It’s already been a nasty winter nationwide, and New York City is looking particularly gnarly right now. For example, the oscillating temperatures have made it so that the snow on my residential street has continuously melted and refrozen over the past two weeks—enough times that it’s fossilized litter, dog poop, and Lunar New Year streamers in strata. And with nasty weather comes equally nasty dressing, which takes supreme form in an outfit formula colloquially known as the groutfit. Though I’ve recently spotted many instances of it in the wild, few have felt as distinctly relatable as those donned by multiple A-list celebrities this week.
Bradley Cooper, for one, stepped out for a walk around Manhattan on Wednesday in a taupe Carhartt hoodie (in a banner winter for customized Carhartt, Cooper’s was custom-printed with a small duck logo and what appears to be the words “We Don’t Skip” in both English and Chinese text), creased drawstring sweatpants, and suede lace-up hiking boots. He punctuated the look with a charcoal Burberry beanie, gray-tinted aviator shades, and dark blue AirPods Maxes.
Taking a similarly gray tack while out in Manhattan earlier this week was the hunky Pedro Pascal, who stepped out of the Bowery Hotel in a unique assortment of upscale-laundry-day-esque garb. He rounded out the crusty classic of gray fleece joggers with tasteful wintertime layers: a light blue crewneck under a denim jacket with a scarf striped in multiple shades of gray, sealed by a charcoal Canadian Goose bomber with a shearling collar. Pascal’s accessories really spoke to the expansiveness of the groutfit. In his hand, quotidian accoutrements: a sapphire Saratoga Springs water bottle and a plastic-bagged take-out order. On his shoulder: an envy-inducing leather flap bag from Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel.
But rest assured, Pascal’s footwear kept his groutfit firmly in athleisure territory. Once I spotted those weathered On Cloudtilts, I knew we were back in business.
Unsavory weather and mud-filled snow are not the only conditions in which a groutfit can bloom. Just over the weekend, New York City native Timothée Chalamet dressed to the grimes not once but twice. First, he attended a Valentine’s Day screening of his 2017 breakout film, Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, hosted by Cinespia at the Los Angeles Theatre. Speaking to Apple Music radio host Zane Lowe during a panel afterwards, the actor wore baggy dark pants, his trusty Chrome Heart Timberlands, and a comically oversized zip-up gray sweater with a popped collar from Hollywood’s favorite cashmere brand, The Elder Statesman. So big was the checkered knit on the svelte actor, it took on the shape of a vintage nightie.
Chalamet’s second, and perhaps more notable, semi-groutfit appeared on his Instagram story. In a fit pic he posted on Tuesday, he’s donning navy blue Adidas sweatpants that pooled around white basketball trainers. Then, there was the slumber party deep-cut: a promotional T-shirt for Eclipse, the third installment in the late-aughts vampire saga Twilight. Most notably, Chalamet’s tee prominently features Taylor Lautner’s werewolf heartthrob Jacob. (Though Twihards, as the fanbase is called, were quick to celebrate Chalamet’s apparent allegiance to Team Jacob, it’s worth noting that Chalamet has previously worked with Edward Cullen himself, Robert Pattinson, on the 2019 movie The King.)
It was this final look that made Chalamet my personal champion in the unofficial Groutfit Olympics. That said, if he and his Twilight tee were looking to perfect the girlish grunge particular to a 2010s sleepover, a green face mask and a contraband hookah would have sealed the deal.