Back to the Eighties: My Perfect Sweats.

I've written often on the blog about the never-ending trials of finding the perfect jeans. I've even been known to compare the endless labour of shopping for jeans to the punishment meted out by the gods to poor Sisyphus. You know, the mythological king who so angered the gods he was sentenced to push a rock uphill, only to have it roll back down. Every time. For eternity. Just like jean shopping. Sigh.

Don't laugh. 

I seem to have solved my jeans problem, for now. By buying two pairs last summer. But I'm sure that solution will be temporary when Paige stops making the ones I like. Which, let's face it, is inevitable. But I'm sanguine about that. Mostly. 

What's really been nagging at me for a while now is the problem of finding the perfect sweatpants and sweatshirt. I've worn sweatpants and sweatshirts as leisure-wear for years and years. Long before the current "athleisure" trend. Since way back in the eighties when my friend managed a lovely little store here in Ottawa called "Cotton Ginny." Cotton Ginny made cotton sweatpants, sweatshirts, tee-shirts, and other causal wear. They made the old fashioned style of sweatshirt and sweatpants. At the time, I had a closet-full of matching sweat tops and bottoms, red, pink, black, grey, you name it. 

Perfect for wearing over one's bodysuit and leggings to dancercise class. Ah, remember dancercise?  My roommate, Debbie, and I signed up for classes. We bought the outfits, of course. We were determined to get fit. But then, we'd be so starving after every class, that we'd throw on our sweat pants and drive directly to MacDonald's. Every time. Ha. What an exercise in futility that was. Pun intended.

A couple of years later, when I finally became serious about exercising, and started running, my Cotton Ginny outfits came in handy. I also wore them for lounging around the house, doing my lesson plans, marking, reading a book, cooking dinner. Whatever. Then Cotton Ginny disappeared, at least here in Ottawa. And I started shopping at Au Coton for my sweatshirts and sweatpants. Then they disappeared as well. And I couldn't for the life of me find a store that sold sweatpants or sweatshirts which fit me. Or suited me. The pants were always too short, too baggy, and too sad looking on me. The sweatshirts too huge, with ginormous hoods, too many logos, or way too short in the sleeves and the body. So I made do with the sweatshirts and pants I already had in my closet. For years. 

Then with the rise in popularity of yoga, came the Canadian store Lulu Lemon. Which has beautiful things for exercising and for lounging, if a bit too expensive for my taste. Still, I caved and started wearing yoga pants or leggings, instead of sweatpants. Then Gap and other chain stores got in on the yoga thing, and I bought more yoga pants, much cheaper than at Lulu Lemon. But really, in my heart of hearts, I've never been a yoga pants person. Or a yoga person, for that matter. I missed my old sweat pants. If only I could find a pair that fit... and suited me. 

And of course you know where this is going, or I wouldn't be writing this post. I clicked on an e-mail ad from Aritzia a couple of months ago, and there was an array of sweatpants, and sweatshirts that suited me down to the ground. I ordered on-line and, since Aritzia uses Canada Post to deliver, I had no issues with courier delivery, which, as I've written about before on the blog, can be problematic when you live in the country. And no issues with returns since you can take merchandise back to the nearest store, which is preferable to having to ship something back to the vendor. 

My new Adidas sweatpants with a Vince tee and my Stan Smith sneakers

So. What did I get? This pair of black Adidas sweatpants, above. Which are long enough in the leg, and slim enough in the thigh to actually fit me. I also bought a lovely grey hoodie. It's very light-weight, long in the body, with a narrow cut. I took it to England with me and found it really versatile. On cooler days when I wanted to wear my Veronica Beard jacket, I zipped out the partial hoodie that goes with the jacket, and substituted this one. Then wound my grey and red scarf over top, and I was toasty warm, but not overwhelmed by layers. 

Layered up in Covent Garden, London

Back home, I'll wear the hoodie with my new sweatpants, and my khaki suede jacket from Marks and Spencer that I won last year on Alyson Walsh's blog. 

This outfit might become my favourite running to the library, or to the grocery store, ensemble, if sweatpants and a hoodie can be said to be an "ensemble." That is until the weather turns too cool and I have to swap the sneakers for socks and boots. I doubt that I will join the trendsetters in wearing my sweatpants with heels and dressy tops, though.  

I bought one more item in my Aritzia athleisure haul, this lilac cotton sweatshirt. Oh, how long have I wanted to replenish the sweatshirt shelf in my closet with just this style of shirt? Since the demise of Au Coton, I'd switched to fleece tops, and zippered yoga jackets for lounging, and for exercising. But every now and then I'd try to find a classic sweatshirt. Like this one. Long enough to fall just below my hips, with a crew-neck, and the classic wide waist-band and cuffs. It's great for travelling, if a bit bulky for those carry-on only flights. I wore this on a couple of cool mornings in New Brunswick in September, over a tee-shirt, with my ankle jeans and sandals. In England I found it lovely and cosy to change into for a couple of hours of lounging in my hotel room after a day of sight-seeing.  

But, really, I didn't buy these sweat pants and shirts for wearing anywhere but at home. For walking on the trail. Or lounging around the house. Working on my blog, reading, cooking dinner. Or more likely, sipping wine while watching Hubby cook dinner. Ha.

Reading and relaxing while you know who is in the kitchen.

So wearing my new sweatpants and sweatshirts is like going back to the eighties for me. Kind of. Even though I no longer have a wardrobe of matching sweat pants and shirts in my closet. And I don't throw my sweatpants on over my Danskin bodysuit and leggings anymore. Ha. That Danskin bodysuit was one fashion investment that never paid off. I can't remember how many weeks of dancercise we lasted. Not many, I think. I know that I got fed up with the instructor who used to wipe her heavily made-up face off on a towel half-way through the class. Ickk. Or the one who wore sparkly headbands, and insisted on the class being more about fancy footwork than actually working up a sweat. I just wanted to move. I guess that's why running ended up being a better fit for me. More movement. Less pizzazz. And fewer trips to MacDonald's.  

But I am happy to have found sweatpants that fit, at last. And sweatshirts that suit me. It's kind of like going back to my athleisure roots. Back to the eighties before I started teaching. Before I met Hubby. When I was young and slim... and a bit of an air head. "Would I want to go back to those days again?" you might ask. 

Ha. Perfect sweat pants aside... not on your life. 

Here are the links to the items I bought on the Aritzia website: Lilac Sanoh sweatshirt, grey Ginsburg hoodie. They don't have the Adidas track pants on the website anymore, although they have lots of other track pants here.



What about you folks? Any items from your wardrobe's past that you've revisited lately? 



Linking up this week with: Visible Monday, #IwillwearwhatIlike, Style Me Wednesday, What I Wore, Thursday Favourite Things, Passion 4 Fashion, Fun Fashion Friday, Saturday Share Link-Up