Have you ever taken a look around you and realized that everyone is dressed like a bum? Well as a high school student, this has happened to me numerous times. While there are some students that decide to put some thought and effort into their outfits each day, the majority of teens throw on sweatpants and a hoodie every day of the week, why is that? While some people’s favorite part of their day is picking what vintage shirt is going to go well with their japanese selvedge denim, others just wear whatever their eyes land on first. Brooks Taylor, a sophomore at Broad Run Highschool is a vintage shirt and japanese denim wearer. He says “I just enjoy mixing and matching everything I have and coming up with new fits that I’ve never worn before.”
There could be a few culprits for the cause of this laziness epidemic. The first one that comes to mind is the influence of social media on younger generations. As we all know, famous people, tik tokers, and influencers have a very heavy effect on trends. There are a lot of famous actors or tiktokers that dress like they recently made it out of the homeless shelter. Take Adam Sandler for example. He’s an extremely successful actor, he has a net worth of about 420 million dollars, but he wears extremely baggy shorts with hoodies and t-shirts all the time.
There’s another obvious reason that I personally believe is the main reason, and that is comfort, and ease. Believe it or not, right now, being into fashion is a very popular thing. Every fashion fan is obsessed with baggy jeans, vintage shirts, and carhartt. That’s not most people though. Most people wear the sweatpants and hoodie combo pretty much every day. As a sweatpants and hoodie wearer I speak for everyone when I say that my outfits are very low effort and very comfortable. When I’m getting ready in the morning, the last thing I do is choose my outfit. It takes me about 30 seconds.
There’s not a lot of clear, obvious answers as to why fashion has become so lazy. An article posted by the “New York Post” claims that “it seems like anything goes in the workplace” referring to what gen-z employees are wearing. “Gen Z employees in particular have been slammed for their seemingly inappropriate outfits for the office” (Kato). The majority of this article explains how Gen-Z is choosing comfort over style. They would much rather underdress and be comfortable than put on an entire outfit.
The way people dress today shows how much things have changed. A lot of people choose comfort over style and just wear sweatpants and hoodies every day without thinking much about it. Trends and social media have made it more normal to dress very casually, even in places where people normally dress nicer. As someone who wears sweatpants and a hoodie every day, I personally don’t have a problem with this side of fashion. Some people (the broadrun highschool news papers journalism teacher) have some very strong opinions about this matter though.
