Scrunchies Are Back! Or Are They?

A ballerina wearing a lovely burgundy scrunchie while warming up at the barre.Source/ZUMAPRESS

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

Here’s your big fashion news of the week:

Women are wearing scrunchies again—in public, and most notably, to the office, where their presence is producing reactions ranging from unbridled enthusiasm, to jokes that might not be jokes, to silent judgment. Some scrunchie fans wonder if they will be taken seriously while wearing one.

….Scrunchies, often in bright colors and patterns, were once everywhere….But W Magazine included scrunchies on its trend list for 2018. Scrunchies appeared on the runway at New York Fashion Week in September during the Mansur Gavriel show.

….Cassandra Jennings, 22, recently tested the scrunchie waters on Wall Street. She works at a marketing firm and usually dresses up, but was having one of those days. “I had a normal hair tie in my hair at first but then my eyes were just going to my scrunchie,” she says. She pulled her hair back in a tight bun and put on a white velvet scrunchie. No one said a word, but she felt self-conscious the whole day.

“I was aware that I was wearing it,” she says. “I think I was judging myself.”

Here in the Drum household, we no longer wear scrunchies. They have long since been demoted to cat toys and then demolished. This means that our current cats have never even seen a scrunchie. That’s kind of sad, so maybe we should buy a few.

Anyway, let’s take a poll. How many men reading this (a) had any idea what a scrunchie is, (b) knew that it was fatally dated, and (c) would have judged any woman wearing one? Also: why isn’t the singular spelled scrunchy?

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate