I regret to inform you that sweatpant-jeans are sweeping America

A hybrid pant comfy enough for working from home and presentable enough to wear in public is a viral hit: ‘Everyone is legit shocked they’re actually sweatpants.’

Cate Blanchett in comfortable denim joggers. Picture: Getty Images.

In 1938, Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí collaborated on “The Tears Dress,” a gown with a print designed to look like the fabric had been ripped away from the body in tatters. It was a clever use of trompe l’oeil, the technique coined by artist Louis-Léopold Boilly in 1800 to describe “trick of the eye” paintings that look like one thing but are in fact something else. Over the decades, fashion has employed this sleight of hand extensively, from Bottega Veneta’s verisimilitudinous denim-printed leather pants to less convincing gift-shop tuxedo T-shirts.

The latest trompe l’oeil sensation to have us all doing a double take is the curious case of the jeans-printed sweatpant. A descendant of the infamous 1980s jegging, these Frankensteined pants are soft and loose but printed to look like a pair of jeans. An instant hit, they’ve emerged as an athleisure-denim hybrid comfy enough for WFH-spoiled waistlines and presentable enough for airports and even certain workplaces.

“They’re such a great conversation starter,” said Samantha Zhang, 36, a San Diego social-media manager who owns a pair. “Everyone is legit shocked they’re actually sweatpants.” The sweatpant-jean par excellence is from the Rag & Bone “Miramar” line.

Cate Blanchett in comfortable denim joggers. Picture: Getty Images.

The American sportswear company, known for its mid-range (real) jeans and T-shirts, first launched a sweatpant-jean in 2013. Felicitously, a new take on the style was in the works right before Covid and then – bam! A viral hit was born, and a cash cow for Rag & Bone. Since then, the “Miramar” line has expanded to include “jean” jackets, jorts, popover tops and wide-legged pants. Fleece is in the works. Rag & Bone’s chief design and merchandising officer, Jennie McCormick, said that nearly 200,000 units of the line had been made this year. The most coveted style at the moment is the $225 “Sofie” pant, which has wide legs and a real button fly.

“It’s the Gen-Z jegging,” said Rachel Spencer, a 30-year-old content creator in Vancouver, who finally tracked down a pair of the Sofies this year after much searching. “I’m a millennial, and I never thought I’d be wearing any sort of faux denim again, but here we are.”

Model and fashion blogger Gitta Banko wearing straight-leg jeans with destroyed details by Rag & Bone. Picture: Getty Images.

Kate Moss in leather flannel and jeans at Bottega Veneta Spring/Summer 23, showing off the trompe l’oeil effect.

Now, type “denim sweatpants” into Amazon or Shein and thousands of results for both men and women appear. But the Miramar remains the gold standard because of its realism, from the denim printing to the slouchy fit. McCormick explained that at the company’s factories outside Hong Kong, a real pair of jeans is washed and worn, then scanned to be printed precisely onto the sweats, with the seams lining up just so – not a simple feat. Walking into a Manhattan Rag & Bone store recently, I was met with a sea of light denim. I had to touch the pieces to figure out what was a sweatpant, and what was actual denim.

That fake-out quality means that the Miramar’s fans delight in wearing them out and about, without anyone realising just how obscenely comfortable they are. Many people cite them as great aeroplane pants. At the Rag & Bone store I visited, on the Upper East Side, the employees mentioned that several older couples had bought matching pairs to wear out on walks. (No men’s Miramar exists at the moment, but a similar style is in the works for fall, and men do buy the women’s pants.) Maddy Chang, 24, who lives in New Jersey and works in finance, has even worn them to her corporate office. She said “no one mentioned that they looked like sweatpants.” Then she showed them to her father, who in turn bought a pair and wore them to his own office.

The uncanny nature of these pants gives some people “the ick,” as they say online. Zhang, the San Diego social media manager, said that it “grossed her out” that her front pockets were real, but when she went to put her phone in the back pocket, that one was just printed on.

Others just find them too slovenly. “They look somewhat odd to me,” said Connecticut lawyer Tara Johnson. For her, dressing down would mean a real pair of jeans worn with a crisp button-up. She said wearing non-sweatpants outfits helps her feel more productive.

These days, Johnson and her ilk are in the minority, as sweatpant-jeans sweep the nation. Although market-research group Circana reported that the U.S. jeans market experienced single-digit declines in the past year, it found that “there are some bright spots with growth, and much of it has to do with looser styles.” Sales of loose-fit jeans – like the Miramar Sofie – are up three times what they were one year ago.

With summer on the horizon, it looks like the craze for sweatpant-jeans is going to shift to sweatpant-jorts. Or it already has. “We’ve actually almost sold out of the shorts,” said Rag & Bone’s McCormick, saying that the company was on the case trying to produce more pairs.

Dow Jones