Netflix’s ‘Worn Stories’ Tells a Fabulous Tale of Gay Survival via Leggings

Clothes matter. They’re more than just enablers of vanity or artifacts of money wasted. They’re how we each choose to express our individual selves, pieces of fabric that weave together the story of our lives. Your closet is a diary, with each shirt or dress or tie or shoes connecting you to a time, place, and event. That’s what Netflix’s docuseries Worn Stories digs into—the deeper meaning behind the clothes hanging in our closet or on our bodies.

One story from the episode “Survival” is a powerful example of this, how a seemingly silly fashion choice is inextricably tied to a personal journey and, well, survival. The story comes from style icon and legendary window dresser (yes, you read that right) Simon Doonan. Y’know—he’s the spritely and debonair judge from NBC’s delightful crafting competition series Making It. Doonan’s is as charming as ever on Worn Stories, and he’s there to talk about a pair of flashy leggings.

They’re a sight to behold, in all their funky early ’80s glory! Doonan picked up the Stephen Sprouse leggings at the ritzy store Maxfield, where spent the early ’80s doing totally gonzo window displays. They were the exact vibe that Doonan wanted to bring to the groovy aerobics studio at LA’s infamous, star-studded Sports Connection. The leggings were part of a moment.

But that moment didn’t just include working up a sweat to the disco version of “Memory” while stomping it out on some mauve carpet. It also included a killer plague. AIDS hit Los Angeles hard and completely devastated the gay community. Doonan’s friends all started getting sick, dropping dead of a disease that no one understood. People were just suddenly gone.

And through it all, Doonan had those leggings. He had aerobics, the perfect escape from the hell around him. For the stretch of time he spent in his stretchy pants, he was alive and happy and distracted. And Doonan did survive, although he’s left with, as he says, a sense of “survivor’s bewilderment.” And those leggings survived too, a physical reminder of where Doonan was when the world changed for the worse forever, and a reminder of what Doonan did to just push through and survive. He found a “nice little refuge of frivolity and stupidity and Lycra.”

All that from a pair of designer aerobics wear.

Every story in Worn Stories packs a surprising emotional punch because, I reiterate, clothes are important. But Doonan’s is the one that stuck with me the most, as it’s yet another reminder in a string of recent, much-needed reminders of all my community has lost. But just like those leggings, there are two tones working together here.

Doonan’s story is also an uplifting one. It’s a testament to not just survival, but gay survival. I love and feel deep in the gay marrow of my gay bones Doonan’s affinity for those shorts, and how they symbolize his perseverance in the gayest and greatest way possible. That pair of flashy spandex shorts might as well be Doonan’s old army fatigues. They’re what he wore during a biological war on the queer community (Worn Stories, war stories, get it?).

It’s important that everyone know what we as a world, not just one community, lost during the AIDS pandemic. And it’s important that the queer people of today know that they can find power in the most outwardly silly things. Simon Doonan’s war story in Worn Stories proves both points. So put on your gayest outfit and live.

Stream Worn Stories "Survivors" on Netflix