The (In)Elasticity of Elastic Pants

No longer the domain of elderly ladies on their morning walks, elastic pants are making a comeback - into officewear.

The Fashionomist is not one to scorn trends without trying them, and currently, she must say the jeggings she is lounging in as she types in an overheated computer lab meet the casual comfort requirements set by Fridays.  But The Fashionomist has a difficult time understanding why elastic pants are entering the cubicle...

Perhaps the relaxation of business attire in the workplace is to blame.  According to the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/fashion/17elastic.html?_r=1&ref=fashion), only 4% of women work in an environment that calls for them to wear business attire.  For some reason, this translates to a permission slip for yoga pants, leggings, and stretchy pants of any type to infiltrate offices, turning the corporate world into a yoga studio collective.


Why do elastic pants have such a fan following, with no hint of receding in sight?

A variety of economic factors may play into why pull-on pants rank high on many a woman's wardrobe list.  Work-at-home opportunities, particularly for mothers, are mushrooming and becoming more and more prevalent for both sexes - no longer are people restricted to an office environment, blurring the transition between playdates and power meetings.  Suits are notoriously pricey, especially for women who usually mix and match skirts/tops/blazers/shoes/accessories, while yoga pants come in a variety of convenient price ranges and fabrics.  Affordable and comfortable - an unbeatable combination in women's officewear.


And this trend is not just restricted to females - male counterparts performed 57% of searches on Yahoo! for yoga pants.

Naturally, as an economist, The Fashionomist is analyzing this trend from a fashionomic perspective and trying to understand if underlying trends are driving the elastic pants bonanza.  Elasticity is the concept related to price and demand of goods - normally, if price changes significantly (say, price falls), more goods are demanded; likewise, the opposite is true.  Yet here, we notice that stretchy pants have become a product that goes beyond price to be simply everyday wear for many women, despite price.  Fashion powerhouses are adopting the trend and infusing it with finer details, such as organic cotton and sequins, to make it more palatable to the fashion-conscious.  The increases in price do not seem to deter women from pulling on their no-think, no-snap pantaloons - if anything, they are grabbing more.  The Fashionomist wonders if elastic pants are tiptoeing into inelastic (changes in price do not necessarily influence changes in demand) territory?

The Fashionomist only hopes that elastic pants do not crossover into boardrooms.  Female executives are rare enough as it is, and The Fashionomist is unsure anyone, man or woman, could possibly respect a woman who won't take an extra millisecond to zip and button her pants.


What do you think of elastic pants?  Is there an underlying economic reason for their popularity?


*The Fashionomist*