Sweatpants Forever

 

 

As it happened, it was the giants who would fall first. Over the next few months, J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, Brooks Brothers and J.C. Penney filed for bankruptcy. Gap Inc. couldn’t pay rent on its 2,785 North American stores. By July, Diane von Furstenberg announced she would lay off 300 employees and close 18 of her 19 stores. The impending damage to small businesses was inconceivable.

Well. I do buy from designer labels. I was all right with dressing up and subscribed to the notion of 'see and be seen'. Then I completely lost interest in it. Yeah, I can buy it, then what? Be photographed in it? Naaaah. The annual budget for renewing the wardrobe is better spent on wheelchairs for my old folks. Acquiring the season's bags, shoes and clothes didn't give me joy. Why enrich companies whose shares I don't own? (On that note, thanks Lululemon. I got a tidy sum from your shares.) I never really had to think very much about money. That's a privilege, not judiciousness or simply being sensible. Prudence comes with age. Money can buy happiness (for myself) if I choose to spend it wisely on experiences to build memories.  

The point is, I read an article written by Irina Aleksander. She wrote about the collapse of many big brand names in the fashion world in ‘Sweatpants Forever: How the Fashion Industry Collapsed’ published in The New York Times on August 6, 2020. It's a great summary of what's been happening around the world to big names in fashion and the entire line of dominoes falling. 

Irina Aleksander began the article with fashion designer Scott Sternberg’s career milestones and his subsequent shifts within the fashion industry from making slim fit ties (he founded a previous success known as ‘Band of Outsiders’ and left it in 2015) to his current surprising hit of sweatpants on Entireworld, which began in 2018. He didn't fancy the traditional model of high fashion and the runway. However, Entireworld would need to restructure its product line in order to be profitable and pay its factories. Ironically, the boom of selling sweatpants to consumers in this pandemic only extended its lifespan for a few more months. It would still face imminent closure once consumers are bored, and he doesn't get funding from willing investors.

In April, clothing sales fell 79 percent in the United States, the largest dive on record. Purchases of sweatpants, though, were up 80 percent. Entireworld was like the rare life form that survives the apocalypse. By betting that the luxury market would fail, Sternberg had evaded the very forces that were bringing down the rest of the industry. “Because you could see the writing on the wall,” he said. “The Neimans writing on the wall, the Barneys. ... Listen, Barneys? That was not a shock to anyone.”

I've also been mainly living in sports wear. We’ve all been living in sports wear. Oof! Athleisure is all new and hip again because it’s so damn hot, and what else do we wear at home all day? Our athleisure wardrobe is already formidable because of our exercise schedule. With the addition of the dog, we added more items since we largely spend loads of time outdoors. Even the man owns a number of sweatpants from Public Rec and Lululemon. 

I'm cool with sweatshirts. I used to wear those sweats of ice-hockey teams all the time. Hahaha. I'm less interested in sweatpants because they make my butt look like juicy dumplings. Dunwan. So I look to Lululemon, who has done a clever take on traditional sweatpants. They call them 'joggers' and 'dance studio crop'. Wonderful. The designers are fabulous. I can live in tights/leggings for half a day. Then it gets a bit too fitting. Joggers are different — I can live in them all day, every day. The 7/8 cut is perfect for my 1.61m frame.

For many years now, I've been paring down the wardrobe to bare essentials. I keep only those clothes which are pleasing and comfortable to me, fashion be damned. I probably never need to buy another bag with a four-digit price tag ever again. I've never been very interested in anything to do with bags, clothes or make-up. I don't even particularly bother about skincare.

I don't know what this means for designer brands and their boutiques in Singapore. I only know that this would be good for Singapore because it would force us to re-think our love with designer brands, materialism and consumer trends. It would hopefully shift the type of shops that line Orchard Road. Those rents are insane. We cannot keep up this bubble. Recession is here. Perhaps it would give us a stronger sense of support for Singapore designers and labels, and encourage greater creativity to create wearable designs.