Over the past 100 years, apparel has gone from the epitome of discomfort (corsets, trousers, etc.) to “¦ yoga pants.
One of the biggest growing trends is athleisure. Athleisure is the grotesque combination of athletic and leisure apparel.
While comfort is an important aspect in fashion, the recent domination of work-out clothing in our everyday lives begs the question: how far can we take this trend before the art of fashion is virtually obsolete?
Megan Hall | Rawr
Athleisure is the very trend that brought the world joggers, sweatpants that taper out and scrunch at the bottom, and has made it acceptable to wear athletic sneakers with a nice blouse out in public.
For whatever reason, these psuedo-sweatpants, which now come in fabrics like tweed and polyester, have been deemed appropriate to wear no matter where you go.
Although this trend dictates that joggers can be worn in any environment, there are many places where joggers and even sweatpants should always be unacceptable. Work, for example, is one of those places.
Where do we draw the line? How did we go from casual Fridays to yoga pants Mondays? At some point this trend is no longer driven by comfort, it”s driven by laziness.
There is absolutely no reason why anyone should wear what are essentially glorified sweatpants to a job that is outside of their own home, and yet there are joggers that are advertised as business wear.
Fashion is driven by the human desire for individuality. There is nothing new or unique about clothes you can work out in. While there may be some variation of design in athletic wear, at the end of the day it all looks very similar. There is very little room to add a personal touch to a hoodie and a pair of yoga pants. At some point we are all going to end up in identical tracksuits and hover chairs like the people in the movie “WALL-E.” We”re already killing the planet and eating too much junk food. This fashion trend is going to be the last straw.
Laziness and individuality are not the only issue that the athleisure trend presents. This trend poses a great threat to the fashion industry as a whole. As the market for athleisure increases, the demand for other styles of clothing decreases. Ultimately, if the trend continues there could be a serious structure change in the industry. This could eventually lead to job loss and business closures.
If you are reading this, please save yourself. You deserve more than a boring wardrobe and constantly having to be the person everyone goes to for workout advice.
Linzy Bonner can be reached at [email protected]