I love jumpsuits. I used to feel cool and unique wearing them, but now I am starting to feel like a graying Gen X-er clinging to their fashion past. Is the fabulous jumpsuit still as fab as it used to be, or is it a not-so-secret sign of your age? — River, Washington, D.C.
I think the question here is really less about the jumpsuit than the kind of jumpsuit you are talking about and its role in your life. Aside from certain infantilizing garments like rompers and bloomers, which should not be worn by any adult woman, most clothes are not a priori associated with any particular generation. It’s the style, and styling, that matters.
Think, for example, of the way a loyalty to super-skinny jeans can mark someone as a millennial. It’s not the jeans that are the giveaway. It’s the cut.
And then think about the history of jumpsuits, which were invented back in 1919 to allow parachuters to jump out of airplanes without their clothes getting in the way.
Fashion got hold of the all-in-one in the 1930s, thanks to Elsa Schiaparelli, and it became a more functional garment for women during World War II, when jumpsuits became a uniform for factory munitions workers. (See: Rosie the Riveter.) It was Bonnie Cashin, one of the godmothers of easy American sportswear, who embraced the style in the 1950s and created the jumpsuit as most of us know it today.
And for all that time, Gen X wasn’t even a gleam in anyone’s eye.
In recent years fashion houses like Saint Laurent, Lanvin and Prada have put their own spin on the jumpsuit, and public figures of a variety of ages, including Amal Clooney, Emma Stone, Oprah and Gayle King, have worn jumpsuits on the red carpet and at work.
All of which suggests that if you are feeling self-conscious in your jumpsuit, it’s probably not the garment. It’s you.
Or, rather, it’s you experiencing the natural ebb and flow of fashion maturation and the need to reconcile a new sense of self with an old wardrobe.
The reason you may be feeling uneasy about your jumpsuits is because they probably represent a specific era in your life, one that may now be giving way to a new phase. At a certain point, I stopped wearing short skirts. It wasn’t because my aging legs demanded it, or because higher hemlines were out of style, but because minis simply no longer matched my emotional or psychological state. I associated them with an earlier period in my life and was ready to move on.
You may be in the same place with your jumpsuits, in which case you have two options. You can put them away for a while to test out different options (a blazer and jeans, a shirtdress), or if you don’t want to give up the ease and functionality they represent, you can try a different style.
Bailey Moon, who is working with Pamela Anderson on her “Naked Gun” looks and styled Jill Biden while she was the first lady, suggests avoiding boiler suit or workwear styles, as well as flowy jersey numbers (especially if they have a sash), and opting for a more tailored cut. Or you can change it up, and rather than wearing a jumpsuit at work, wear one for evening. Like a black-tie tuxedo number.
The point is to decontextualize the jumpsuit for yourself so you start thinking of it in a new way. It will still have the X factor. Just not the Gen.
Your Style Questions, Answered
Every week on Open Thread, Vanessa will answer a reader’s fashion-related question, which you can send to her anytime via email or X. Questions are edited and condensed.
Vanessa Friedman has been the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The Times since 2014.
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