How I dress has changed dramatically during the lockdown. I’m in a casual Friday state of mind all the time and - full disclosure - I haven’t worn a bra in about two months. When designer Alexander Wang said, “Anyone can get dressed up and be glamorous, but it is how people dress on their days off that is most intriguing” he was spot on. I don’t follow many global influencers on Instagram, but having met, interviewed and liked Danish fashion expert Pernille Teisbaek, I added her to my feed. She looks as good in a pair of baggy grey tracksuit bottoms (the kind you see on scruffy teenage boys) as she did in an exquisite suit by The Row on the day I met her. She impresses whichever way she dresses, and that really is intriguing.

As I wrote in a previous piece, I stepped away from tracksuit bottoms pretty soon into the pandemic and found my lockdown look in cotton shirts and cargo pants. But it appears I’m in a minority. At Net-A-Porter, sales of tracksuit bottoms are up a phenomenal 1,303 per cent on this time last year. Even US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour has been pictured sitting in her home office wearing a pair.

A shift in attitude

Here at home, Tara Cooke, founder of independent retailer Skulpt in the Powerscourt Town Centre, which stocks a range of exclusive luxury athleisure brands and streetwear, has noticed a significant change in attitudes towards leisure wear since lockdown took hold. “I have often spoken to women who wouldn’t dream of wearing activewear outside of the gym, but there’s a new reality and it’s reflected in our sales. Women now want clothes that are soft, fluid, easy to move in and feel good next to their skin. A cashmere sweater with a great pair of leggings is the kind of outfit that feels wonderful and is acceptable on a Zoom call.” Tara’s online business has jumped from just five per cent to 35 per cent over the past couple of months, and orders are coming from right around the country rather than just Skulpt’s local and loyal clientele. Online sales will remain a priority for the brand, explains Tara. “I think virtual shopping in Ireland has leapt forward by at least five years in the past eight weeks.”

Ready-to-wear retailers are also seeing sales of loungewear soar instead of occasion wear. Traditionally, formal dresses sell as well as ice cream in summer because of the slew of weddings, horse shows and charity events that fall between the summer months. Mary Greene, owner of Divine boutique in Maynooth, says right now she’s consistently selling out of T-shirts, hoodies and comfy bottoms. “Our trainers and flat sliders are also selling extremely well,” she adds. And although the store’s occasion wear has been reduced by 50 per cent, it’s not moving. “It’s a real concern as there’s an awful lot of stock still to be sold so that suppliers can be paid.”

Now that lockdown restrictions are being lifted, though, will there be a run on fun and flirty party dresses or are we looking at a life of athleisure wear? Cooke believes more women want to embrace the kind of “Hamptons” style seen in the US - laidback and leisure-inspired. Most of her brands are imported from America and she maintains they do comfort wear better than anyone. Dublin-based stylist Sarah Rickard, whose #tryonTuesday videos have become an Instagram favourite, says this is borne out by her followers. “Any type of tailored jogger I feature sells out,” she says. “The women who follow me love a little #fashiondistraction in the form of a pretty dress, but it’s the comfy clothes they’re buying”…

The ease of wearing loungewear and trainers everyday can’t be underestimated, I know, but in truth I’m dying to feel like “me” again in midi skirts and knee-high boots, blazers and bag pants. But several women I know feel very differently. This pandemic has opened up a pandora’s box of possibilities. Fifty-four-year-old Brenda Duffy is global corporate controller of an American multinational. She used to spend at least two hours in traffic every day commuting to her Pearse Street office and wore a strict uniform of smart trousers, simple tops and button-front shirts in restrained neutrals. Her day-to-day uniform has been transformed by her new reality working from home. “Colour was something I never felt comfortable wearing to a corporate office,” she explains. Now, her sombre navy’s and conservative greys have been replaced with tangerine, green and bright blue, and her silhouettes are more fluid and feminine. She’s far happier with this “new normal” and feels it’s having a positive impact on both her work and home life. Her style has pivoted from corporate-led to personality-inspired.

A new shopping experience

While working from home allows women to dress more like themselves, it also puts less pressure on them to arrive at work in different outfits every day, so the Government’s suggestion that “purposeful shopping” be part of our new reality makes perfect sense. Practicalities aside, the entire ambience of in-store buying is likely to change dramatically and influence how, and whether, we shop in the future. Queuing will be standard, while numbers inside will be strictly limited, making browsing less comfortable. Changing rooms will be sanitised after every use, while items tried on will be disinfected and possibly quarantined. It doesn’t make for a carefree shopping experience and doesn’t sound like it will inspire impromptu purchases. In fact, The Guardian recently reported that the atmosphere in some luxury Parisian stores which have reopened after lockdown is “lodged between a museum visit and a dystopian sci-fi movie” as “masked and gloved staff” guide shoppers along “the mandatory curated route so as to avoid any potential physical contact”. They sound like Guardians of the Galaxy rather than sales assistants. Will shopping for fashion be tantamount to Mission Impossible from now on? At the very least, it’s going to feel remarkably like grocery shopping; you arrive with a list, queue, then get in and get out.

I think Cooke is right in her assessment of how quickly this country is coming to terms with online shopping. Browsing beautifully styled outfits on a website from the comfort of the home certainly sounds more relaxing than standing single file outside a boutique like you do Tesco. On the upside, this pandemic could fast-forward to a genuine era of mindful consumerism. As most of us look inside our wardrobes at all the clothes we’re not wearing and think about the economic challenges ahead, our perspectives are altering. How we work, shop and live is changing dramatically, so wouldn’t it make more sense to invest in items that can do double duty? Clothes that are as flexible as our new lifestyles; pieces that blur the boundaries between active, day and evening wear? A couple of years ago I read a fashion piece which proclaimed that swimwear was the new daywear; that women were high-tailing it to the office in a skirt, blazer and their favourite swimsuit in lieu of a top. I didn’t believe it or buy into it at the time, but post-pandemic, why not? We’re all going to have to work a little bit harder going forward - to stay safe and healthy, to keep financially afloat. It makes sense that the clothes we buy earn their keep.

Marie Kelly, June 2020.