A Fashion Editor’s Work-From-Home Style Diary: Why Leggings Are the Ultimate Multitasker

- March 31, 2020

It’s a well known fact that establishing a new habit or routine can be a big challenge. Upending old habits and swapping them out for new ones doesn’t come naturally, or right away, as many New Year’s resolution makers often see.

Now apply that feeling to the millions of people around the world who are now practicing social distancing and quarantine. It’s utterly disorienting — and that’s not even counting the hundreds of thousands of people who are actually getting sick.

I’ve tried my own hand at establishing a productive new routine while working from home. Some habits — like getting ready for the work day and doing breathing exercises while I walk my dog outside — have stuck.

Others…have not. Without a commute time into the office, I thought that I would instantly be able to adopt a morning workout routine before starting my day. I imagined myself walking downstairs in my athletic clothes, coffee in hand, ready to unroll my yoga mat and grab a set of weights. After a solid 45-60 minutes, I would be sweaty and feeling accomplished, with time to spare.

That hasn’t happened once. I’m notoriously both an excellent sleeper and NOT a morning person. While I usually push those qualities aside during normal times, forgoing my requisite eight hours of sleep for something else, now I’m letting myself sleep as long as I want — because my health depends on it.

This means workouts have been pushed to late evenings — too late, really. So at the end of last week, I decided to bend a few of my work-from-home style rules and get dressed in my workout clothes so that I could squeeze in a session during lunchtime. I put on a pair of wear-everywhere black leggings (I love Commando’s classic high-waisted version), my sports bra and tank, and a big turtleneck sweater overtop. This outfit lets me do video meetings that I need to do but also sneak in a quick yoga session or a run with my dog. I can wear sneakers with it (something I really won’t do when I’m wearing jeans), and I can also wear the big fuzzy slippers that I am still wearing inside most days.

View this post on Instagram

You know how they say dogs and their owners start to look alike? Sasha and I have the same paws

A post shared by Shannon Adducci (@shannonadducci) on Mar 31, 2020 at 8:27am PDT

The fashion world has a complicated relationship with leggings (myself included) but, as the New York Times’ Vanessa Friedman declared a year ago, they are here to stay — and now, likely, more than ever before. Pandemic or no pandemic, the legging is probably the most worn item of clothing for many American women (and some men).

It’s the ultimate multitasker, especially now. Wear them for the yoga class or a run outside, throw a jacket over them for a requisite grocery run. Wear them with a sweater and earrings for a video meeting, dress them up a little more for date night in — you get the idea. I’m not the first to extoll the many virtues of the legging. But this time around, this stretchy piece of leg wear feels like much more than a Pilates mom’s wardrobe staple. It’s the at-home survivalist uniform.