<p-initials>“e<p-initials></p-initials></p-initials>very time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance.” — r’as al ghul.

today we lay to rest the needles track pant, festooned with it’s striped ribbons and embroidered butterfly insignia. what was once indulgent and unexpected now only feels trite thanks to it being co-opted by the #ootd set attracted by the gravitational pull of #needles #awge. i don’t blame them; it’s a comfy, surprisingly sturdy piece of leisurewear with more flair than ric. in the age of cozy maximalism, it’s no one wonder they can be found on more than one pretty mother fucker.

but as r’as put it, we need to restore the balance. decadence needs to be put in check. the romans were most likely caught off guard in an orgy with needles track pants around their ankles when rome was sacked. and as the roman empire met its fate, my needles wearing days weren’t meant to last. i’d come into a little bit of money and needles was my way of cosplaying through my new nouveau riche life. i knew it wasn’t sustainable. it’s all too much. you can only wear so many prints, patterns and pigments together in one outfit. but i was living it up. and when you live fast, it’s best to die young and leave a good-looking corpse. needles was always meant to be ephemeral. and it was definitely meant to leave a lasting impression.

if office space taught us anything, it’s that more isn’t always better. we can’t all be brian and his 37 pieces of flair. sometimes it’s okay to just do the bare minimum. it feels like we’ve all been doing too much with our fits anyway. there is such a thing as too much drip. a tiger can only have so many stripes, and maybe five stripes are two too many for track pants. let’s let the pendulum swing back towards minimalism (which apparently doesn’t have to be boring. what would we do without gq?) as it inevitably does as a reaction against an age of excess. rest in peace, papillon.

the needles track pant is survived by a matching track jacket that i have listed on ebay and grailed. (edit: sold!)