The Twenty Year Pants Scam
Lies Eileen Fisher Told You
Last week my friend Julia texted me:
Once in an Eileen Fisher store, a salesperson talked about the pants I was buying as “20 year pants.” I’ve thought about that so much. How many of my clothes are 20 year clothes? How much do I buy with the concept of a 20 year commitment, and how many of my clothes are well made enough to last that long?
I love the idea of buying for life. I do believe that if I have one great metal spatula I’ll never need another. I also think it’s sometimes worth it to spend more on a thing that is better made. Pants—especially the expensive ones Eileen Fisher sells!—should last many years!
But come on, people!! TWENTY YEARS? Twenty year pants are a scam! I have loved many a pair of Eileen Fisher lantern pants—my all time favorite was a french terry pair that was in every way perfect to me. They felt like the softest sweatpants yet somehow made me look art-world-adjacent—or so I hoped. But those beloved pants had elastic in them, and eventually it gave out and the once velvety knit fabric became so threadbare that no amount of patching could save it.
So, okay. Let me try to wrap my head around twenty year pants. What pants was I wearing 20 years ago? Would I still like them? Was I wearing anything 20 years ago that I’d wear today? Here’s what I found when I went looking.
If you like reading about the best sweatshirts, adventures in capsule closets, and anti-Trump aesthetics, please become a paid Big Undies Subscriber.
Before I get into what I was wearing at age 19, let me give you some context. It was 2005! I was 19 and at Smith College, having spent my life up until then in Maine, an hour from the nearest mall. I have a ton of photos from highschool when I was obsessed with film photography, but the beginning of college is kind of a weird pre-digital camera photo gap for me. I had Facebook, but I feel like enough of my peers have cleaned up their social media presences that there aren’t a lot of candid photos of me at 19. And you know what? I’m more than okay with it. I am so thankful that I didn’t have Instagram or TikTok at that age.
And having spent quite a bit of time this past week with my 19-year-old self, I also cannot even begin to imagine someone so young being in charge of the government—but that’s a big aside.
What I found was that I was wearing a lot of skirts and dresses. In every picture from 2005 that I could find!
And guess what? 20 years later you won’t catch me in a skirt or dress probably EVER.
I can imagine plenty of reasons that I might not be able to wear the pants I am currently wearing in twenty years, some more dystopian than others: It’s too hot for pants, I lose all my belongings in a move or a fire, my body changes shape, we don’t need pants in the metaverse, etc, etc.
But to imagine that I could wear them, I’d have to first have faith that any pants made today will last that long. Most of my pants have elastic in them and it wears out. Even pants without elastic in the fabric, like 100% linen pants, will wear through where the thighs rub together. And even if the pants themselves did last, would I want to be wearing them?
Styles change! Twenty years ago I was a lot smaller, not really a fully grown adult. I was still “straight,” although not for long, and had a very different budget and relationship to money.
These facts aside, the other things I remember wearing at 19-ish:
Men’s Hanes t-shirts that I would cut the collars off of
Black cardigan worn over a neon green tank top
Low cut / v-neck dresses with jewelry (think chunky faux pearls on a ribbon or long, dangly fake turquoise and silver)
None of which I would want to wear now, even if I had held onto them.
The idea of buying something that will last a long time, that you will cherish and get your money’s worth from is good. The reality that pants will last twenty years in this day and age just seems unrealistic and overly rigid. A lot can change in that time—body size, but also fit preference, gender expression, the climate.
What can we expect to last twenty years? The things I can think of that I have definitely owned for 20 years are boxes of photos, journals, and letters from my youth. My couch belonged to my grandparents, but I’ve had it for less than 20 years.
Even just the ability to hold onto something for twenty years can be hard. It requires having the space or storage to do so. I’m thinking of all the things I’ve gotten rid of just because I couldn’t take them with me!
What lasts ten years? The 2015 version of myself feels a lot closer to the person I am now, and when I look back at photos of her (she had Instagram) I can imagine myself wearing some of the same things—but they wouldn’t be the right size. I just gave my friend the Carhartt jacket I was wearing in this photo. I held onto it for a looong time because I loved it and it meant something to me when I bought it. But it hadn’t fit for a while!
And five years almost feels like yesterday—I’ve had shoes for 5 years! Merrell Moabs and they’re still in good shape, but I don’t wear them every day. I have clothes that are 5 years old. I have tattered Universal Standard t-shirts that I still wear to the gym. I have some Elizabeth Suzann pieces that are in great shape but that currently don’t get a lot of wear because they don’t really feel like me anymore.
My most worn jeans last year were ones I bought from Universal Standard 4 years ago, in 2021. I wore them a ton in 2024. And guess what? One month in to 2025, I have yet to wear them. It’s not that they don’t fit or that they’re wearing thin, it’s just that I have pants I like better right now (these & these.)
Which gets at another angle of this issue—for us to continue wearing pants that we bought twenty years ago, we’d also have to stop accumulating new pants.
Pants that lasted 20 years would have to be better made, they would have to physically hold up to whatever the next twenty years hold. They’d have to be a timeless style that would be perfect for the me of 2025 and the me of 2045. And we’d have to stop doing consumerism and capitalism! No new pants, no better pants. And as much as I do some days hope for that, I don’t think 59 year old me will be wearing this pair of cargo pants.
I’d love to know if you have any 20 year old clothes! What were you wearing 20 years ago? What will you be wearing in 20 years?
I don't have any 20 year clothes and did not think this existed until I met my wife. At least half of her wardrobe is 20 years or older. It is astonishing but turns out when you buy really good pieces, they do last. And it really reveals just how shoddy most fast-fashion-ish clothes are.
HAHAHAHA I own (for posterity) my most preposterous raver jeans with 40" openings at the bottom of each leg which I bought at Pac Sun at the Holyoke Mall in 1998. (I went to MHC!) I also own a denim jacket from 1988-90 with an airbrushed skyline of New York (twin towers) and my name in glitter on the front from a store called Unique that is now the NYU Bookstore. The jacket fit a couple of years ago still and I wore it but probably doesn't now. I buy those sort of pants that are supposed to last forever and I don't buy a lot of pants, but as someone who has, since 2005, been 7 different sizes not to mention pregnant and now menopausal I cannot fathom 20 year pants.