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Subscribe to RSSAhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Nothing quite says, “I’m in relaxation mode!” like a pair of pajama bottoms. And if you look around carefully -- or even hastily -- you’ll notice that growing numbers of your fellow countrymen and women are broadcasting their relaxed vibe all day long.
People are wearing pajama bottoms to the grocery store. To the movies. On flights. Even on the red carpet. Our infatuation with elastic waistbands and stretchy, forgiving fabrics is fast becoming a full-blown love affair -- and it’s being attributed, in part, to our recession-induced “cocooning” habits.
We’re staying home more often in the evenings, eating in more, watching movies at home, playing video games at home. More of us are even working from home. With that much at-home time on the agenda, why not be comfortable?
OK, that makes sense. But should we stay comfortable no matter where we roam? Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst for the market research firm NPD Group, describes what’s happening as “the casualization of America.”
“This has reached epidemic proportions,” said Cohen, who studies clothing and apparel trends. “You used to see someone wearing pajamas in the grocery store and you’d feel bad for them because you’d think they’ve been sick for two weeks and are just now getting out of the house. But no, that’s not true.”
Cohen teaches classes at three universities, and he said it’s common for students on all three campuses to show up for class wearing pajama bottoms with short- or long-sleeved T-shirts or hoodie sweatshirts.
Cohen noted that pajama sales are definitely on the rise in the United States, but the numbers can be tricky to track because of the way PJs are being bought and sold.
Forget stuffy, striped, formal-looking sets. These days, pajama bottoms are sold separately for both men and women and are often paired with T-shirts. (Do the T-shirts have to be bought at the same time, or do they even have to match? Heck, no.)
As for the pants themselves, they get described in all sorts of ways by consumers (and retailers): casual pants; dorm pants; lounge pants; loungers; track pants; pajama pants. Some have patterns; some don’t. Most have this in common: They have drawstrings, they’re soft and comfortable enough to sleep in, and they’re selling like crazy.
“Before this, pajamas were really a Christmas item,” said Joseph Goldstein, chief executive officer of the retail inventory evaluation firm R.I.D. Corp. “They sold for six weeks before Christmas as a gift, but any other time of the year it was basically a dead item. Now you have an item that people buy for themselves ... and nightwear is a more thriving business. It’s a 12-month business that used to be a six-week business.”
Well, comfort seekers, if you want to pretend, at least, that you’re not wearing pajamas to the grocery store, you can always give these Pajama Jeans a try.
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Friend sent a picture while standing in the unemploment line. Woman dressed in her freakin PJ's waiting for her 90th+ unemployment check. No attempt to dress as if she was serious about a potential job interview. Just goes and gets her government handout, returns home and watches soaps all day.
Can I just say - wearing PJ's out in public is really absurd. It's bad enough people don't know how to dress but now they are wearing PJ's? Perhaps we are all becoming like the People of WalMart where anything goes. I mean - really?
Maybe if you dressed a little more comfortably you wouldn't be so uptight.
Why is it that we have to subscribe to a certain way of dressing? If I am not mistaken, being clothed is all that is required of us. A sheet draped around us covers the requirements.
Two things about this story and the comments. 1. I see this once in a while, I don't get why the author calls it an epidemic. 2. Why are so many of you so vain?
Before it was PJ bottoms everyone was wearing sweatpants. When it comes right down to it PJ bottoms are usually more fashionable than sweatpants and once again, who cares.
It is also amazing that we can't stop stereotyping. "People of Walmart"? What exactly is a person of Walmart and why would anyone dress fashionably to go shopping? Hell, if you are going clothe shopping wouldn't it be much easier to change in the fitting rooms if wearing PJ's?
When you are all dressed up in your fancy clothes running to the local convenient store do you really think I care? Do you know what a convenient store is?
I see the underwear my girlfriend buys and it confuses me. She gets really fancy and stylish underwear that nobody will see. What is the point in getting fancy frilly underwear that you are going to drape other clothes on top of? The fashion world has programmed women into spending outrageous amounts of money on less and less fabric. Get a pair of bloomers for 3.99 or a thong for 24.99.
The holier than though will follow suit as soon as someone famous gets into this trend. See someone march down the red carpet in a pair of Transformer PJ bottoms and all the fashion world will be trying to out do themselves in the PJ bottom world.
Take your high class BS and shove it. Style trickles down from the rich. I guess the poor aren't qualified to decide what is fine to wear. I dress professionally for my job because that is what is required of me. As soon as I walk in the door of my home I will be in PJ bottoms and a T-shirt because I don't want to spend my free time feeling like I am dressed for work.
I don't do it personally but I feel it is acceptable to wear pretty much whatever you want if you are shopping, banking, going to church, picking up or dropping off the kids from anywhere....basically anything that doesn't specifically require you to dress up. Don't wear them to a formal wedding.
Clothing will not be the downfall of America. Loosening up our high and mighty standards might be just what we need.
Browns Backer...so by your logic I should be able to walk into any public place wearing a tee shirt and a pair of nut-hugging manties.
If one is willing to settle for a piss-poor, half-assed, lowest common denominator standard, don't be surprised when everything around is nothing but piss-poor and half-assed best.
Tired_of_Extremists
The so called "slobs" don't care what you think.......even someone with as much class as yourself should pick up on that.
But then you probably care more that there is someone from your job that got laid off recently and you could invite over for dinner ( heck maybe you even had them over before they lost that job ), or you care about the folks living paycheck to paycheck just holding on enough to keep the house they bought before the crap hit the fan.
Or about that woman you watched pick through the trash to get something to eat or a can to recycle for a little cash. Because you have enough class to care about how you look before you go out of the house.
Feel blessed you have such things as a house to go out of and decent clothes to wear and stop judging others.... judgement was never a job for man.
Brown Backer.... Personally I found your statement an interesting read. As I sit here typing at my computer I am wearing my "ginger monkey" traditional styled P.J,'s. They are flannel and soft and matched with a white undershirt below the jacket styled top I could actually open my door to neighborhood children or a delivery man and not feel naked and exposed.
Having said that, there is no way I would leave my home to go to the store or even drive my children to school wearing my pajama's. Not even my cute ones, my favs are my "Paul Frank" skeleton monkey PJ Pants with a matching t.
My reasoning...When I leave my home I wish to be freshly showered, combed and taken seriously. I couldn't very well be considered with care if I look like I have just rolled out of bed and taken no personal care. Why should anyone I don't know assign me any personal dignity if I don't choose to express myself that way? If I have no regard for how I present to the outside instead go to the mall looking like a slob is someone going to choose to treat me like a slob? Well probably.
So as a personal rule when I leave my front door or garage I tend to make it a personal commitment to dress for the purpose. If I am going shopping I will dress in a manner that will reflect me as a consumer. If I am going to the school to volunteer I will dress to the standards of the teachers. If I am going to take care of personal business at a bank, City Hall or professional office I will dress to attend to business. If I am going to the ball park to watch my kids game I will go in jeans or sweats (yoga pants).
Yes there have been exceptions in my life (as above monstrously pregnant with twins I admit to borrowing clothes from my darling dear one if I had to leave the house but there comes a point in pregnancy where people just do accept the circumstance.) I recently had surgery on my left arm and found zippers, button and snaps were out short term so I did go out to the grocery a time or two in my yoga pants and did not feel content with this even as a short term necessity. The only place I actually went in my PJ's was to the Surgery center to have the procedure done because well I knew I would want my darling dear one to drive me directly home and pour me into bed as I got over the affects of the anesthetic.
Where appearances can be deceiving they can also express a a standard by which people wish to be perceived.
Browns Backer has a point and there's a difference between running to store in PJs and going to work or a formal event in PJs.
So do you really care if the cashier at the grocery store assigns you personal dignity? By that elitist attitude do you happen to assign that very same cashier personal dignity for only being a grocery store cashier? America is full of completely non-justified elitists. For all those that are posting about how classless and slob like wearing PJs out in public is, I'm sorry for dropping this bomb on you but your eagerness to prematurely judge people based on their appearance and looks pretty much makes you classless. People should be judged and defined by their character and not by the pants they wear.
What's really funny is the response people have to "classifications." I'm reminded of an old Archie comic. Betty and Veronica go to the beach. Betty borrows a swimsuit from Veronica. While on the beach Betty thanks Veronica for letting her borrow the terrific swimsuit. Veronica responds, "that's not my swimsuit, that's my underwear." And Betty gets all embarrassed. Swimsuit, underwear, PJs....? What's the difference? One reason for wearing them is society's aversion to the human body. If it covers up what society says must be covered up, then who cares? You want to "look great?" Go for it! You want to be casual, go for it! Weather permitting, I'd rather not wear anything! Why can't I go for it?
Good, point, witch... It's curious that ladies' underwear (which one doesn't wear in public usually) is typically more modest and covering than many bikini styles (which are meant for public consumption). At a purely functional level, clothes cover our "naughty bits" and protect us from the elements. But of course, a whole layer of social expectations and etiquette covers the way we dress... which, I suppose, is the whole reason why we're having this discussion.
Great points by both of you.
Here is what really gets my goat, when did it become perfectly acceptable to wear a hat indoors? I would rather see you in PJ's without a hat on than wearing anything else while keeping your hat on. This was a rule that used to be followed by all classes of people.
Loosen up, folks. think of them as a different style pant. In the early 70s, everyone dressed sunday-best to take a flite. Now its all jeans and grubs. women wore dresses and skirts to the office -- now, you are in a definite minority if you do that -- it's all jeans and slacks. At least pjs don't look like something out of a porn movie like a lot of high school students dress on campus now. Maybe with pjs we won't have to refrain from pulling off the guy's pants who is standing in front of us because his belt waist is BELOW his buns. (How do they keep them up, anyway?) As long as nobody gets hurt, does it really matter if people wear pjs?
Dressing nicely says "I think enough of this activity to put some effort into it." Wearing your PJs says "I don't care about this at all. This is what I wear when the room is dark and nobody sees me."
So dressing equates to effort? I dress up to go to a wedding. I don't really care what anyone thinks of my look at the grocery store and I have to put effort into shopping, not how I look while I do it.
These aren't people walking into five start restaurants or Broadway shows, it is the casual crowd doing casual things.
Man I hate the fashion police. What you think looks good probably looks like crap to me so what is your point? The way you dress is a refection of your style and PJ's tell me you have a very casual style and nothing more.
If PJ's were meant to be worn in a dark room why would anyone bother purchasing a pattern?
I do not really care if someone wears Pajamas or not while they are out. I personally do not go out like that to each their own, but when I read this article I was thinking of the type that do not shower wearing PJ's with a stained white T-shirt that is too small to cover the spare tire and greasy hair. Pajamas no problem- bad hygiene = disgusting.
Exactly. How much should someone care about running to grocery store or any other errands?
The history of dress (at least in the US) is one of embracing ever more casual styles. For instance, where I work, it's typical for even senior staff to wear jeans, polo shirts and sneakers, and for women to wear flip-flops. Neckties are a rare sight anymore, and the concept of "casual Friday" seems quaint. When I first entered the workforce, if you had shown up at the office dressed they way we dress today, you would have been sent home. By contrast, my parents' generation (WWII) always thought of "dungarees" as something only farmers wore, and t-shirts strictly as "undershirts".
Yesterday's casual wear is tomorrow's formal wear, in part because we value comfort, functionality and practicality in our clothes. When the modern business suit was introduced in the early 20th century, many considered it "too casual" for business. And the tuxedo -- today's gold standard of men's formal wear -- was created as a casual alternative to the suits of the day. Similarly, workwear, beachwear, outdoor wear and athletic wear are now worn in all sorts of situations... so it's hardly surprising that sleepwear is following suit.
Couldn't have said it better myself. As my other comments will attest. :-)
Idiocracy! Soon the president will be dawning his or her PJs around the Oval Office. Wouldn't surprise me to see this in 20 years.
Do you mean "donning"?
And so far, I haven't seen any American president dressing casually when conducting formal business. Yet it's refreshing to see Mr. Obama (and his predecessors) wearing more appropriate, casual clothes when in casual situations.
Be thankful that our elected representatives don't go around in the ridiculously ornate and expensive gowns and crowns that the British royalty do. Why do Brits put up with this antiquated system of bestowing special status and wealth on those who are merely born to a previous king or queen?
Yes, thank you.
I'm glad to see presidents wearing casual clothing as well, but what are they going to be wearing in 20 or 30 years? Like I said, I wouldn't be surprised if we see some wacky outfits.
I'm not sure why the Brits put up with royalty at all!
I can't believe the number of people I see out shopping in pajama's and slippers looking like they just crawled out of bed (bed-head and all). Society today celebrates ignorance & de-civilization. Bad behaviour, bad manners, ignorance. For crying out loud, last week I read an article about how "correct" it is not do not shower, wash your hair or use deoderant (natural odor is fantastic!).
Ever been to Europe Jeff?
The key to your first comment, they are out shopping, who the hell cares what they look like when they shop. Are they supposed to be out to impress you?
To each his own. I think if folks want to wear PJ's to the store, so what? Frankly, I am not sure why this is even newsworthy but I find the indignant comments humerous really.
This is something that I have noticed for the last several years in America; the general tendency people have to show up in public with no regard at all to their personal appearance. I have been to wakes where people attended dressed in shorts and flip flop... WAKES! It is simply the increasing laziness of this population. People cant take the the 2 minutes required to change from pajamas into a pair of slacks or run a comb throught their hair. I have stopped going to nice restaurants; tired of paying $100 for a meal while looking at the guy in a baseball cap and sweat pants across from me. Very few people seem to have pride in themselves anymore. Its a shame.
Well TJ, good to hear that you can afford a 100.00 meal.
As for dressing up for a wake, what's the point? The guest of honor isn't going to notice either way.
When one of my biker friends died, how do you think most of the people looked that showed up for his wake?
I love the classless upper class, they say the funniest things.
Browns Backer
Bravo well said!!!!!!!
I need not add anything HAHAHAHAHA
Elementary and middle school kids wear them to school each day...I'm sorry: I think that families are setting kids up for failure. If kids don't dress up for their job: which is to be a student, how can we expect them to dress appropriately for their adult career?
nothing quite says" i'll go back to bed for sex" like pajamas. kinda like pants too low, visable cleavage, an exposed thong, grabbing the groin....
What's the big deal? Let's face it.... 10pm, i'm getting ready for bed and the kid wakes up sick.... I'm not getting all dolled up to go 1 mile down the road to the drug store. I go in my PJs!! Absoutely, no appologizes. 9PM (OH Explitive!) I forgot I need gas and i have to go into work early tomorrow.... Off to the gas station in the PJs it is. I'm lucky enough to work in a place that has no dress code (because we have to change into scrubs to do our jobs) so half of my employees come to work in their PJs. Their mentality is... "I have to put on scrubs when I come to work anyway; I have to shower before I leave then I'm going home. Why bother with unnecessary laundry. Come to work in Pjs; put on scrubs; shower at the end of the day, put back on Pjs and back home and you're ready for bed! :) And why not?! What my employees wear to work has no bearing on their ability to perform their jobs.
Well, that depends on the nature of the job. Birdie Girl, it sounds like you work in some kind of a healthcare environment, in which case wearing scrubs is totally appropriate and an expectation. Likewise, I work with computers, and computers don't care how I'm dressed. However, in retail or some other field where appearances matter, it's important to look the part. That might mean wearing a business suit or some type of uniform. In these cases, appearance is a part of the job. It's all a matter of form following function...
I have no idea who thought this was ok to begin with. I have more respect for myself and fellow shoppers than to show up to the local store without getting dressed first. I wont even go out the door in sweats unless I am going to physically exercise. I think the line needs to be drawn there. I belive in having an open mind, but not so far open my brains fall out.
Tired - I believe you just summed that up beautifully.
This article is about 10 years too late.
Since I sleep naked, do not think I can wear that out.... scary....:)
Further my nasty old bathrobe is not much better.
Why stop at wearing pajamas? Just wear the sheets. Oh, that's right, Al-Quida already does that.
Hey, sheets were good enough for Gandhi...
I remember when my mom & other women of her generation dressed up for everything. Heck, my grandmother lived on a farm, she wore jeans while working outside doing chores, but as soon as she came into the house, she washed up & changed into a house dress. We have a neighbor who wouldn't think of going anywhere without being impeccably groomed. I usually wear jeans and tee shirts, but would never think of going out in my pj's. If I am ready for bed and discover I have to run out, I put on some clothes!
It is a matter of self respect, and I guess that quite a few people are lacking...
People should never leave the house in pajamas! CCDJR is correct, its about self respect and it is about respect for where you are. PJ's outside of the home make you look like a slob and if you dress like a slob to go to class, you are telling the teacher your class is not important enough to me to get dressed for, or "I don't repsect your business establishment, (grocery store, movies, restaurant, etc...). Business try to make their establishments look nice so people want to shop there and if people look slovenly, people will less likely want to go there. It's just plain lazy and rude. I dont expect anyone to dress up for someone else, but I do think people should respect their outside communities enough to contribute to it by dressing appropriately.
What I also think is funny is people here are assuming if you are against going out in PJ's then we expect you to be "all dolled up". That's not the case. Just put on regular clothes, like jeans and a t-shirt. Just a comfy but you dont end up telling the world 'I am a slob who doesn't care how I present myself."
Also, I hope these people who are wearing their pj's out into the world are not crawling into bed with the same pj's. All kinds of germs and dirt get on your clothes and I would think people would not want that anywhere they consider a restful place. That's disgusting!
I care as much about how you're dressed as I care about your favorite celebrity.
Tell you another thing
HAHAHAHA LMAO
I was taught when you go out you get dressed. I have never worn lounge pants, pjs or any other item of clothing that could be mistaken for pjs when I go out. One reason is you never know who you may run into, the person next to you in line could be a potential new boss for your next job and you don't want to meet them wearing pjs.
I looks rather trashy to walk out in your pj's..many college students do this especially on Saturdays and it makes me wonder what they are thinking.
To me the USA just continues to get more lazy by the day. Now people don't even bother to get dressed or brush their hair before they go out of the house. I don't think it's really necessary to wear a 3pc suit to the grocery store but please at least get dressed.
Hmm...thinking of doing a test on this. Go to an upscale mall wearing pjs and a smile. See what kind of looks I get...lol.