Wearing Tracksuit Pants to Job Interviews

READ > As a preface to this article, THIS is the pair of tracksuit pants I own that are referred to within.

“Being fashionable isn’t easy” a girl barked at me. She had caught me smirking from across the carriage as she wrestled with her circulation-reducing tights and satin print platforms. She was pretty and stylish, but she was also wrong. You see, earlier in the year during a mundane business trip to fashion savvy Melbourne, I stumbled upon tangible proof fashion can be easy. Wandering into the Brothers Apparel store, I came face to face with a pair of tracksuit pants that not only felt amazing, but seemed to fit the bill for even my most ambitious Saturday night outings. The Brothers range (here), to me seemed like a perfectly understated testament to the comfortable crossover breed of style that the modern day can spawn. Before you close up shop and rule out the possibility of women making sexual advancements on you while wearing tracksuit pants, let me tell you a tale.

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Before my Melbourne discovery, tracksuit pants used to follow mornings where doing shots at 4am in a bar I didn’t even like was a welcomed concept. During these periods, I was feeling so dusty that a struggle with stubborn skinnies would have put me at legitimate risk of suicide. The main downside of these days of distaste? My shitty, hole infested pants had my ass on house arrest, no matter how bad I wanted to duck out for a coffee. Let’s face it, leaving the house with tracksuit pants on is like inviting celibacy over for a year. I always wondered what my relaxation days would be like had tracksuit pants being born into the socially acceptable realm. Never had I wished more for a piece of clothing to become acceptable social attire than this humble cotton concoction. They’re easy breathing, feel like clouds and give you a level of maneuverability even gymnasts dream about at night; so there was really only one piece of the puzzle missing. Perhaps that’s why I took so kindly to Brothers, who’d managed to keep the comfort of a 100% cotton garment, but infuse it with the style one needs to make it out into public without feeling like a homeless man. Wearable, aesthetically pleasing and struggle free, it was an easy sell for me.

After living in my first pair of Brothers pants for almost a month, I decided to test the waters in increasingly formal settings. They looked amazing, but I was having trouble breaking down the mental hurdles surrounding public appearances in clothing that was comfortable enough to sleep in. My foray into the realm came at a dinner party late in the summer. Aside from a kind compliment from the host, nothing was mentioned at all. The host was so wired on a potent melting pot of Xanax and champagne I took her praise with a grain of salt and decided my next venture would be a runway show the following week. Stumbling around until the wee hours of the morning, I was shocked at how well they were received this time around. After a bunch of complimentary champagne and a great show, I couldn’t count the amount of compliments I’d received – or perhaps I couldn’t count at all. I strutted out of the place with a new found confidence in the comfiest pair of slacks I’d ever owned. One girl even audaciously rubbed the material, gasping at how wonderful they felt. Terrible pickup line or factual observation is anyone’s guess, but the night had solidified my hope everyone else thought they looked as cool as I did.

My final and perhaps most ambitious test was a sales pitch in front of a few potential clients. It wasn’t formal enough to warrant a suit, but I was definitely walking a fine line wearing my now favourite pair of pants. Confident in their ability, I pitched my little heart out and wound up signing the deal. Bouncing out of the hatted restaurant, I couldn’t wait to get home and brag about how I pulled off a 5 figure deal in tracksuit pants. Needless to say, I thought it was only suitable to spend my commission on another pair of the moderately priced social saviors. Two pairs later, one self-motivated article (bag of praise) and a swag of compliments, it’s safe to say Brothers Apparel sealed my vote. I couldn’t help but smile at the fact I was wearing the clothing equivalent of Al Pacino; honest, durable and versatile as fuck.