Friday, February 19, 2010

In Praise of Comfy Clothes


When I had an 8-5 job, I did the whole skirted suit and heels thing each day. Now that I'm writing full time, I know I should still dress well and slap on some make up, if for no other reason than not to scare small children when I go out to walk Mack the Wonder Dog.

But to be honest, I do my best work in my jammies! And my DH seems to consider it a feather in his cap that I'm able to greet him still in my jammies when he comes home from work. (Though it does feel a little weird to take off my jammies for a shower so I can put on fresh jammies.)

So I'm glad there is a second level of comfy dressing I like to call "plathing around in my sluvvies." (This is a saying borrowed from my daughter and while it may not be standard English, it fits.) Though the folks of What Not to Wear would dispute it with their dying breath, comfy people are happy people. And "fashionable" and "comfy" are two circles in a Venn diagram that rarely overlap.

What are sluvvies, I hear you asking. Sluvvies are clothes that could have been worn in the Matrix movies. Now I'm not talking about the slick, skin-tight leather and cool floor-length dusters the characters wore when they were kicking butt. I'm talking about the worn, tired, frayed and holey stuff they sported when they were chilling in Zion. I'm talking fabrics that caress your skin, that lower your blood pressure, that just plain make you feel at home inside them.

I have just such a Matrix sweater. It's faded and oversized. The neckline is frayed and the wrists are so stretched I could roll the sleeves up to my armpits if I wanted. But this sweater breathes. Pair it with old jeans and I'm "plathing in my sluvvies" big time. Usually, I save my sluvvies for days when I know I'm not going anywhere (ok, ok, I have been known to sneak out to the movies in it, but hey! It's dark in the theatre!)

I know I ought to toss my Matrix sweater. If one of my kids tried to go out wearing something as tired as this, I'd send them back to get redressed. But it's soooooo comfy, I can't bear to part with it until it literally unravels in the wash sometime.

How about you? Do you have a set of sluvvies and just didn't know what to call them?

PS. It's Friday, so I'm blogging at The Chatelaines too. Hope to see you there!

11 comments:

Janet Kay Gallagher said...

Hi Emily
When my oldest boy was little,I had a dress he loved. He would put his arms around my legs and run his face up and down on that dress...like a cat will do. He would say, "I like softening."

Now I have a travel pair of pajamas. But I sleep in old pants and t's that are almost threadbare.
I have days when I never go out and just wear them all day.

librarypat said...

Sluvvies, I love it. I've never watched a Matrix movie, so all I'm familiar with are those black outfits. I too need to be comfortable. I like something loose , especially around the waist. Sweats work in the winter and leggings or something similar the rest of the year. I tend to wear t-shirts. I like baggy tops, but long sleeves bug me. I find myself constantly pushing them up.

JennJ said...

Hi Emily I love this post you know I have a sluvvie sweater myself. I know I should pitch it but it's so dang comfy I just can't bring myself to do it.

I work from my home in my home office so I work in my sweats or pj's 99% of the time. I love it.

Glynis Peters said...

I love my writing uniform, so much more comfortable than the nurses one I used to wear. For the eight weeks of winter, my oversized sweat top is useful.It has pockets for sticky chews, pen tops and tissues. The rolled up sweat pants have pockets for the things I can't cram into the above. In the summer, shorts and top are the order of the day.
I did smile at visions of you in a large black leather coat, leaping from room to room, Emily. Then I read a little further on from the word Matrix! ;0

EmilyBryan said...

Janet Kay--We all love "softening."

EmilyBryan said...

Pat--Sluvvies is a great word and I have to give my oldest daughter credit for it.

I like "plathing" too. Also hers.

EmilyBryan said...

JennJ--It is one of the best perks of working at home, isn't it?

EmilyBryan said...

Glynnis--LOL! In my case it would have to be slow-motion leaping!

Jane L said...

Hey Emily, Just a question, did you send out a kinda of mass email under DianaGroe with no subject? If NOT you may want to check your accounts both email and FB and make sure they were not hacked, I got this message that said it was from you, but when I opened it it was in a different language and adds for like viagra and stuff, I closed it immediately and scanned my security through my sytem, it pulled up a virus and we quaranteened it. Just FYI

EmilyBryan said...

Hi Jane, No I did NOT send out a mass email for Viagra! Yikes! The only mass mailing I do is my Emily Bryan newsletter.

Did it come from my Facebook too?

Hackers mystify me. Don't these people have lives?

Jane L said...

No it looks like it only came from your email? But it was very suspicious to me since I know you do not send anything out Diana, So yes, I would be keeping an eye out. Like I said it contained some tyoe of a virus, but my computer quaranteened it and we stopped by the GEEK Squad today just to be sure. But someone is doing something not good! Thought you should know!