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Sweatpants are officially in Vogue.
Anna Wintour, the high fashion editor who once gave a resounding “No!” when asked if she ever wore sweatpants, appears to have relaxed her dress code just like the rest of us under COVID-19.
The Vogue editor-in-chief deigned to be photographed in a chunky striped sweater and — shocker! — matching sweatpants for a photo posted to the fashion bible’s official Instagram FB, +3.07% account this week.
The post is supposed to introduce glossy’s new Zoom ZM, +5.62% series, Vogue Global Conversations, which will be discussing the future of fashion under topics such as how the industry will recover from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as how to be more sustainable.
But the post went viral over the 70-year-old editrix’s fashion u-turn, with many comments remarking, “Anna Wintour in joggers. The world IS changing,” and, “Anna Wintour is wearing track pants. It really is the end times.”
Others noted that the sweatpants snap was posted the same day that Condé Nast announced it was cutting its executives’ pay (including Wintour’s) by up to 20% for five months due to the coronavirus, along with furloughs and possible layoffs on the horizon.
Vogue did not immediately respond to MarketWatch requests for comment. Wintour has posted a few other pictures showing her softer sartorial side over the past couple of weeks. A couple have even shown her wearing jeans. And Vogue.com also posted a “Celebrity-Approved Guide to Wearing Sweats” last week.
Wintour’s sweatpants pivot is in line with Women’s Wear Daily’s recent report musing whether sweatpants are the only fashion trend in America right now. “Sweatpants have not appeared this relevant or widespread since the early-Aughts craze for Juicy Couture,” WWD writer Misty White Sidell said, reporting that Net-a-Porter YXOXF, -1.64% saw a 40% spike in general sweatpants sales during the first week of COVID-19 lockdown, while Aéropostale reported a 23% increase, and athleisure brand Vuori enjoyed a 50% bump.
Other retailers have also seen their loungewear flying off their virtual shelves since the pandemic hit the U.S., even as overall online apparel sales dropped 15% after President Trump declared a state of national emergency on March 13. The number of sold-out tracksuits rose 36% from Jan. 1 through March 16, compared with the same period a year ago, and the number of sold-out sweatpants jumped 39%, The Wall Street Journal reported. WSJ drew on data from Edited, which tracks more than two billion items on the websites of U.S. and U.K. retailers.
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Gap GPS, -1.38% and its Athleta sister company told Fox Business that “loungewear is outpacing other styles,” with women’s joggers like Wintour’s, as well as wide-legged pants and leggings leading the way. And Target TGT, +4.37% also recently reported that while clothing sales have dropped, leisure wear and pajamas have been the exceptions.
But Walmart’s WMT, +3.35% EVP of corporate affairs, Dan Bartlett, recently told Yahoo Finance that the retail chain has noticed the rise in videoconferencing has led to another pretty amusing sales trend. “We’re seeing increased sales in tops, but not bottoms. So, people who are concerned, obviously, from the waist up,” he said.
Read more:Zoom green screens, but not pants: Here are the new work from home essentials
