2021 Awards: Best Clothes of the COVID Era
Posted by Pete Robbins on Jun 16th 2021
Right before COVID hit the world in early 2020, I bought a new pair of pants. I never wore them until last month.
While the pandemic upended all sorts of life elements, fashion is one that often gets overlooked. If you’ve been working at home, like I have, then the need for formal attire has been minimized, if not eliminated. I’ve even given up on dressing in collared shirts for important Zoom calls. Instead, my colleagues see a lot of fishing t-shirts, often the same ones over and over and over again because last out of the laundry is first off the top of the pile. Similarly, while in normal times I’m expected to wear a suit to work at least four times a week, only twice in the past year have I worn pants nicer than jeans.
Out of this situation, I’ve learned about the value of elastic waistbands, among other things. My home office was formerly a screened-in porch, and it’s drafty during the winter and warm during the summer. My best Amazon purchase was a pair of faux-shearling-lined sweatpants for the coldest days of January. Other than that, I’ve worn the same pair of gym shorts more than I care to admit. Socks are optional.
The other clear winner in this exercise was my Yamamoto stretch pullover jacket. I don’t know precisely how they did it, but short of it being below 30 degrees in here or over 90 degrees, it seems to be comfortable. It also looks somewhat more professional than a t-shirt on a conference call. After probably 200 days of wear, mostly inside, it’s still in good shape, but I’ll probably invest in another one. You should, too.
