Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

[WOM]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

Karl's on to something. But yeah, the hospital look is a good way of putting it. It's a studied casualness, for sure. Same way that 'preppy' was a studied tidiness back in the '80s. I preferred that, I think.

[WOM]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

Full disclosure: I own and wear a pair of grey, Beaver Canoe logo sweatpants around the house. If it's particularly cold, I sleep in them too. I wear slippers, too, because my raised-in-the-UK wife thinks it's nice to be able to see your breath indoors.

[Patrick Thistle]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

This is a class thing though, isn't it. When you read a news story about a supermarket banning shoppers wearing pyjamas its always an Asda or Tesco on the edge of an estate somewhere.

[treibeis]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

When you read a news story about a supermarket banning shoppers wearing pyjamas

You what? Supermarkets ban people from shopping in their nightwear?

I disapprove of it, of course I do, but banning it? Why? Are supermarkets full of pyjama-clad men shuffling down the soups aisle with their willy hanging out of their jims-jams or something?

[WOM]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

Really? They ban them?

[WOM]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

treibeis wrote: I disapprove of it, of course I do, but banning it? Why? Are supermarkets full of pyjama-clad men shuffling down the soups aisle with their willy hanging out of their jims-jams or something?

Well, maybe not full of them, but surely just one would scotch the whole deal for the rest of us.

[Fussbudget]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

WOM wrote: Really? They ban them?

They do, apparently.

(I could have found another story to illustrate the point but this one is particularly amusing. "Designer tracksuit" indeed.)

[ursus arctos]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

WOM, the thing is that the overlap of the preppy look and the pyjama thing is quite significant (i.e., "aspirational middle class" white people). The current crop are the sons/daughters/younger siblings of the Preppie Handbook crowd. Not to mention the fact that the pyjamas themselves tend toward a preppy aesthetic (at least among the 16+ crowd).

[MsD]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

I'm relaxed about standards of dress - I used to walk around with my bottom peeping out of my bondage trousers, as a young gel, and have worn some fairly startling outfits since - but the division between sleep/lounge wear and outdoor clothing is similar to the rules on footwear. Who wants the grime of the street and the supermarket taken back into their bed? Also, who wants to take their intimate, sleepy body smells into a social space? There's also the psychological need to separate your sleep space from your social space, otherwise how do you know when it's time to relax and switch off?

I have silk pyjamas trousers which I wear as daywear in the summer under a loose shirt, they're perfect for that.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

treibeis wrote: When you read a news story about a supermarket banning shoppers wearing pyjamas

You what? Supermarkets ban people from shopping in their nightwear?

I disapprove of it, of course I do, but banning it? Why? Are supermarkets full of pyjama-clad men shuffling down the soups aisle with their willy hanging out of their jims-jams or something?

Well, it they can't even be bothered getting dressed to go to the shops they might as well piss off. It's not as if they're homeless.

[San Bernardhinault]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

Pyjamas out of the house is never acceptable, except when putting the bins out.

Slippers outside the house is never acceptable.

Being the kind of bolshy person who doesn't allow shoes inside the house is odd.

Slippers at all are a bit odd.

As for PJs, I'll wear PJ trousers a few mornings of the year for breakfast when it's very cold. Otherwise it's board shorts in the mornings, which are marginally less embarassing when you have to go outside.

[ursus arctos]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house



I never realised that Eric Morecambe's pyjamas were the inspiration for the "shadow stripe" kits of the mid-80s

[MsD]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

If you live in a flat, especially one with wooden floors, slippers (rather than shoes) indoors are a courtesy to your neighbours. The clatter of shoes (even trainers) on a wooden floor above your head is horrible.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

La Lanterne Rouge wrote: Pyjamas out of the house is never acceptable, except when putting the bins out.

Slippers outside the house is never acceptable.

Being the kind of bolshy person who doesn't allow shoes inside the house is odd.

Slippers at all are a bit odd.

As for PJs, I'll wear PJ trousers a few mornings of the year for breakfast when it's very cold. Otherwise it's board shorts in the mornings, which are marginally less embarassing when you have to go outside.

Board short are always embarrassing, both in and out of doors, unless you're riding some sort of board.

[Ginger Yellow]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

So you shower before breakfast, like Jah? Or do you wear the previous day's clothes?

Well, I don't usually do breakfast during the week, but at weekends, yes, I'll have a bath first. And if I do have breakfast during the week I'll have a shower beforehand - it's the first thing I do when I wake up.

[WOM]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

You mean an actual bath? Like you're five years old...that kind of bath?

[ursus arctos]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

This is one aspect of GY's life in which the Brit side overwhelms the US side.

[via vicaria]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

A bath before breakfast is astonishing. That's dedication to a routine.

MsD's right on about the slippers/wooden floors in flats thing. I just wear socks indoors though as slippers seem a bit superfluous.

[WOM]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

I'm up for a good bath in a therapeutic/relaxing/warming-up way, but not to get clean.

[Fussbudget]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

I had a friend at school (and indeed uni) who used to have a bath every day. Can't imagine what his parents' water bill must have looked like.

[San Bernardhinault]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

Socks are, indeed, the reason slippers are bizarre and redundant. If your feet are cold, wear socks. If your feet aren't cold, go barefoot.

[treibeis]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

WOM wrote: You mean an actual bath? Like you're five years old...that kind of bath?

Does that mean you haven't had a bath in the last 40-odd years?

I don't take baths that often myself (what with me being all 'European' and that), but once or twice a year, I'll take the plunge . I live in a flat with a fucking bath taking up unnecessary space in the bathroom, so I may as well use it now and again.

[WOM]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

Look at California Joe with his 'go barefoot' advice.

[ursus arctos]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

LLR is making a heck of a lot of sense in this context.

[treibeis]

Wearing pyjamas/dressing gowns outside the house

On the subject of slippers, I went round a friend's place for dinner once, as part of a "meet my new boyfriend" ritual (her boyfriend, not mine).

This bloke, pleasant enough as he was, turned up at her place with his slippers in a bag, and then changed into them once he'd got inside.

They're still married now, 20-odd years later.