Illustration by Student: Raghav Sood
The lockdown has an upside. We now spend almost our entire day in pajamas. Wake up, get ready for the day’s lectures, pick out a top, and slip into a fresh pair of… pajamas. Isn’t it brilliant?!
Pajamas… The word echoes a completely carefree sartorial comfort. Return home from work or from a draining session at the gym in the evening, hop in for a quick shower and put on your pajamas. The thought is sometimes enough for your mind to begin a sweet descent into utter relaxation.
Would you believe it? This cozy bit of clothing is actually India’s gift to the world. Originating in East Asia, Pajamas made a detour to the West in the 17th century, then once again in the 1870s as returning British colonials decided this is THE thing to sleep in. And if you thought that pajamas had always been this boring garment, think again! Just imagine the humble pajama – the thing most of us wear when we throw caution to sartorial winds – on the collections of avant-garde designers like French couturier Paul Poiret, fashion legend Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, Irene Galitzine, Roy Halston Frowick and many others! Pretty sure that our School of Fashion students don’t think there’s anything surprising about that, though.
The lockdown has our students turning into self-made wardrobe wizards as they use permutations, combinations and complex quadratic equations to ascertain the maximum possibilities available to them with their pajamas. It’s not like there aren’t other options. But when you have the choice to wear your favourite comfort garment alllll the tiiiiiime, going for anything else would be nothing short of a punishment, amirite?
Now that we’re confined to our homes, and pajamas reign supreme, you can imagine our shock at the thought that the use of pajamas in public has been frowned upon, be it by Chinese authorities shaming their citizens, some British supermarkets denying entry to shoppers, or by a stadium’s management in Kanpur (morning walk? No pajamas please!) But look how things flip almost 180 degrees! An immediate consequence of our confinement within the walls of our homes is the resounding domination of our wardrobe by none other than our favourite comfort garment – pajamas. Now that we are left to choose only what to wear for the top, our choices in dressing up have effectively been halved (unless of course, you’re more akin to a uniform). For the bottom half, the choices are simple. Is it clean? Check. Is it comfortable? Check. Can I sleep in it? Double triple quadruple check!
