we cannot wear leggings anymore. I'm sorry.
it's a parachute pant world and we are just living in it.
The fashion pendulum has swung once again, and leggings— the ultimate symbol of millennial practicality and athleisure dominance—have somehow become the skinny jeans of our generation. It's a jarring realization that the stretchy black pants we've lived in for over a decade are now being side-eyed by Gen Z as "cheugy" and dated.
The shift feels particularly brutal because leggings represented everything we thought fashion should be: comfortable, versatile, democratizing. They were the great equalizer—flattering on various body types, appropriate for everything from yoga class to grocery runs to casual Fridays. But fashion's relentless cycle has caught up with us, and suddenly our practical uniform has become a generational marker. Sigh.
Back in April, I wrote a substack about gym shorts which I see now was foreshadowing. My personal journey from leggings to gym shorts was seamless - wearing them felt nostalgic and saying the word “umbro” made me feel like I was in middle school again, collecting Lisa Frank stickers and saving up money to buy sour belts.
I have have been wearing these adidas shorts with an oversized graphic tee and/or sweatshirt almost every morning to walk my dog. I have added more shorts to my collection since we last spoke and it is looking like it is going to be a gym short September for me. Below is outfit inspiration for when you mindlessly reach for those leggings in the morning.
This past weekend during my morning dog walk in Amagansett, I spotted this woman crossing the street in the most perfect pair of gym shorts that weren't quite gym shorts. Lucky for me, about ten minutes later I ended up right behind her in the coffee line. I finally worked up the courage to ask her about the pants, and she just shrugged and said she had no idea, picked them up somewhere on Lafayette Street in the city. I'm racking my brain trying to figure out what store she meant, so I threw out "Free People?" and she immediately shot back, "I'm 70 years old, I don't wear Free People." But her daughter, who'd been listening to this whole thing, quietly reached around and flipped up the tag on her mom's waistband—FP Movement, clear as day.
Enter the parachute pant renaissance—those billowy, ultra-wide-leg trousers that seem to defy all logic about proportion and practicality. There's something almost mystical about how fashion rewires our visual preferences seemingly overnight—one day you're walking past wide-leg pants thinking they look like those inflatable tube men you see at car dealerships, and then suddenly your eye shifts and those same proportions start looking effortlessly chic. No wonder last weeks substack was about cargo pants….
I promise I am not trying to convince you that those baggy, often neon-colored parachute pants that were a staple of 90s rave culture (with all the straps, buckles, and too much fabric) are back. The FP Movement ones are like the younger cousin who insists the 2017 Disney Adventures in Babysitting remake is the original - they still have that distinctive "whoosh" sound when you walk, but their barrel-shaped, slightly cropped leg and wider waistband drag them kicking and screaming into the current decade.
Below is an easy outfit you can wear with your new FP pants (or you can defiantly continue to wear your leggings) knowing full well you are dating yourself with every step.
If you don’t want to take my word for it, you can read this Wall Street Journal article (that came out a few days after I saw that seventy year old woman in the FP pants) about how leggings are dead and all the cool girls are strutting around in pants so voluminous they could literally catch air.
C’mon get out your skateboards out ladies, bust out those glow sticks and let’s hit the streets. As always thank you for subscribing and please send to your friends! Xo
PS - everything you see here plus more in this SHOP!
My leggings and I are staying together, mostly because I would never even attempt to bike in parachute pants.
gen z can suck it. i’m sick of hearing about what they do or do not like each minute.