Whe doesn’t own jogging pants has lost control of his life. Or so. Of course that’s nonsense, just like the other quote that I don’t remember exactly anymore, but it was probably said by a famous and very clever fashion person who didn’t think much of undiscipline and probably didn’t think much of coziness either.
The pants just mentioned are actually the most practical pants, the most comfortable pants of all and the pants that don’t make the wearer lose control at all, but on the contrary to people with whom you can relax and enjoy spending time.
Now jogging pants – after all the terribly tough Lagerfeld reservations of the past few years – have fallen into disrepute again: at a school in the style metropolis Wermelskirchen there is a ban on jogging pants. Despite criticism from students, parents and the media, the school stuck to it for the time being: they wanted to encourage the students to “wear clothes that do not tempt them to ‘chill’,” they said. When the German Etiquette Society got involved (yes, they exist, and yes, we had all forgotten that), the theater was big.
The freer a society, the freer fashion
The jogging pants and the uninhibited wearing are not a sign of disinhibition but of freedom: the freer a society, the freer the fashion – in unfree places people tend to wear uniforms. It is not for nothing that suits are sometimes referred to as business uniforms, because such dress codes restrict us, not only because they are uncomfortable and impractical, but because they inhibit our creativity, our expression.
New biography about designers
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When Lagerfeld was still wearing shorts
Bild: Foto Archiv Gordian Tork
Don’t get me wrong: It’s wonderful to dress up, especially for special occasions, and a well-fitting suit or a flowing evening dress can be a lot of fun.
Alone, jogging pants are not the end of good taste, they are the beginning. We are long past the time when certain items of clothing were only intended for people of one sex, when some colors did not work and even elbows and knees had to be covered.
But there are always forces that want to make us unfree. Those who claim to hold on to tradition and good style, but actually just cling to a long-outdated system of values. Behind it is the fear of change, a need for control and maybe also envy of everyone who is free in these pants, which can be put on and taken off quickly, which are just as suitable for sports as for a fashion show – whether Gucci or Balenciaga, the big brands have adjusted to the new casualness anyway. And that jogging pants, as the German Etiquette Society claims, cannot be assigned a valuable task is nonsense: what is not valuable about sport?
In a way, the rise of sweatpants is a parable of our social change over the past few decades: they are genderless, cheap (or sometimes Gucci expensive) and yet do not make us the same. She sets us free.