Aisling O'Connor: Why wearing your jim-jams in public is more than just inner-city chic
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FIRST it was considered a bizarre fad, then a phenomenon, now it’s a trend. There is no panic on the streets. Quite the opposite in fact – people are wearing their pyjamas in public.
“Pyjamas are not regarded as appropriate attire when attending Community Welfare Service at these offices”, said a letterhead from a Dublin social welfare office in recent weeks.
Adding to this a string of businesses in Dublin city, including convenience stores and high street fashion shops in the O’Connell street area, imposing similar requests on their patrons, one thinks - why is the establishment quivering in its sensible brogues at the sight of unstructured brushed cotton?
Public pyjama wearing has been observed in the inner city of the capital for five or six years. Local residents of Dublin’s Summerhill comment that the predominant wearers are women in late teens to early 40s. For the most part they can be seen in their coat, pyjama bottoms and trainers - popping to the shop for a paper or coffee, or dropping the kids to school.
The rise of loungewear had a public backlash before this recent crack down. In the past couple of years there have been reports of UK schools and supermarkets banning pyjama-wearing, for fear of offending other customers and school-goers.
We Europeans are not alone in observing what has been dubbed by the Washington Post as ‘Couch Couture’? Certainly not. Both The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post have reported on a newfound relaxed attitude to dressing among school-age teenagers in the U.S.
As bizarre as it may seem, a trend perpetuated by unemployed Dubliners, is replicated in middle class American schools. In response to teens showing up to class in loose, soft pyjama pants; high schools in Florida and Vermont have written clauses into their dress codes banning these garments by name. Florida’s Broward County’s code of conduct dictates: ‘Garments including, but not limited to, pajamas, boxer shorts, bloomers, and bustiers, which were traditionally designed as undergarments, sleepwear or beachwear, may not be worn as outer garments."
So what’s the big issue? Understandably school principles argue that a student who sits at her desk in her pyjamas may be too comfortable to stay awake. Louisiana pastor, Michael Williams has called for legislation outlawing pyjamas in public. He claims, “The moral fiber of our community is dwindling…because it’s pajama pants today, next it will be underwear tomorrow”. Has this person been living in a cave? He must have seen Lady Gaga or at least Madonna in his time.
The thought that pyjama wearing is representative of a breakdown of proper society does hold weight. Western cultures are in a long-term recession and in a time of public depression and high unemployment, it really isn’t surprising people are choosing not to get dressed to go down to buy milk. To cope with the psychological hit of living in an economy in a severe down turn, are we changing from a culture of comfort eaters to comfort dressers?
Fashion seems to think the pyjama trend is just fabulous. Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 runways were littered with sleepwear for outerwear. The style commentariat see a person in silk pyjamas, not as a one in perpetual depression but one in a perpetual state of post-coitus, à la Hugh Hefner.
Celebrities are all over this fit of fashion whimsy. Oscar-winning writer and director Sophia Coppola was photographed on the street in Louis Vuitton blue leopard print pyjamas, while top U.S. designer Rachel Roy hit a New York movie premiere red carpet in her own brand’s silk pyjamas and a pair of heels. Rachel told the New York Post that, “Silk pyjamas are so chic and unexpected”. She’s right – it brings a new perspective to the idea of ‘effortless chic’.
Maybe it’s our own fault. The past ten years have seen business-casual become the norm, with companies like Google dictating a ‘no suits’ dress code in the work place. The increase in numbers of people working from home would indicate a shift away from traditionally formal public dressing on the whole.
How we dress is perpetually changing - the last century saw women’s rejection of the corset in the 1920s, a long goodbye to men in hats in the 1960s and 1970s and the rise of jeans as the ultimate wardrobe staple.
So whether this is a trend that will come and go, or if the public pyjama party is pulling the thread of society’s humility, it is really up to you whether you put your pants on one leg at a time in the morning or just stay in what you wore to bed.
The New York Times reported in 1929, that upon his arrest for walking the streets in his pyjamas, barber Samuel Nelson said to his arresting officer, ‘Neither you or I are censors of modern fashion’.
Maybe you and I cannot dictate what others wear but unfortunately for some, if they want to collect their welfare they’ll have to say goodbye to the relaxed waist and re-embrace the zip, the button and the five-pocket classic.
Aisling tweets @ashinyoconnor
