Shopping in Style

I saw this pack of teen aged girls today. (Or maybe 20 somethings? I am losing my perspective as I get older.) They were at a store and wearing sweats. Not of the yoga-type, hug your butt variety, but the thick, comfy, often have a word written across the butt kind. And here's the thing...They actually looked kinda good in them, with their sport head-bands and skater shoes.
Which got me to thinking.
When is it appropriate to wear sweats and when is it not?
I am about to embark on a shopping bus tour which lands us at the Mall of America. I have been on this trip before, and it is always shocking to me how many of the women dress on the bus. A high percentage wear those comfy sweats I speak of, and some even go as far as to wear Pajama bottoms.
Now...I get that you want to be comfortable on a long trip, but what confuses me is that we are shopping all along the way. Would you not want to look good for the thousands of people you will come across in all the department stores and malls we will be attacking? I don't know about you, but I often check myself out as I pass those floor to ceiling mirrors that stores have strategically placed throughout. (A little vain, you think? I think of it more as saving myself from an embarrassing toilet-paper-in-the-shoe kind of moment.) And I want to look good. (Okay...maybe a little vain ;)
And I'm just not sure the sweat-pant look is the right one for me to achieve that. Plus...I'm not in my teens anymore. (I'll let you believe I am still a twenty-something ;)
They did look darn comfortable though.
Oh well. I will choose not to judge others (although I think the PJ's are going a little too far for mall-shopping), but will probably stick to a more middle-of-the-road approach and go with a nice pair of jeans and a pair of sensible shoes. Definitely no stilettos that weekend.
And who knows...I'm finding myself a little tempted to put a good comfy pair of sweats on my shopping list. I think I'll save them though, for some private time with my couch.
There's a time and place for everything right? ;)