I generally dislike to see a tracksuit unless some sort of physical activity is connected to it.

In the UK, tracksuits are often so much associated with a certain (under)class of people –chavs– that some pubs have put up signs which effectively bars a certain type of ‘day wear’.

Some people simply don’t make any effort anymore. Can it really be only half a century ago that the mods held sway, working class people who spent every penny they earned on the Monday to Friday 9-5 on looking as sharp as their wages would allow?

The word ‘chav’ has been accused of being class abuse. Which is rather ridiculous, but when the name Polly Toynbee and The Guardian collide, you can be pretty sure some sort of identity politics come into play. Might it never occur to Ms Toynbee is, similarly, probably being abused by ‘chavs’ for being ‘posh’ or ‘stuck up‘? Does ‘class abuse’ only operate in one direction?

Anyway…chavs…

These guys are wearing their Sunday best, incidentally…

Two of my naturist friends, a couple who are often holidaying in the same location I am each year and whom I’ve got to know quite well, mentioned something to me a couple of years ago during a conversation that sprang into my mind at the weekend. They talked about their ‘tracksuit days’. They live in some distance from the sea, I have it on my doorstep, and they were talking enviously of my ability to hop over the fence and use a beach, weather permitting, and better still, use that beach which is inaccessible to the public.

As they don’t have that luxury, they utilise what they call ‘tracksuit days’ in the hills and dales around their home, often quite remote rural areas which, while accessible to the public, are very underused, particularly in midweek. If the weather is suitable, my friends go hill walking, and dress in tracksuits for the occasion because ‘tracksuits can be removed very quickly and we can be into any little stream or waterfall in seconds’.

 

 

In such a manner, their ‘tracksuit days’ can become ‘naturist days’, much closer to home than having to make a lengthy drive to an official naturist beach. In all the time they’ve been doing this, they told me, they’ve only ever encountered one single other hillwalker, whose reaction was to wave at them and stride on, unconcerned.

Their matching tracksuits can be found on the Marketplace for L$0.

The tracksuit comes in zipped and unzipped configurations, includes a couple of T shirts and running shoes.

Slipping out of a tracksuit to be naked in nature 

Ella