Many have noted on Merry christmas tree gnomes shirt. social media that this is in stark contrast to fashion’s swift fundraising in the wake of the global pandemic and the fire that engulfed the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. As the coronavirus swept across the globe, donations from fashion companies were in the tens of millions; for the cathedral that number was in the hundreds of millions.

The debate on whether athleisure qualifies as “fashion”—or even “real clothing” at all—feels pretty silly these days, if not straight-up antiquated Merry christmas tree gnomes shirt. We’ve moved on from asking if leggings are appropriate for an overnight flight to spending all of our waking hours in some version of stretchy pants. We even conduct our most important Zoom meetings in them, albeit safely out of frame. Unsurprisingly, loungewear is among the only apparel category seeing a rise in demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Two weeks ago, NPR reported that spending on regular clothing and accessories has fallen 79%, but retailers are reporting major spikes in searches for sweatpants and hoodies. As the New York Times bluntly put it in an e-commerce report: “It’s hard to sell clothes, other than leggings and sweatpants.