Weekend Edition #24: Sweatshirt Weather

Pledging my allegiance to the sweatshirt

Sep 13, 2024

Hi!

New York Fashion Week has come and gone, and the circus is off to London. As a viewer and a consumer, I thought it was…good? There were some very bright spots: Alaia at the Guggenheim! Tommy on the Staten Island Ferry! Tory Burch at the Domino Sugar Factory! Toteme in a skyscraper! If you’d like a deep dive into the shows,

Becky Malinsky

and

Sarah Shapiro

wrote fantastic recaps of the runways. But my biggest takeaway from the week is that New York City won the best-dressed award. Boy did she look good.

The weather this month in New York has been sublime. Last year it was 90 degrees with 90% humidity, and the cognitive dissonance of going back to work while still wearing summer dresses was as uncomfortable as the sweaty fabric that stuck to my skin. Who else spent most of their childhood Septembers sweating in non-air-conditioned schools because they refused to wear anything but their new back-to-school sweaters? But this weather, this lovely, cool weather allows us to try on our new clothes, our new moods, our new goals, and enter this new season with verve.

Because it’s back-to-school season (or maybe it’s because I’m approaching a big, hard-to-believe, birthday this “school year”), I’m thinking a lot about who I am, and who I may still become. And who I am becoming seems more and more like someone I already know. It’s pretty great, like seeing an old friend after many years. When it feels like no time has passed at all, and we talk for hours. I’m dropping right back into conversation with myself.

I recently saw a snippet of a Louise Gluck poem posted by

Hannah Hooper

on Substack Notes:

“A woman will return, looking for the girl she was.”
Louise Gluck, from the Complete Poems of L.G.: 1962-2012, “Landscape.”

I realized the other day when I got dressed to take my children back to school and myself back to the office, that despite my mood boards, outfit prep, and summer shopping, I felt put together but not myself. When I returned home I immediately swapped out my sweater for my dad’s old sweatshirt. And it felt like my brain took a deep breath. I relaxed. I was back.

I’m not sure about you, but our bedtime routines lately have been…long. The transition from summer to fall, camp days to school days, the mountain time zone to an east coast one, means our witching hour is more like hours. It’s given me ample time to watch the light change as I sit outside my boys’ bedroom (and wrangle them back in), but I almost haven’t minded it. You know why? Because it’s the in-between light. And it’s so fleeting. Just a few weeks ago it was bright as a lemon and before long, it’ll be like an ink spill. The in-between light will shrink to a pinpoint, happening somewhere around the commute home. I’ll likely be underground.

The in-between light. The in-between weather. The in-between is where I’m happiest. And that’s where the sweatshirt comes in.

The sweatshirt was created in 1926 by Benjamin Russell Jr., whose father owned the Russell Manufacturing Company in Alabama. His son was a football player at the University of Alabama who wanted an alternative to the itchy wool sweaters he wore to practice. (Sidenote: I do love my Smartwool running socks.) He designed a thick cotton shirt based on the women’s union-suits his father manufactured, with a loose fit to accommodate football pads and an additional triangle of fabric at the neck to catch sweat.1 The style took off.

The sweatshirt was born.

(And Russell’s company lives on.)

I love sweatshirts. Always have, always will. Do I need to sell you on them? They’re cozy, comfortable, collegiate. Perfect for layering, for playing, for flying, for snuggling. I’ve bought hundreds of them. I’ve made thousands of them (for Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, Aeropostale, Tommy Hilfiger, and my old baby clothing company, Olen Organic).

It’s no surprise, really. The girl I was, was a sweatshirt and jeans kind of girl. It’s the girl I’ve always been. Sporty, casual, not very polished. A nerd, but not smart enough to understand those Seventeen Magazine makeup tutorials (ah, the olden days before TikTok). Too busy studying fashion to always figure out how to wear fashion. Someone who really likes to be comfortable (and wore only leggings until 5th grade). Someone who sported a ponytail at her wedding and thinks a ponytail is an updo.

I’ve now decided that I can and will wear my sweatshirts everywhere. Work. Date nights. Nights out with friends. Big events. Small get-togethers. I will wear them cropped with high-waisted suede skirts. Long and loose over flowy ones. Tucked into wide-leg chinos. Paired with barrel jeans. Under a blazer. With a bandana. Why not?

Your sweatshirt might be a tee shirt, or a blazer, or a great pair of jeans. It might be a suit, or a shirt dress. It doesn’t matter, you should wear what you feel best in, in whatever circumstance. When you feel your best, you will look your best. Is that Fashion 101? Well then, I’ll admit it’s taken me a long time to pass that class.

Emma Straub

recently wrote about a beloved Rachel Comey sweatshirt she found on The Real Real. She wore it everyday, and then her husband told her that “she looked like a mom.”

She is a mom!

I am a mom!

I’m also the girl I always was. And that girl loves sweatshirts.

Have a great weekend!

x Lindsay