If comfort is life then life will be comfortable. This is a basic conjecture many teenagers use to make one of the heaviest decisions a high schooler can make: choosing what to wear to school.
Pajama pants culture has become more prominent around White Station over the years. From the simplistic style to the enjoyable comfort, pajama pants have become trendy and can be considered as a new aesthetic. Many people believe COVID-19 and quarantine may have been the catalyst to this blown up trend. Since students could easily turn off their cameras and not show what they look like, physical appearance and clothes were not as big of a concern to them. As a result, many high schoolers show up to class in the same thing one might wear to bed.
“[This] is the style I typically go for… it’s comfortable and casual,” Chase Bizot (10) said. “I’m not a huge fashion person but I don’t think I look terrible in it.”
With life being unpredictable, what to wear to school is one of the things students do have control over. Since high school is an intense environment where stress and anxiety can circulate, feeling comfortable is something which can help relieve the stress that is built.
“I’m going to be frank with you, once a girl told me to never wear shorts again so I never wore shorts again,” Bizot said. “I was asking everyone for fashion advice and [it was] to wear pajama pants to school.”
Pajama pants culture covers a variety of clothing which many teenagers find more convenient to wear. Some examples include hoodies, sweatpants, Crocs and pajamas. Flannel sleepwear seems to be one of the more popular pattern choices for high school students due to its nostalgic feel and ability to insulate heat very well.
“I mean in middle school we had the uniform thing but in high school … I wear [pajama pants] because it looks nice,” Bizot said.
Students reach for these stylish pieces due to their convenience, comfort and cozy feel. Students find pajama pants relaxing and some say they help keep balance in their mental health. Physical appearance has become a determining factor for many things due to social media. This can lead to stress being built over whether one looks socially acceptable or not. Many people might say pajama-wear helped them realize choosing an outfit should not be a hard decision to make. Choosing a simple and trouble-free clothing piece such as pajama pants can take away the weight of choosing an outfit.
“I wore pajama pants a lot more last year right after the pandemic,” Alexandra Byrd (10) said. “I used to only wear pajamas to online school and so I think being comfortable and stylish in school became a [universal] norm [for a lot of people].”
However, some people might find this new aesthetic lazy and argue there is a lack of discipline in choosing an “improper outfit” like sleepwear.
“My mom isn’t into that kind of ‘lazy culture’,” Byrd said. “Like if we go to a certain place, you need to be dressed a certain way — even if you are going to Walmart, you shouldn’t be dressed in sleepwear. And so I would never be able to leave the house like that [anymore].”
Clothing is a way many teenagers can express themselves throughout high school. Even though it might appear lazy to some to wear pajama pants, there are reasons why people wear pajama-like clothes that influence what is trendy. This is why many people think it’s important for students to be encouraged to wear appropriate clothing for a high school setting that can still be comfortable and expressive.