Hello, friends,
and welcome to another video.
Today, we're gonna be trying out another ugly clothing item and this one
I can't quite wrap my head around.
So in this series,
we've previously worn the Teva uggs,
the clear-knee mom jeans,
the ASOS band ruffle t-shirt,
the clear plastic pants,
the hairy chest swimsuit,
and the slender-man jacket.
But a couple of weeks ago, I found
this sweater--
I'm gonna call it a sweater--which apparently is a giant, eight-foot-long,
$280-tube of wool,
which is hand-knitted in Bulgaria by a designer named Dukyana, who seems to make a lot of hand-knitted wonders
many of which I would like to try. But today, we're focusing on the sweater,
I'm just gonna keep saying the word sweater,
and eventually it'll become a sweater.
Per usual, though, the Internet has been somewhat mystified by this item.
From reading all those headlines,
I guess most of the press thinks that this thing is a scarf,
so maybe it's not a sweater.
Either way, we have it here now and we're gonna wear it all day.
Let's bring it out, shall we?
So, this is it.
I don't know how much can be seen. Ummm. Let me just try and show you guys how much there really is.
It looks like the shedded skin of an anaconda.
Like, it looks like a really large sock puppet has molted.
I don't really know what to say, other than this doesn't seem like an item of clothing.
I understand, obviously, that you go inside the hole, right?
But where ... where do you come out?
Upon further inspection, I think I'm just more confused.
It kind of feels like a biological plushy--like a learning tool for children.
You know? Like you dress up as, as
poop and you walk through the large intestine.
I think that the only way to get more answers from this thing is to enter it.
So let's go put it on, shall we?
TYLER: All right, Safiya, ready to put this thing on?
SAFIYA: I mean, I'm pretty much as ready as I'll ever be. So with my first attempt to get inside,
I immediately noticed how difficult it is to really get on your body.
I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, I--I see only knit.
It looks like it's gonna be scratchy wool because it's got a lot of hair sticking out of it,
but it feels pretty soft overall. It's hitting the ground which is a little concerning.
I think that this is how I'm gonna wear it. Almost like with a little, like,
a bowl around the neck. And it's also hard to, like, decide how to wear it in a feasible way. Wow Wow Wow!
I feel like the photos
I saw were either completely submerged or worn as a dress kind of, from the shoulders to the ground.
Today I will be cosplaying as Sock-fiya.
Absolutely none.
One of my concerns before I put it on was the temperature,
but actually what seemed to be the problem, like, from minute one, was the shedding of the wool.
So we're about five minutes into wearing this thing and I got a single hair in my eye.
It was hard to find because it's sort of a pale fabric or wool,
but I think I got it out and now I'm fixing my eyeliner because I really just went in to try and find it.
I was also surprised by the amount that I was able to use my hands.
TYLER: That's a little bit of a hack for this!
But that said, you can't really do anything quickly.
So after ironing out, or at least
considering some of the logistical issues, I decided to go around and get some reactions.
All right, so I think we should see what Crusty thinks of this.
Crusty usually does not like my ugly clothing items.
TYLER: He hates that thing, dude!
He particularly hates anything with plastic on it,
and I feel like this item is the opposite of plastic, so I thought that he may like this one.
But alas... I don't think he likes it.
TYLER: You'd think cause he likes to play with socks, that he might like you cause you're a giant sock.
I think I'm just too big.
I think that I was just like a large woolen figure looming over him, and he was not about it.
Underneath here I look like I've just played with a thousand cats, because there's so much extra wool on me.
I guess maybe he's territorial.
TYLER: Don't worry, I have this in case we need it.
So with the ringing endorsement of my cat, I decided to take my sweater-scarf thing
out on the town and see what other people thought of it.
In the car,
I was pretty snuggly and comfortable, but I also noticed how much I was shedding.
You know I didn't actually think my arms could get any hairier--and blonde, wow!
But besides that, I was kind of wearing it like a giant scarf, sort of all piled around my upper body, and
having a good time.
Ready? I'm gonna unfurl.
TYLER: Go for it.
TYLER: Yeesss.
The thing is, it's kind of crisp outside. I'd say it's probably like 65 degrees out here.
I feel pretty good.
So our first stop was Costco, a place where I thought we could find other people and also other socks.
They're my tiny brethren.
I was kind of like the-Will-Ferrel-from-"Elf" of socks.
"I don't know why I'm seven times bigger than the rest of you, I'm sorry, but I'm returning home, and I want to be accepted."
That said, I think I thrived more or fit in better as an area rug or a pillow of some kind.
TYLER: There you are!
TYLER: Are you comfortable?
Actually very much so.
I was surprised, though, that right off the bat this sweater was received very well.
Oh, thank you!
People seemed to like it. They seemed to want to buy the rugs that I was posing next to.
People were looking at the area rugs after I left the area.
Im just saying,
They asked me where I got it.
There's no holes, but I can wear it like this.
(Laughter)
TYLER: It's pretty amazing
People were generally a fan of this sweater.
Which usually when I'm wearing ugly items,
I'd get a couple compliments, but this was more like, oh, I need that.
Listen you're welcome, Dukyana,
TYLER: Sweaters.
Sweaters.
TYLER: Tubesocks.
Dresses?
And even though I had been running around for a couple of hours,
I'm really not that hot yet.
It's like a giant sweater, but I'm not sweating.
TYLER: Don't get hit!
TYL:ER There'll be a stupid obituary.
So one of the really appealing things about
*this*, to me, is how many different ways you can wear it,
which I sort of explored when I first put it on.
This is a very versatile sweater.
But after Costco, I truly started to experiment.
TYLER: Where'd you go?
And though this item requires a lot of
adjusting to, you know, make sure it's not dragging on the ground or anything like that it,
it also is pretty fluid. It can, sort of, go from one form to the next quite quickly.
Though of course it does leave a trail behind
once you wear it anywhere. Just be prepared for that.
I'm gonna be honest, this thing has shed so much wool,
I'm surprised that there's really any sweater left.
I think, in the end, I figured out eight different ways to wear this thing:
Bunched up like an infinity scarf;
"The Floppy Liberty Bell";
"The Manatee" or
maybe "The Mermaid";
"The Winter-time Demogorgon";
that other dude from "Pan's Labyrinth";
"The Groping Ghost";
"The Woola Skirt";
and, the last one, "The Champion's Belt".
I'm pretty sure that's eight.
Which does sort of bring up the question, what exactly is this thing?
So I decided to ask you all, the good, kind people of Instagram, to help me
decide what this is or at least provide some insight and opinions because
I was torn.
So I posted a compilation of four different photos of this thing.
The first photo is me, kind of like, posing, sort of just with my head and my feet out.
Second photo is the giant infinity scarf.
Third photo is fully deployed and the fourth photo is sort of, like,
it's the same as the first.
That was not an option,
that was a vanity photo just for me.
So I asked you guys, is this a
And based on the responses, I actually think the answer is
"D. Sock" or
"E. Thneed," as in that thing from the Dr. Seuss book "The Lorax".
Picking through the comments, you guys did have some opinions about it.
Some of which were negative:
some of which were mystified:
and a lot of which were positive or at least
desiring of it:
I think that this person may have thought that I made this. I did not; all credit goes to Dukyana,
but thank you. I think from reading comments, headlines and from the reactions
I got when walking around, that a big reason people like this thing is because of its escapism element.
The idea that you could snuggle up inside it and completely disappear.
I didn't find a lot of other examples of this style in fashion,
but I did come across a performance piece that an artist named Bea Camacho did
called "Enclose,"
where she crocheted herself into a yarn cocoon
continuously for eleven hours,
to play with the ideas of isolation, security, shelter, and the shaping of one's own environment.
So part of the appeal is the exit strategy.
Maybe.
And the other part, I think, is just the general coziness or a mirroring of the desire to turn into a literal couch potato.
I also really like this thing, but I think part of the reason I liked it is because I could play with it
and also just worm around and pretend to be a lot of different things.
TYLER: You are like Cousin It.
(SAFIYA makes Cousin-It-like conversation.)
TYL:ER I'm not sure if you're an amoeba or if you're Ditto, the Pokemon.
I think I'm more of an amoeba.
The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. Thank you very much.
Though the things I looked like spanned many different categories,
I feel like most specifically I look sort of like a magic carpet or some type of
inanimate object that had become
animate through magic. So we decided to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to try and see if
I would blend in.
I could be the Gray Lady.
I could be Peeves.
TYLER: I think you're the sorting hat. That could be, like, the sorting hat's flaccid region.
Yeah, it could.
I will say, that once
I like went completely furled into it,
people really did think that I was like an amusement attraction of some sort.
People started taking photos. One guy reached out to see if I was real.
TYLER: They don't know that it's not part of Harry Potter world
Like I think people were just very sure that I had been hired to wear this.
Which, if, Universal, you are interested in me doing that,
for money,
I would come back and do, yes.
So after a long day of adjusting, moving and worming around,
we had worked up quite an appetite. So we decided to go grab some dinner.
Which actually turned into a don't-eat-the-fluff-off-the-sweater-and-also-don't-drop-anything-on-the-sweater challenge.
I think that finger-food is gonna be best, because there's less of a chance of it getting lost on the way.
(TYLER laughs.)
Why?
TYLER: Because they don't have arms.
Oh!
Once again, you can like reach through the fabric and sort of turn things about and sort of, you know,
get to where you need to go, and if you prepare or adjust yourself accordingly you can use your hands.
Have both!
TYLER: Or at least one of them.
Have one.
But, you know, you just, you can't think fast.
TYL:ER: Saf, catch.
I knew you were gonna do that that time.
So as it got later in the day it also got colder.
Which was more appropriate weather for a floor-length sweater.
TYLER: Yeah, I'm wearing a t-shirt and gym shorts, so ...
The joke's on you Tyler.
So I invited him inside my tube of warmth and love.
That sounds dirty.
TYLER: We are here.
Are you warmer now?
TYLER: Yeah, I'm in a giant blanket.
TYLER: We are now the human wool-a-pede. Actually I'm much warmer though.
So that was my day
wearing this thing.
I think some of the other ugliest items in the world are weird for the sake of fashion,
and I think that this one is weird for the sake of comfort and coziness.
Which is something that I'm on board with.
Now there are some cons to this tube,
number one being the amount it sheds.
After a day of wearing it I was covered in, like, a half-inch-thick layer of the stuff.
OH, WOW.
And besides the stray shedded hairs getting on your clothes,
they can also get in your eye, which is actually probably worse.
I keep getting this wool in my face
It's not ideal.
It does also require a decent amount of adjusting throughout the day
and it also stretches out and gets looser. So by the end of the day,
it was in danger of falling off at times.
That could have been disastrous!
But overall, this thing was super fun to wear.
I'm not sure if I'm gonna continue wearing it outside because it does drag on the ground,
but I could see myself cozying up inside--maybe in a designated area, so I don't shed too much.
"Sock-fiya" may not have any superpowers, but she does like to nap.
Thank you guys so much for watching!
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A big shoutout to MaggieBob for watching.
Thanks for watching, Maggie-Bob, and I will see you guys a-next time.