Wearing a hospital gown. a disturbing trend in American fashion

It’s a trend we didn’t see coming, and one that’s already one of the most incredible of the year. It all starts with a video posted on TikTok. In it, a young woman, barely awake at first glance, places her phone in front of her, takes two steps back, and strikes a pose. Her hair is tousled, her eyes seem to fight the first rays of the day’s sun, and she wears a short, loose, patterned gray dress. All in all, a simple “outfit of the day” video, or this trend created by Generation Z, which consists of filming what we wear every day and sharing the look on social media. Except this time, user @izzyfreee’s patterned dress went viral.

The video quickly garnered more than 4 million views and no less than 474,000 likes. Reason ? Many netizens believed that the dress the young woman was wearing was a hospital gown. She was actually a model for American brand Free People, which specializes in bohemian clothing. “I thought it was a hospital gown”, “I’m so confused, I still think it’s a hospital gown”, “Ohh!! It’s a very popular outfit where I work. (In the hospital),” expressed the Internet users in the section reserved for comments. “I thought she had outdoor privileges,” one commenter even joked, suggesting the young woman looked like she just walked out of a mental institution in this dress.

A controversial trend

Mistaking the dress for a hospital gown is enough to make you smile. Or disrupt. However, we see that this basic garment reserved for the medical world tends to gradually find a place in the trends of the moment. As final proof, American rapper Doja Cat appeared naked in a long, all-wet white Vetements dress at the Met Gala on May 6. “Discharged from the hospital” material, which caused a strong reaction from Internet users. Other dresses, or tops, depending, are sold on ready-to-wear brand Loft’s e-commerce website. American influencer Nicole explains on TikTok that she fell for the $68 model. “In the week it took to order, receive and try on this gown, it was taken off,” she says in the caption, quipping that the hospital might “buy the entire inventory.”

But this fashion has its limits. It indirectly touches on the sensitive subject of the disease. Her relationship with fashion is unconventional without being unprecedented. Already in 2010, the famous stylist Diane von Furstenberg was approached by the Cleveland Clinic Medical Center to develop new blouses for patients. “It’s about the patient’s dignity,” he says, naturally agreeing to the request. The idea is to create such a collection that does not attract attention, but in which the patient feels good. This is how the “Hospital chic” series was born. Olivia Burns, a 2023 graduate in Fashion and Business Management, recently launched her company Hypoplas. A brand designed to bring comfort and elegance to hospital patients… but not to intrigue fashionistas on social media.