Artist K8 Hardy’s work often touches on fashion, gender, and feminism, so it’s no surprise she’s obsessed with loungewear. “Wherever I go, I find them and buy them,” she explained via Zoom. “I love wearing them.” Loungewear is a simple style whose simplicity belies its history. “It’s an iconic garment associated with women’s domestic work,” she said.
Workwear has been trending on and off the runway in recent seasons, but it’s always been from a masculine perspective: Carhartt-style jackets and cargo pants, heavy boots and sneakers for all seasons. “Men’s work clothes are cool, women’s work clothes are not cool at all,” Hardy said.
Loungewear as we know it came into being in the early 1920s. That’s thanks to an American woman, Nell Donnelly Reed, who began making frilly dresses out of sturdy fabrics to wear while cleaning and cooking at home. They proved so popular among her friends that she began commercializing them and founded the Donnelly Clothing Company with her husband. Indeed, she was so successful that by the 1950s her company had become the largest manufacturer of women’s clothing in the world. It took its final form during this decade and has remained more or less unchanged: short sleeves, waist-length and knee-length. Although loungewear is no longer a necessity for stay-at-home parents, it’s still everywhere. “It’s a uniform,” Hardy said.
“I’ve been wanting to make loungewear for seven or eight years,” she explains. “Then the pandemic happened, so I eventually reached out to [fellow artist] Andy Herman, who helped me design and make it.” The final product, called the Studio Dress, is made of a stylish striped blue cotton fabric with reinforced pockets and an industrial double zipper up the front, and it looks nothing like the drab uniform that inspired it. “I’m basically a riot girl,” Hardy says. “I really like the ’90s gas station attendant aesthetic.” It certainly wouldn’t look out of place in a DailyA* catalog page from that era.
The dress is available in sizes XS to XXL, but thanks to strategically placed elastic in the back, it can be adapted to a variety of body shapes. “I wanted to bring more function, style and androgyny; yes, it’s inspired by women’s pieces, but it’s not feminine or masculine,” said Hardy. For example, the sleeves are cut wider, not only to allow for more movement, but also to allow people who don’t usually wear skirts to use it as a coat.
Hardy Studios is presenting the dress as a 200-piece edition of the artwork, for sale at OCD Chinatown, a gallery in Lower Manhattan that will be converted into a pop-up store. At the gallery, the Studios dress will be displayed alongside a series of photographs shot by Cass Bird, in which Hardy and Jenna Lyons sometimes wear the dress and sometimes only wear K8 logo tights and heels. Hardy said: “I wanted to do this editorial with Cass – we went to Smith’s together – to make it reach the highest level of fashion – elevating this loungewear into the high fashion category and creating something I hope I can replicate this look and it will continue to grow.”
The Studio Dress will be on display and for sale at OCD Chinatown from October 3 to 6.
