At the beginning of the stay-at-home orders in mid-March, I stopped getting ready. I wore the same pajamas from dawn to dusk for days on end and went nearly a fortnight without washing my hair. I stopped looking at Instagram, and I completed all work-related matters from the comfort of my unmade bed. When I tuned in to Zoom for our daily fashion meetings, I made sure to select the audio-only function.
Looking back, I needed it—at least temporarily. I was still reeling from the sensory overload of Fashion Month, which had just come to a close. I was exhausted from straining to sit at my desk in tight, high-waisted trousers and feverishly speed walking to the subway wearing itchy wool pencil skirts that restricted my stride to a six-inch range. So, when the opportunity presented itself to go into hermit mode, I took it as a welcomed detox.
Of course, things changed soon enough. Working from home began to feel like real life rather than an extended snow day so I eventually washed my hair, put on a pair of slouchy jeans and a big sweater. Now, after six weeks in self-isolation, that is still about as close as I’ve come to getting “dressed up.” I still like to put on earrings for the hell of it and use silk scarves to cover my bed head for Zoom calls (for which I now turn on the webcam).
Still the thought of wriggling into a restricting garment is a painful one. Now that I know what it’s like to exist in nothing but large and forgiving silhouettes for months on end, to be comfortable in all seated positions as well as brisk walks, I don’t see myself returning to the routine of wearing clothes that I’m dying to change out of the minute I arrive home from work.
As the 2018 ugly sneaker trend proved, people love trends that allow them to be comfortable and chic (in the sneaker’s case, it was due to the mad genius behind the curtain at Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton). In three years, the popularity of this unexpected trend has not waned; fashionable women across the globe have ditched their Manolos for their favorite chunky trainers, and they’re never going back! Similarly, I feel like I’ve seen the light as it pertains to enjoying life in clothes that don’t cause me discomfort, though the “chicness” of this newfound aesthetic may be self-declared. According to Ruth La Ferla’s recent New York Times piece, cleverly entitled “Giving In to Letting Go,” many women are spurning their bras and makeup, too, asking themselves why they ever wore these things in the first place. In a post-COVID world, will oversized clothes become the new norm? Are boyfriend jeans to cinched waists as dad sneakers are to high heels?
For me, the answer is yes—though this is not to say I don’t look forward to styling myself with the same effort and joy I once did. But I am confident that exciting and sophisticated looks can still be spun from the right mix of quality oversized items—that I can craft ensembles which are equal parts form and function, and which do not require the discomfort I’ve subjected myself to in the past. Luckily, I’ll have at least another month to work on the building blocks: the perfect boyfriend jeans, a billowy menswear dress shirt, the cozy sweater I stole from my dad’s closet, the softest baggy tee, a workwear shirt-jacket built to accommodate all the aforementioned layers underneath and then some.
Here, a curated guide to the five oversized staples I’ve come to realize I can’t live without—perfect for feeling comfortable yet polished in quarantine and beyond.
