The Atlantic
What a polarizing garment says about America
February 18, 2021
To mid-aughts celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, they were high fashion. To the likes of Jerry Seinfeld and Eva Mendes, they’re a sign of defeat; they declare to the world, as Jerry tells George Costanza in the
Seinfeld pilot, “I’m miserable, so I might as well be comfortable.”
And since the start of the pandemic, sweatpants have become perhaps more ubiquitous than ever.
“A lot of people who had been going to offices stopped going to offices for the foreseeable future,” Amanda Mull, a staff writer for
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Julia Longoria:
Vann, I was I was so sorry to hear about your mom passing. Um, how how are you holding up?
Vann R. Newkirk II:
Longoria:
Newkirk:
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Newkirk:
Longoria:
Newkirk:
She was a teacher, and lots of kids would ask if my mom ever blinked. [Longoria laughs.] She never cursed. She was terrified of anything that did not have legs: snakes, slugs, worms. [Longoria laughs again.] The thing I think about a lot and it’s a really weird, dumb thing to think about, but, you know, grief does really weird things to your brain I think a lot about her hands. She and I have, like, strangely similar hands. Long, spindly fingers. Our knuckles are very prominent. It’s like branches on a tree, almost. That’s the first thing I think about when I think about her, uh, because it was such a reminder that she was me.