Take a “day off” from social interaction and the obligations of fashion and presentability with this “snake bug” caterpillar suit.

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Background:

Many people feel obligated to look “sufficiently presentable” when they go out of the house: this may involve non-wrinkled clothes, makeup, hair styling, etc.

The Issue:

Sometimes, people just want to go about their lives without worrying about fashion or oppressive standards of personal grooming and hygiene.

One interesting approach to this is to declare “fashion bankruptcy” and wear a sweater and sweatpants. This messages to the world that a person is not attempting to look fashionable (and therefore judging them is not necessary.

Sweatpants / sweatshirt is a reasonable approach, but we can improve upon it.

Proposal:

Let’s design a face-covering garment that will allow a person in fashion bankruptcy to not even worry about the appearance of their face or hair, yet that also explicitly conveys to others that this is an intentional choice that is immune to standard critiques.

Figure 1 shows one possibility:

Fig. 1: This caterpillar suit (with attached hood, currently not being worn) would fit the bill: it’s comfortable, loose-fitting, anonymizing, and is clearly not trying to be a “normal” garment.

With the hood up (Figure 2a), the caterpillar (or “snake bug,” as sophisticated individuals call it) garment is the perfect clothing choice for a busy individual who doesn’t have time to iron clothes or get a haircut.

Fig. 2: To facilitate typing (this is, after all, going to be worn at work), the tiny caterpillar legs are actually collapsed accordion-like gloves (Fig. 2B) that the wearer can extend or retract as needed.

PROS: Opens up new avenues of fashion and saves people hours every week of ironing cloths, combing hair, etc.

CONS: Might be somewhat warm, which could limit the “snake bug” suit’s applicability in hot climates.