Along the way, he befriends a gypsy, who tells him that the real Way doesn’t end at the Iglesia, but at the coast. Yes I’ve done that. It is a beautiful and meaningful journey past Santiago to Fisterra and/or Muxia and much of the Catholic parts of the pilgrimage fade away and it shows its pagan heritage more. Fisterra means end (Fis) of earth/land (terra). The pre-Christian route would be a journey as far as one could walk towards the setting sun which was considered the end of the land and thus the end of the world. Where one would typically burn one’s clothes and swim in the sea of death which is a symbol of death and rebirth before watching the setting sun over the ocean at one of those 2 places (Muxia or Fisterra). ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-clothes-looked-like-they-had-slept-in-them-how-can-you-tell/1017922/29 "2025-05-07T13:55:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There’s a movie called The Way, about one of the pilgrims who walks the Camino Santiago. It also features prominently in David Lodge’s novel _Therapy_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-clothes-looked-like-they-had-slept-in-them-how-can-you-tell/1017922.md?page=1)