Warm Fuzzies

When Covid-19 hit, I traded out anything I owned that was remotely scratchy for leggings, baby-soft tees, and hoodies so soft that I felt like I was sitting in a cloud. I’ve always gravitated towards soft clothing since realizing that it helps with my anxiety. However, with all the complications that were thrown into the world recently, I found that even my already-soft clothes were not enough. If a piece of clothing didn’t make me feel like being swaddled in a baby blanket, I shoved it to the back of my closet for better days. Now, this means that I feel like a walking advertisement for Aerie. This is not sponsored, but I swear their T-shirt and sweats are made of a new element other clothing companies have yet to discover. After hearing from family members that soft clothing was helping them as well, I wondered if there was a psychological basis to this.

According to Wendi Gardner, a social psychologist and professor at Northwestern University, there are a number of theories on this topic. However, the one that Gardner gravitates towards is that our tactile sense mimics contact with others. 

“Think of any wildlife documentary you’ve ever seen with chimpanzees or bonobos or gorillas,”  Gardner said. “They spend all their time stroking and grooming one another.”

Gardner suspects that when mammals are forced to deviate from this default proximity to one another, they turn to soft objects in order to fulfill that psychological need to be close to the pack.

In an article for the Journal of Consumer Research, Dan King and Chris Janiszewski define this phenomenon as affect-gating, where a mammal's emotional state changes their selection of incoming sensory inputs. When in a positive state, they experience heightened sensitivity to visual stimulation. When in a negative state, they respond more to the tactile cues of their environment.

According to King and Janiszewski, the negative affective state results from physical or social-psychological pain. One way to ease this distress is through “affiliative touch.” Mammals have special slow-responding touch receptors on the torso and any body parts covered in hair. These receptors only respond to stroking or gentle touch, indicating to the brain that an individual is being soothed by a parent or another member of the clan. These receptors are unrelated to fast-conducting sensory pathways, such as those on the palms of the hands or pads of the fingertips, that can be used to incite “discriminatory touch.” 

King and Janiszewski even cite a study showing that distressed rats experience relief from synthetic carpeting on the floor that bears no resemblance to a caregiver. This is particularly interesting because it suggests that mammals can derive comfort solely from tactile sensation with no visual representation of a comfort object. 

For Medill second-year Kacee Haslett, the tendency to surround herself with soft objects has always been intuitive due to a combination of sensitivity and anxiety.

“When I was really little and my mom was breastfeeding me, she would have to take off all my clothes and turn off all the lights because I would get really distracted from sensory overload,” Haslett said.

Weinberg fourth-year Grace Gay also pays special attention to the texture of her clothing. When Gay was a second-year, she went through a bad depressive episode and realized that her main comforts were related to tactile sensations. Afterward, she started wearing softer clothing on a day-to-day basis.

“I wear a mixture of fabrics to have different things touching my skin so I can focus on any one of those [if I get anxious],” Gay said.

I think humans recognize that there’s some inherent benefit in soft clothing. That’s why we prefer to wear soft pajamas when going to bed or to lounge in sweatpants when we’re stressed. Especially now that classes are virtual for a large portion of the Northwestern population, many students have been defaulting to loungewear.

Haslett said that when packing to return to Evanston this fall, she only brought sweatshirts, sweatpants and t-shirts. 

“I knew I wasn’t going to be doing any of the things I used to and that I was just going to be sitting in my room doing my classes,” Haslett said. “My roommates put on jeans at the beginning of the day, but I’m like ‘Hm, I’m just going to put on a different pair of pajamas.”

Larisa Olsen, owner of Chantilly Lace Lingerie in Wilmette, understands the importance of having comfortable pieces of clothing. Her company motto is that “the right lingerie & sleepwear change not only your look, but your outlook.”

Olsen’s background is in set and costume design, so she acknowledges that the look of a piece is important to how confident someone feels in it. However, she states that oftentimes, lingerie sellers discount how integral it is to use comfortable fabrics.

“People think lingerie shops [are] sexy and vampy,” Olsen said. “But that’s not always the case. The majority of the stuff we sell in this neck of the woods is just about being comfortable.”  

Olsen sticks to a few trustworthy brands that Georgette Shabaz, the former owner of the shop, introduced her to. Usually, these are European brands, with a few American-made exceptions. For example, she loves the New York-based brand P-Jamas, which specializes in simple pajamas made out of Peruvian butter-knit cotton. 

Another brand that Olsen swears by is the Italian brand Cosabella, which makes Pima cotton pajamas that are half cotton and half modal. The addition of the modal to the cotton helps it not pill without sacrificing any of the comfort. 

Olsen believes that a good night’s sleep is essential, and choosing the right sleepwear is the first step. If an individual chooses sleepwear that keeps them too hot or cold, they run the risk of waking up in the middle of the night. Haslett echoes this sentiment. She can’t wear long pants, especially sweatpants, because she turns a lot in her sleep and gets tangled up in them. Because of this, she keeps a collection of 10 extra-soft tees in her closet just to sleep in.

In addition to the daily comfort that soft clothing can provide us, there is also evidence that it can help individuals heal from trauma — important to note, considering humanity’s current state of collective trauma. 

Annie Novotny is an art therapist at the Center for Self-Actualization and a professor in the fashion department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In the summer of 2019, she held a story quilting group for female veterans who had experienced sexual assault while in the military. She states that there were a few aspects of the process that helped them heal: the repetitive motions of sewing, the ability to use the quilt as a “container” for past experiences, and the tactility of the fabric.

“Tactility is this thing that we’re not thinking about on the forefront, but it’s very grounding to be touching something soft,” Novotny said. 

Now that it can be difficult to physically comfort our loved ones, we might even consider gifting clothing or soft objects as a temporary alternative. 

Olsen started the Chantilly Lace Comfort Project in March, through which customers can pay $50 to sponsor a gift of comfortable sleepwear for a nurse in the Chicago metroplex. Chantilly Lace customers have collectively sponsored 780 gifts for nurses on the frontlines. 

“During Covid, there’s an extra focus on comforting ourselves and each other,” Olsen said. . “High-quality cotton pajamas are the best gift you can give someone because people don’t buy $100 or $150 pj’s for themselves. But they love getting them as a gift because it’s the ultimate comfort.”

Whether you have always had an affinity for soft clothing or only recently realized that it helps buffer the unpleasant emotions of living in 2020, there’s power in giving in to the allure of pajamas. It’s an act of self-love. Especially now that we likely can’t be around all of our loved ones, throw on a soft hoodie! The psychological effect is similar to receiving a hug. I’m a hugger, so I know it’s not the same thing. However for now and for the near future, it looks like we’re going to have to self-soothe. At least soft clothing gives us that option.