Kerry Folan, a former New York City–based fashion editor, who moved to the suburbs of Washington, D.C. for graduate school, is having trouble adjusting to her new life. And not because she misses her favorite barista.
“Women in my neighborhood go about their entire day in yoga pants and running shoes,” Folan began in her piece for the Washington Post, which was published on Tuesday, December 15. “Moms with strollers, undergrads on campus, girlfriends meeting up for coffee dates or errands — I have even seen women dressed this way for cocktails.”
In the article, Folan went on to praise a former roommate who was the director of a children’s gym in Brooklyn. “She would get fully dressed each morning, including hair, makeup, and heels, just to walk the 10 blocks to work and then get undressed again,” marveled the nonfiction MFA candidate at George Mason University. “I loved her for this. I loved all of New York for this — for always putting in a little extra effort, for never taking the easy way out. In New York, after all, 10 million people are always looking.”
The suburban transplant continued: “What we wear sends a message to the world. An Hermès handbag makes a statement about wealth and luxury. A pair of four-inch Louboutin heels make a statement about sex and power. Yoga pants make a statement about comfort and modernity. When we board a flight or run to the grocery store swaddled in cotton-lycra, we are saying to the people around us that our own comfort is our first priority.”
Not surprisingly, Folan’s op-ed received more than 900 comments — many of them seething. “I find it very disturbing that someone was actually paid money to write this nonsense,” wrote one person, while another snipped: “Meanwhile, today’s NYT has a story, “Leggings in a kaleidoscope of colors, for every occasion.”
As for Folan? She’s terrified of what will become of her wardrobe now that she’s more than 200 miles from the Big Apple. “Will I spend the rest of my life going about my day in comfort, coming home in the evening to nurse a bottle of wine until it’s time to go to bed on the quiet second story of my house, only to wake up and do it all again, wearing the same black yoga pants as the day before?” she wrote. “It’s possible that I will. But one way I know to fight that fate: Get dressed each morning.”
