Furry slippers and sweatpants: young Chinese embrace ‘gross outfits’ at work

WHEN the weather turned cold in December, Cindy Luo started to wear her fluffy pajamas over a hooded sweatshirt at the office. Wearing cozy sleepwear to work became a habit and soon she did not even bother to wear matching tops and bottoms, selecting whatever was most comfortable.

A few months later, she posted photos of herself to a “gross outfits at work” thread that had spread on Xiaohongshu, a Chinese app similar to Instagram. She was one of tens of thousands of young workers in China to proudly post pictures of themselves showing up at the office in onesies, sweatpants and sandals with socks. The just-rolled-out-of-bed look was shockingly casual for most Chinese workplaces.

“I just want to wear whatever I want,” explained Luo, 30, an interior designer in Wuhan, a city in Hubei province. “I just don’t think it’s worth spending money to dress up for work, since I’m just sitting there.”

Defying expectations for proper work attire reflects a growing aversion among China’s youth to a life of ambition and striving that marked the past few decades. As the country’s growth slows and promising opportunities recede, many young people are choosing instead to “lie flat”, a countercultural approach to seeking an easy and uncomplicated life.

The intentionally lacklustre outfits became a social media movement when a user named “Kendou S-” posted a video last month on Douyin, the Chinese sibling service of TikTok. She showed off her work outfit: a fluffy brown sweater dress over plaid pajama pants with a pink, light-quilted jacket and furry slippers.

The video took off; it received more than 735,000 likes and was shared 1.4 million times. On Weibo, China’s version of X, formerly Twitter, the topic generated hundreds of millions of views and sparked a wider discussion about why young people are not willing to dress up for work nowadays.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

“It’s the progress of the times,” said Xiao Xueping, a psychologist in Beijing. She added that young people grew up in a relatively more inclusive environment than earlier generations and learned to put their own feelings first.

People’s Daily, the ruling Communist Party’s main newspaper, criticised young people for “lying flat” in a 2022 editorial, urging them to keep working hard.

Since then, it has echoed the advice of Xi Jinping, China’s leader, who urged young people to “eat bitterness”, a colloquial expression that means to endure hardships. NYTIMES