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This is an all English podcast, episode one thousand five hundred fifty one, are you wearing sweatpants? How will fashion change in the next few years?

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Welcome to the All Ears English podcast downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American hosts. Linda McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York Radio Girl coming to you from Colorado and New York City U. S a and to get Real-Time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try our Iooss app.

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Start your seven day free trial at all ears English dot com forward slash bonuses. How important is fashion in your culture today? We get into this topic, how have your dressing habits changed while working from home? We give our opinions and insight into fashion in the U.S. Plus, find out what is the worst dressed city in the U.S..

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Hey, Lindsay, how are you doing? I have a child. Glad to be here. We're on YouTube today, guys. Just so you know, if you prefer to consume over there, you can go over and check out this video this week. So good.

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That's awesome of them, guys. Welcome, welcome. Welcome. So, Lindsay, I have a question. OK, I'm ready. I'm ready.

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All right. So your question. You work at home and I'm always at home now, too. Do you always get dressed?

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Beyonce? I mean, do I sit in my underwear or what exactly do underwear. But do you have pajama days? Pajama days? I when I first started working online, I definitely had pajama days, like in 20, which I hate to admit it, like twenty ten is when I started my another online business in twenty twelve. Nobody was working online then. I felt so cool. I was like I'm going to hang out in my pajamas and my sweatshirt.

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But now I honestly feel too ratty if I don't put on at least jeans and a shirt. So I don't do that anymore. I won't work in sweat pants. It's a hard role. What about you Michelle?

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I'm I will I will work in sweat pants. I mean, I it takes like kind of a long time to get the day rolling because I'm with my son. And then usually then we both go outside and so like we go outside every day. So of course I'm going to get dressed for that. Yeah. But I would say I don't dress up very frequently to be sure. And I think, you know, overall kind of people are leaning more towards this loungewear for, you know, like, oh yeah, yeah.

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I think you're right.

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It's even before the pandemic, before we all ended up at home all the time, there was a whole athleisure genre of clothes that's actually really hot right now. Athleisure. I know you know about these joggers.

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I can't imagine. I mean, you know, different brands are just and they charge a lot for these clothes, these athleisure clothes.

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They're like the sweat sweatpants. That kind of table are at the bottom.

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Do you exactly do you own any. I don't know. I don't own any pants. I own a pair of sweatpants, but not like the glorified ones. Yeah, I own I would never buy sweatpants that cost me one hundred dollars. I just couldn't do it.

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You. Well guys, we were talking about this today because I read this great article on Huffington Post. It is called How Getting Dressed Up or not to Sit Home All Day Affects Your Mood. And it is by Esther Aquatica. I'm so sorry if I'm if I'm butchering that name, but it was written in January 19th. Twenty twenty one. So, yeah, we will leave you the link to that. So I mean, I think fashion has certainly started to change.

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I'd like Lindsey said even before all of this, I mean, work from home clothes you think are certainly, you know, almost kind of a new thing I've seen on some, like, clothing sites that it will be like, you know, comfy work clothes and things like that.

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So where you feel like you're it it's different. But, you know, you're you're kind of working and stylish, but you're still much more comfortable than you would have been. I mean, it makes sense, right?

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It makes sense that these companies would want to pivot a little bit to customer needs and the pandemic and ended up being longer term than we thought. We thought it would be a couple weeks at home and ended up being a year or more at home. Right. It makes total sense.

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But yeah, it's fascinating. I'm thinking I need to go shopping before this whole thing ends because there must be some deals, right? Still some great deals before everyone go shopping or everyone is going to go shopping as soon as we get out of our homes.

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That's right. That's right. Yeah. So, guys, I mean, this article definitely read it. It talks about how what you wear can definitely, you know, impact your emotional state, you know, your mental health. And you know what? What's interesting, though, is apparently it's not what you would think. So I thought it was just going to say, oh, always get dressed to feel nice. And it doesn't necessarily say that.

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I mean, I also saw other articles that kind of, you know, said that. But this one talks in a in a different kind of way. I mean, Linda, do you think that, you know, you say that you try and get in jeans and everything, do you do this for your emotional state or do you do this because you're going outside?

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I mean, why why do you think it's important?

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Yeah, I do it because I don't want to feel lazy or something. I have this thing about sweat pants, right? It's like a sun hanging around the house. No problem. But if it's a weekday, I think it's a work ethic agreement I have with myself. If I'm working like I need to at least be in I don't know. It's more of how I will feel about myself. Right. If I'm still in sweat pants at six o'clock.

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Now, that's just me guys. Don't worry. No judgment if our listeners are in sweat pants. No judgment. No, of course not. I mean, I certainly I mean, for me, I have noticed because, you know, I've been just really with my with my son all day, every day, you know, I don't. I don't. Put myself together in the same way that I would if I were going out a lot and in those moments when I do, I really feel better.

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I'm like, oh yeah, I forgot about this girl. I feel so much better, you know, when I put on something nice or do my hair or something like that. But I mean, just to be honest, I mean, I get dressed, but like, it's not a fashion show around here for a fashion show around my place either. Don't worry, Michelle, don't work. But at least when we're on video, we try a little bit harder.

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Yeah. Yeah, I know it's a good it's a good excuse to to to feel good. So, yeah. You know, I'm not going to the article basically goes over the positives of each dressing up or dressing down. Right. So dressing, you know, like, you know as you're going out or just kind of swipes right. To success down. Yeah, right. That's the I always say dressing up or dressing that. So I'm not going to necessarily go into the article completely, but basically, you know, and they talk about how dressing up can, of course, you know, give you this happy feeling, give you more motivation.

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You want to get things done, you know, and also they mentioned that once you do go back to work one day, it will be an easier transition because you won't be like, oh, my gosh, I'm so not used to wearing regular clothes and with an actual button. Right. Supposed to do this again. And also it talks about, you know, a fashion, you know, gives this chance to be creative and to, you know, get those juices flowing.

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So those are kind of the positives for dressing up. But it says that there are also good things about, you know, being more relaxed with what you're wearing. I mean, for one, it said that, you know, sometimes if if it's not for you trying to have this fashionable, you know, style can make people nervous and they might spend too much time thinking about what are they going to wear.

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Right. If they're going out. And she could, they say, actually make you have the opposite effect. Do you think that it would like it might make you get less done because you're so focused on the clothes?

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Because I guess we have to find that balance, right? I mean, I wonder what our listeners do. I think this is cultural, too. Right? So I think certain cultures tend to dress up a lot more than maybe even in our culture. We do.

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Yeah, for sure. For sure. So I think it's fascinating. Yeah. Yeah.

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Get your fluency score with our simple two minute quiz. Are you fifty percent. Sixty five percent or 80 percent fluent. We can tell you when you complete your quiz. So find out for free right now at all your English dot com forward slash fluency score.

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Yeah, and they actually mentioned Steve Jobs, remember, Lindsey wanted Steve Jobs where he wore the famous black turtleneck. Yeah. And the jeans. And I think he wore like white sneakers or something with that. It was every time they did a launch and he went on stage, he would wear that same outfit. Everyone knew that those were the launch clothes for a new device. Yeah, right.

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Right, right. It was like his uniform. And so the article, you know, I mean, he was certainly a very successful person. So it didn't impact, you know, his success, what he wore. Right. So it said that, though, that, you know, creativity can work with flashy or with non flashy clothes. Right. So it really depends on the person. It's how creativity can be totally different for each person. And I don't know that this necessarily means, like, your uniform is pajamas.

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Right. But being casual is also OK. And, you know, putting not having to put too much thought into what you wear might actually give your brain room for other things. So that's that's what I like about this in the article. But I found that really interesting.

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That's what I think. So just to chime in here, a little bit of what you just said I think is right on. And it may just be my way of justifying that I'm too lazy to plan something out when I'm working from home or even in general. I'm not a big fashion person. But I did hear a famous tech entrepreneur say once now this was a guy. So I wonder if it would be a double standard for men and women, by the way.

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But a guy said he owns a big famous tech company that everyone knows. He said that he always wears the same like the same top and the same jeans. He just has a bunch of them because of the same ones, because he doesn't want to waste brain space. He needs to consider every decision has to be premade in the morning. What he eats. It's the same thing, right? What he dresses in. Same thing because he needs that brain space to get to work.

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Because they do say that creativity has an end point in the day, like willpower and creativity can run out.

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Right. Or maybe not creativity, but willpower and like focus.

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It has a finite end during the day. At some point you have to stop and you burn out. Right.

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If you burn it all out and decisions, do I wear the red or the blue or do I eat things to eat that? Maybe I'll make this. By the time you get into the height of your day, are you on the down turn? You know what I mean?

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It's an interesting question that is interesting. And it is so true that, like, I think it's different for everybody because some people might feel motivated by making those decisions.

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Yeah. Yeah, true. I, I don't I'm kind of like you, Lindsay. I don't know I don't know anything about fashion as that's what you said. Right about yourself. You're not you're not really into the I'm not really into it too. But every once in a while I find myself doing a Google search about what should I wear or what's good for my body type or whatever. And then I just kind of get like and I just stop because it's just too much for me.

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So I don't it's a lot, much too much thought into it because, I mean, I'm sure our listeners who are very into fashion know it's it's really a science.

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I mean, it's really it's not it's not easy fashion. It's not easy.

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Yeah, but the thing is interesting, though. It's so cultural because some people would say, like, that's really bad for a career or a life for someone not to be planned out. Sometimes I wish in other cultures, I mean, I feel like they might think that or say that, right? I don't believe that. I mean, I spent ten years living in literally the worst dressed city in the US, Boston. If you look it up online, what are the worst dressed?

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Yeah. What are the worst dressed cities in the US? Boston one because people wear like hoodies and sneakers and awful boat shoes. There's this weird preppy look going on. It's so bad. It's so bad.

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New York is obviously better than New York is great. Everyone is dressed pretty well. And so it's just interesting. I don't know, we all have culture or personality values, but I think in the US there's more tolerance for that than in other cultures.

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Like, it's OK. It's kind of OK if that's your thing, it's your style to not really worry about what you're wearing. That's OK. Except there is something to being put together too.

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So I wish I had a little bit more skill in that area when it really matters, right?

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No, no, I agree with you. Like, I wish I wish I knew a little bit more about it, but I always seem to get intimidated whenever I try and learn more because it can be intimidating. It is. It is. There's there's a lot to it. You know how the colors will look with you. And I don't know, there is there is really a lot that goes into it. But I mean, yeah, there are a lot of cultures that I mean, even for the work, for work, they're more casual or dressy, you know.

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So definitely, guys, let us know kind of what is what I'm curious about. What is your regular work culture, you know, as far as fashion goes when you're in the office? And do you think that, like, maybe this will change at some point when people start going back in?

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Yeah, I'm curious about that, too. And. I'm curious also, guys, what's your work cult like, what are the standards in your culture for fashion? And then as you've been in the pandemic inside your home, how has that translated into what you've been wearing during the day? Have you felt like you needed to wear get dressed up for work, or have you been able to do the sweat pants and pajamas thing?

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Yeah, right.

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Right, right. Yeah, exactly. I know, I, I do wonder about that. I think that I've certainly gotten more comfortable and more comfortable clothing.

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I mean I do like to go outside. I'm always in jeans, especially when it's cold, if it's a little bit warmer. I sometimes I'm in leggings, shorts, things like that. But so and but even just to put them on, I'm kind of like, you know, I think I am developing a little bit of an aversion to. Yeah, I get that.

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I get that. I mean, I thought pants are comfy, but yeah. Guys, let us know. Come back to the blog. What episode number this is 15 fifty one. Or you could also leave a comment right there on YouTube if you're listening to this over there, right, Michel. Yeah. Cool.

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Cool. Yeah. Well this is fun. We'll leave you the link to the article so you can read that as well and definitely let us know. Yeah.

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And guys go get your fluency score. I want to make sure our listeners know about this opportunity. Michel, it's a simple quiz. It's just a few questions that you can come and take. It'll take you about two minutes. You'll find out if your fluency score is fifty percent fluency. Sixty five percent fluent or eighty percent fluent. So find out which one you are. Go to all English Dotcom's fluency score and then you'll get resources to start at your level, not at someone else's level, but at your level.

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So good, so good of.

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OK, I love it. Lyndsey. This has been fun guys. And also just you know, this is a great conversation topic, right? So this is something that will get people talking. So definitely bring it up in your next conversation and yeah, let us know how it goes.

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All right, Michelle, talk to you soon. Take care. Bye, guys. Bye.

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Thanks for listening to all ears English, would you like to know your English level, take our two minute quiz. Go to all ears, English dot com forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit. Subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.