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Would you wear a tracksuit to impress a first date?
Despite being a keen tennis player and spending half my life in Adidas gear, it didn’t enter my head to wear it for my night out at Stockton’s Club Fiesta. I wore a pair of navy blue corduroy trousers, with a blue and yellow checked shirt that tied at the collar in a navy bow. I can’t remember what my date wore – the relationship didn’t end well and I’m probably blocking it out – but I know it was suitable for the occasion. It certainly wasn’t an outfit designed for a running track.
Back then people didn’t wear fitness gear for social activities. If you bumped into someone wearing a tracksuit while out shopping or drinking in the pub, they were probably a PE teacher.
Nowadays, so-called athleisure clothing is a fashion staple, worn for just about any activity. A study by Primark found that six out of ten Britons wear workout clothes for activities including shopping and meeting friends, and almost a quarter wear such attire for the office, trips to the theatre and think nothing of wearing it on a first date.
I haven’t been on a date in decades and am highly unlikely to go on one again, but if I did, and the bloke turned up wearing in sports gear, unless we were going for a run, I’d be put off straight away.
It’s not that I’m hugely fussy about appearance, it’s just first dates are very much about first impressions and trackie bottoms and hoodies just don’t cut it.
You only have to watch First Dates on TV or read those blind date features in newspapers. – time and again people comment on their date’s appearance and whether they feel they made an effort. It’s not that you would expect top hat and tails, just not something from JD Sports.
Few men look good in tracksuits, especially those light grey affairs you see on ‘24 Hours in Police Custody’, that for some unfathomable reason are hugely popular on the high street.
It also seems to me that, for many people – both men and women – the urge to wear sports gear is usually in inverse proportion to a desire to take exercise.
I realise that casual clothing is seen as acceptable in many more situations nowadays than when I was young. Back in the seventies and eighties, anyone going to the theatre would be sure to dress smartly.
I remember as a teenager going on a school trip to London to see a show and being captivated by the sumptuous outfits worn by people in the audience.
Now, most theatregoers are not so much smart, or even smart-casual. They are well and truly casual, with athleisure wear very much in evidence, from the stalls to the dress circle.
Office workers too have ditched more formal clothing in favour of gear that wouldn’t look out of place in a gym. On a recent trip to London it struck me how different commuters looked to how they appeared when I lived there in the 1980s. On the tube, at the height of rush hour, there were barely any suits, ties and formal shoes to be seen, but plenty of jogging bottoms, hoodies and trainers.
But back to first dates. It’s not only men who should go out of their way to avoid athleisure wear if they are looking to impress. Those ultra-tight leggings that show off every crease and dimple of the lower body don’t do women any favours. I’d avoid those on a first date, and, if you want to be in with a chance, on the second and third too.
