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The story
A thread on 5ch’s Hello! Project board heated up over whether wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts as everyday clothing is “uncool.” It started with comparisons to Heisei-era fashion, tracing how sweatsuit-style outfits spread over the past few years following the wide-leg pants boom of 2020–2021. Posters who seemed to be older argued things like “It’s ridiculous to ride the train dressed like you’re just popping into a convenience store,” while younger posters countered that “sweatpants are the mainstream look now,” with the argument dragging on into fine-grained disputes over color and fabric choices.
What people said
Mini skirts were everywhere for the past few years
2020-2021 was the dark ages of wide-leg pants dominance
Sweatsuit sets have been trending for about three years now
Even cost-performance-wise
Sweats are convenience-store-run clothes, you wouldn't take the train in them
Though if you're going out in your parents' car, it's a convenience-store vibe wherever you end up
If you're splitting it into three eras, shouldn't it be like this?
1989-1999: Early Heisei
2000-2009: Mid Heisei
2010-2019: Late Heisei
1989-1998: Early Heisei
1999-2008: Mid Heisei
2009-2019: Late Heisei
2019 barely lasted half a year, so this breakdown works better
Sweatpants are a K-pop idol influence
It's just the trend, that's why
Light gray just screams 'I walked straight out of my room'
That's exactly the old-guy mentality
I'm in my late 20s, but wearing gray sweats as streetwear is embarrassing, no thanks
Sweatpants are the superior choice now
At my local shopping center, the gals are wearing denim shorts, ripped jeans, even nostalgic bell-bottoms
Sweats are only for the gals who look like they literally walked out in their pajamas
—said the old guy
Someone with zero taste who doesn't even realize light gray looks even more like loungewear
Nah, it won't
As long as your face and figure are good
And the reverse is true too
If your clothes are lame, people will be embarrassed to be seen next to you
Correct call — light-wash denim is too casual and doesn't suit older guys
Gray or black is the way
Thinking that's stylish is exactly what makes someone lame
Fine for dance practice, sure
But wearing practice clothes as streetwear shows zero taste
I'd prefer you call them 'distressed denim' lol
They weren't distressed, they just had square holes in them
See, that mindset itself is outdated
Your values are outdated and lame
The whole concept of this fashion is going out dressed like you're in loungewear or dance-practice gear
Saying 'black doesn't look like loungewear' means you don't get the concept
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Sweatsuit sets and sweatpants have become a fixture of everyday fashion over the past several years, following the wide-leg pants boom of 2020–2021. One theory floated in the thread was that the trend was influenced by K-pop idols’ off-duty style, but that’s purely speculation from posters, not a verified fact. The debate split along whether sweats-as-streetwear should be seen as “basically loungewear” or as “a style that earned legitimacy through dance culture,” with opinions dividing further down to specifics like color (black versus light gray). What readers shouldn’t mistake this for is a statistical statement about “Reiwa-generation fashion sense” as a whole — it’s just an exchange of subjective opinions on an anonymous forum, and the generational mismatch over what counts as “uncool” is itself the classic shape of this kind of thread.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread 「[Sad News] Reiwa Women’s Fashion Under Fire for Being Uncool👩」.
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