10.04.2012
How To Look Chic While Wearing Pajamas

My uniform, sophomore year of college

I spent an entire semester of college wearing an orange Hofstra hooded sweatshirt and black velour sweatpants.  Why? No reason, in particular.  It was winter in New York, which meant that it was cold and rainy and I had a weird class schedule that allowed me to sleep until 11 AM every day.  It was pure heaven.

After seeing this story on pajama fashion and this photo of Rihanna wearing pajamas to a club, I was reminded of a conversation that I had freshman year of college with a guy friend (who I later dated). I’m my mother’s daughter in the sense that I think that every stranger I see is either A, trying to rape me or B, trying to rape me and then kill me.  So naturally, when my roommate told me she was going across campus at 10 PM by herself, I insisted that she let me walk her.  This plan didn’t really make sense since once she left, I would then be alone, so I asked the guy friend if he wanted to come for the walk.  He said yes and I responded with “ok, cool…let me just change.”  He stared up and down at my outfit, which consisted of purple drawstring pajama pants and a grey Hofstra sweatshirt and said “why are you changing?”  This question confused me.  Pre-college, I wouldn’t have been caught dead walking around in my pajamas…let alone with my hair in a ponytail.  I was taken aback and became kind of frazzled by his response so I just murmured “ok, um…yeah, I guess this is fine…we’re just walking across campus, right? Haha.”  I tried to laugh off my own silliness, even though I didn’t think it was so silly.  Now, at 29, I LIVE for wearing pajamas and sweats.  Granted, I usually wear nice sweats but nothing gives me more joy than not putting real clothes on for an ENTIRE WEEKEND.  Here are a few tips on how to look chic while wearing your pajamas in public:

1-) Don’t wear anything with stains or rips.  That’s homeless person chic, but not in that Olsen twin kinda way.

2-) Carry a nice bag.  You might be wearing blue striped PJ pants from Target but you’re also carrying a $800 Alexander Wang bag. It’s called high/low, ladies.

3-) Wear expensive sunglasses.  Aside from the fact that they add to the high/low factor (see above), they’ll also cover the dark circles and bags under your eyes…since I’m sure you also don’t wanna put any makeup on. Duh.

4-) Walk with an attitude.  You’re wearing your pajamas.  Outside in public.  You need to exude that “I don’t give a shit” ‘tude and show everyone that you’re comfortable and you don’t care.