Why should we care what people wear? My kids ask me this every weekend when I remind them that sweatpants are not acceptable garb when attending religious services. Several friends have asked the same thing (more politely) when I talk about the project I am gearing up for: I plan to explore what we wear to work and what it means.
I’m not a fashion critic or a fashionista, but I find a lot to unpack in this often-overlooked aspect of self-presentation. I find myself regularly coming back to a weird fugue state, a veritable fever dream of television binging I experienced last summer. During a bout of COVID, during which I found myself incapable of much more activity than hitting the “next episode” button in my streaming service, I did something I’ve never done before: I binged several seasons of the Bravo! Below Deck franchise.