Quick to pull on and comfortable, affordable, unisex: Sweatpants have long found their way as a fashionable everyday clothing item, and are even considered acceptable in many offices.

But that type of casual wear hasn’t found acceptance in Wermelskirchen, a city in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where high school students were sent home because they were wearing sweatpants in class. The school was thereby implementing a dress code that had been introduced in 2019.

“We would like to encourage our students to wear clothes that do not tempt them to ‘chill,'” stated the school management in reaction to the media’s criticism.

“Young people need to learn that different behaviors apply in different social spaces. Clothing that is appropriate on the couch at home may not be appropriate at school. You don’t lie on a school desk like you do on a couch,” Moritz Lohmann, the educational director of the school, told local newspaper Remscheid Generalanzeiger. In a letter to the parents, he asked them to “support this educational measure.”

‘School is work’

The Wermelskirchen high school director believes that sweatpants are only intended for one purpose: sports.

The German association for etiquette, the Deutsche-Knigge-Gesellschaft (Knigge Society), supports the ban: “Going to school is like going to work, so it’s not a place to wear sweatpants,” the organization said in a statement to German press agency dpa.

The Knigge Society is seen as Germany’s authority on proper manners. It is named after Adolph Freiherr Knigge (1752-1796), author of the sociological treatise “About dealing with people.”

Different athletes follow this dress code, too. In 2019, football coach Jürgen Klinsmann banned his team at that time, Hertha BSC, from wearing tracksuits while traveling. Their dress code still isn’t quite as strict as the one adopted by the US basketball league in 2005, which states that all NBA players must dress in business or conservative attire while arriving to and departing from a scheduled game, and even while sitting on the bench if they are injured.

Loss of control or rebellious statement?

Fashion legend Karl Lagerfeld (1933-2019) famously said, “Whoever wears sweatpants has lost control of their life.”

But meanwhile, many designers, including Valentino, Gucci and Prada, have added elements of luxury to the leisurewear, whether by creating models in fine silk or adorning the trousers with Swarovski crystals.

For cultural and fashion sociologist Lutz Hieber, wearing sweatpants is not about losing control, but rather about making a rebellious statement: “Sweatpants are an expression of a relaxed lifestyle, showing that you don’t care too much about traditional standards,” the University of Hannover professor told news agency epd.

So perhaps the new saying should be: Whoever wears sweatpants really has their life under control.

The ups and downs of the sweatpants

Le Coq Sportif, a French sports brand, launched the first jogging pants in the 1920s.

The sportswear item, however, only became really popular in the 1970s, as the fitness movement started spreading.

On the other hand, by the 1980s, the trousers had also gained a bad reputation, seen as chubby pants worn by socially disadvantaged people who didn’t wear them for sports, but to go grocery shopping.

In the 1990s, rappers and hip-hoppers successfully turned their sweatpants into a fashion statement.

Since 2009, the comfortable pants with an elastic waistband have been celebrated with International Sweatpants Day, marked on January 21. On that day, a news anchor for German public broadcaster ARD once wore sweatpants to present the Tagesschau news show; some school teachers do too — but certainly not in Wermelskirchen.

Clothing is personal

But who can dictate what students should wear?

There are no school uniforms in Germany. Schools are allowed to establish a dress code as part of the school rules, but from a legal perspective, this is only a recommendation, not an obligation.

According to legal experts, “There is no basis for an individual ban. The legal situation is pretty clear,” said Hinnerk Wissmann, professor at the University of Münster, told dpa.

There is no dress code at universities either, unlike at elite universities in the UK, for example, which have strict dress codes for exams and ceremonies.

In Germany, a law student once sued her university after she lost points for not wearing smart pants, but jeans, during an oral examination. She won the case.

In other words, Germany protects individuals’ rights to determine their external appearance.

Fashion designer Thomas Rath, who is “a big fan of sweatpants” and a “Germany’s Next Top Model” juror, believes the acceptance of casual clothes has increased significantly due to the pandemic, when many people worked from home, but also due to the great influence of streetwear in our everyday life. “It is important and it keeps us young,” Rath told dpa.

He is against a ban. “The years of dictates of fashion are — thank God — over and we can dress individually,” said Rath. Sweatpants are no longer homewear, but haute couture: “We’ve even seen prominent women donning sportswear in a stylish manner on the red carpet,” he added.

Apparently, the Wermelskirchen school board needs to be updated on today’s fashion concepts.

This article was originally written in German.