Loungewear: Demand For Comfort Rises Amid Uncomfortable Times

In the new normal, suits and dresses are taking a back seat and loungewear has graduated into a daily necessity as consumers tentatively embrace their new home-based realities...

- Shivam Gautom

While the coronavirus pandemic immobilized the entire world, fashion continued to evolve. In fact, the lockdown and the lull has triggered new trends in fashion. As the world became restricted to their homes, consumers’ started gravitating towards fashion that catered to the new normal -- comfortable and presentable clothes that can easily transition from work from home to work-out, to grocery-run and social-media appearances. And this is where loungewear came in!

Loungewear had gained acceptance much before the pandemic took over, but the demand skyrocketed globally after the lockdowns. Online shopping sales site lovethesale.com has reported that loungewear witnessed a 433% jump in consumer demand as early as April 2020 in the UK alone.

“Loungewear has been the most the popular ‘lockdown clothing’ category. Retailers have witnessed a sudden jump in the consumer demand compared to the previous year. We have observed a growth of around 18 percent in our loungewear segment in last 2 months. Retailers that didn’t rely on this category before the lockdown are now heavily promoting it, and even speeding up production on new styles and colors,” states Siddharth Grover, Director, Groversons Paris Beauty.