'Hate-wear' and 'sad-wear': fashion's new names for lockdown dressing.

 

Justin Bieber in 'sad-wear' in November.

With online sales booming but retail in sharp decline, the pandemic has changed shopping for ever. Practical, comfortable items suitable for a lifestyle of working from home and occasional trips outside – such as Ugg boots, Crocs and trousers with elasticated waistbands – have seen rising sales.

But with many of us grappling with our emotions during lockdown, the way we feel and speak about our clothes has altered too.

Last week, two new words were coined to describe our new attitude to fashion; portmanteaus that articulate the stresses and mundanity of lockdown, but also the changing relationship we have with our clothes.

The New York Times’s “hate-wear” refers to clothes that are “neither stylish nor particularly comfortable, yet constantly in rotation”, items worn for their utility rather than their style.

“Not knowing how to dress is the least of anyone’s problems,” says the NYT writer Reyhan Harmanci, “but we still do (mostly) have to put on clothes. For those of us who now work from home, that has resulted in some weird choices.”

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