While we’ve all been, to paraphrase Seinfeld, “miserable but comfortable” in our sweatpants, a new survey suggests Americans are looking towards a fashionable future following COVID-19 lockdowns.
A non-scientific study of 2,000 people shows 45% planning to go “all-out” for their first post-pandemic event — and, unexpectedly, more men than women feel that way.
Fifty-five percent of men claimed they’re looking forward to doing so, as opposed to 36% of women. The dreaded return to high heels and Spanx might explain that.
The survey noted nearly one in six Americans already have an outfit picked out for their return to public life.
The poll, commissioned by the dry cleaning company Cleaner’s Supply says 21% of the men polled have started planning what outfit they’re going to wear when the lockdowns are behind us, compared to 9% of women.
On average, the respondents predicted it would take two hours for them to get ready for their first big event after the pandemic.
To practice, 22% say they’ve tried on formal clothes during the pandemic to make sure the dreaded “quarantine 15” hasn’t made their clothes unwearable; 19% say they’ve occasionally dressed up for no reason.
What’s more, the survey shows 41% of respondents have shopped for an article of clothing “other than loungewear” over the past 12 months, and they plan to spend, on average, around $160.67 on new “going-out clothes” once the pandemic is over.
Apparently fashion, like pandemics, is cyclical.
Cleaner’s Supply President Jeff Schapiro noted in a statement, “Suit sales might have dropped during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, for example, but if you look what people were wearing in the ‘Roaring Twenties,’ it’s clear that extravagant, luxury clothing became much more popular after life returned to normal.”