The great sweats debate

Recently a friend of mine went out to lunch with one of her male co-workers, and they saw a woman in the parking lot wearing sweatpants. “Oh, that’s sad,” said the co-worker. “She’s in sweats. She’s given up.” To which my friend replied, “Hey, what do you mean? I wear sweats out on the weekend.” And her other female co-worker chimed in agreeing with her. This apparently completely shocked their male co-worker, who was just appalled by all this sweats wearing. Now, he is a gay guy, so I’m not sure if his opinion of what women are wearing will really matter to sweat-pants-wearing-women, since he’s not really their target market if they’re looking to attract a guy. On the other hand, plenty of gay men are considered fashion experts, so perhaps this is valuable insight.

When she was telling me the story, my friend said, “You wear sweats out in public, don’t you?” and I had to confess that in fact, I do not. I own a couple of sweatshirts, which I wear to walk Seamus sometimes, but that’s it. I’ve only ever even owned one pair of sweatpants, which I think had to have for PE in middle school (what is with me and the middle school PE tie-ins this week?) Of course, as soon as I admitted that casual wear for me means jeans, she immediately said, “Oh, right, because of your mom.” Everyone reading that who has ever met my mom just nodded and muttered “yep, because of her mom.” My mom is very proper. She never goes out of the house looking less than perfect. She never, ever, wears sweat pants. It is only recently that she’s bought a pair of jeans, and those are a wild departure for her. She is St. John knits and cashmere, not sweatpants. I spent years rebelling against whatever she wanted me to wear, but it was more that I didn’t want anything peach colored or floral, not that I wanted to dress down. Perhaps sweatpants weren’t goth enough. Whatever the reason, I never wore them, and I’m not in the habit now.

That does not mean I think there’s anything wrong with people wearing sweatpants out to do stuff other than exercise. I’m sure they are comfortable, and probably the right weight to wear in the fall. I say if people want to wear them to run errands or whatever, they should. I don’t think it means they’ve given up. It just means they don’t spend every second of their life focused on looking perfect and trying to attract members of the opposite sex. Help us settle this one, Internet. What do you think? Are sweats just comfy clothes, or a sign of defeat? Oh, and to throw you a little curve ball, what about those fancy velour-type sweat suits. They’re fancier…but are they fancy enough?