What Is It Like: Your Dressing Gown

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As discussed over a couple of rum 'n' cokes last night - what is your dressing gown like? we, alas, came to the conclusion that ALL boys' dressing gowns are sorry, tatty, tasteless affairs given to them by their mothers when they were thirteen (the boys, not the mothers PETE I AM LOOKING AT YOU). girls seems to be slightly less shameless about their choice of, ahem, lounging attire although i will admit that i've had mine since i was 16 and it's now faded to a kind of pale colour with curry splashes (i cook in it a lot). so what is it like?

― katie, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

new towelling answers!!

― katie, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have two: a really tatty cotton one from Bali with a hole in the armpit, and a towelling Hotel Special that still comes out sparkling white in the wash. I prefer the pajamas, though.

― suzy, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

very very large bright red fleece one from Gap given to me by my ex about 3 years ago, it's snuggly warm and the only thing it lacks is a hood. And it's long, which is important for tall folks like me, otherwise they look obscene when you sit down.

― chris, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nothing shameful about my lovely luxurious towelling dressing gown. vertical stripes, dark green and blue. mmmm. it's always the bloody belt that goes first innit?

― Alan T, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Green, tatty, tasteless, towelling. I don't think I've ever washed it either.

― Jonnie, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You beat me to it Katie!

I have 2. One is long grey and fleecy from La Senza with big pockets and very snuggly and warm and covers me up nicely of a morning. The other one is RAUNCHY in the Benny Hill sense, i.e. it is black see thru and has black ostrich feathers round the cuffs and black satin edging / belt. Men love it the suckers.

― Emma, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Eurrghh! I admit my old long blue towelling dressing gown was washed once in the four or so years that I had it. I kept trying to dye my hair in it and it looked quite frankly, like I had SHAT IN IT. It was quite the embarassment I'll tell you! So I threw it away! And then realised fuxx0r I do not know where to purchase my lounging attire NOT THAT I HAF A LOUNGE ahem. So I still did not have one at Christmas! I made the mistake of mentioning this to my stepmother, who went to Ethel Austin and got me two for the price of one, one pink, one blue. They are faux towelling on the outside. Quite comfy but DAMMIT give me proper towelling. GIVE ME A HOOD!!!

― Sarah, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't like them. I have one, but it is stored away, never used. I wear tatty cardigans instead.

― j>e>l, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I recently had a similar experience to Sarah re: hairdye/dressing gown interface, so I am now on the lookout for a swanky Noel Coward smoking-jacket type affair, ideally with my initials embroidered on the pocket (EW would be quite appropriate, as anyone who has seen me in a dressing gown will testify). I had a look in BHS but they didn't have any. Where can one procure such a garment? I bet Suzy knows.

― Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This is EXACTLY the type of dressing gown we decided should be adopted by all men everywhere.

My main dressing gown incident was when I lived in Spain - it was quite chilly in winter but being southern Spain they didn't have central heating so I had to rely on a highly dangerous round heater thing. I would have to cart this thing from room to room and practically sit on it to get any heat from it. I was gazing at myself in the mirror one night in my long pink satin (or was it polyester? You decide...) dressing gown when I detected a sort of singey smell and realised that I was standing too close to the heater and it set fire to my dressing gown. Oops.

― Emma, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Camden - on the way up to Chalk Farm opposite, I think, The Roundhouse. Quality smoking jackets for all your Rex Harrison needs.

― jonnie, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Jonnie speak the truth, but they ain't cheap, unlike Edna ;-)

― chris, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mine is a minding of my grandfather, heavy, scratchy wool, plaid, with embroidered detail and a tassell that looks like it should belong on the curtain of an opera house.

My girlf hates it. It is one of my favourite possesions.

― misterjones, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't have a dressing gown. I want to get one.

I do have a bath robe, though. It is pnly about 3 years old, is cream-coloured and has a Jedi-style hood.

― N., Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think 'bath robes' come under the general heading of dressing gowns for the purposes of this thread.

― Emma, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mine is horrendous. Diffuse paisley pattern over a grid. Christmas present from my paretns when I was 18.

― RickyT, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Excellent - Rex Harrison references (I saw Blithe Spirit on telly the other day and RH looked like weird meld of Mr Currie and Tony Blair). That's what I need. Kay Kendall: Classic or Dud?

There is also a swank 30s/40s vintage place with Hollywood theme in Lower Marsh for your silk paisley dressing gown things. My grandfather (the one that flatshared with John Wayne) had a stonker.

― suzy, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I love my dressing gown. It's a short, red chinese silk affair. I bought it in a vintinge clothing shop in Birmingham with some money my step mother had given me for my 17th birthday.

― Anna, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

long hooded fleecey thing with blue and white snowflakes and polar bears all over it. i wore it in bed over my pyjamas last night because i was cold.

what is the difference between a dressing gown and a bathrobe?

― rener, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My grandfather (the one that flatshared with John Wayne) had a stonker.

Is that related to him living with John Wayne?

― Jonnie, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

grey towelling elegant CLEAN still in good shape! indeed i may attend the next FAP in it to impress anthony

― mark s, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Maybe John had very high standards in terms of dressing gowns?

The difference between a bath robe and a dressing gown is minimal I would say - bath robes tend to be made of towelling and dressing gowns encompass all other fabrics.

― Emma, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Quality smoking jackets for all your Rex Harrison needs."
I might as well get the DSS to send my dole money straight to the shop.

― DG, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"all other fabrics"?

― mark s, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Difference between bath robe and dressing gown. Emma is right in material terms but it's all in the usage. A dressing gown should be used before dressing and for Rex Harrison moment. Bath robes should only be worn in connection with bathing.

― N., Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nick, you are supposed to take ALL your clothes off in the bath.

So if I wear my dressing gown in the bathroom it automatically becomes a bath robe? I disagree and maintain the difference is fabric based.

― Emma, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No, Johnnie, this was just to differentiate him from the astrologer grandfather, who put forth his version of swank in car form, rather than by being a natty dresser.

― suzy, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Suzy, I think Johnnie was implying that your grandfather had a 'stonker' because John Wayne had, erm, 'big leggy'.

― Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think a stonker can be more effectively hidden in dressing gown than in a bathrobe.

― Peter Miller, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Two - cold weather one is red and fuzzy, summer one is navy satin with white stripes.

Also have dark green towelly one but I never wear it any more.

― Kim, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Emma, I fear my argument has been withered by the forces of slovenly modern practice.

What do other girls think about men wearing swanky dressing gowns, esp. silk ones? Is it a no no?

― N., Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Peter is right, you definitely need a heavier fabric than towelling to hide said stonker.

― chris, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I pine for an age when people would get up, have breakfast in their dressing gowns and then go back upstairs, change into bath robes and bathe.

― Emma, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hee! Have no idea really about grandfather's stonker status; he died when I was eight. Though at a guess I'd say probably VERY, due to lack of wanderlust on part of glam alpha female grandmother who turned down a proposition from Clark Gable as already spoken for by said grandfather. I'm sure smoking jackets definitely featured in these adventures (and my grandfather's SJ was worn by me to school in height of New Romantic phase). And if this sounds like some kind of Phillip Barry play, IT SHOULD.

― suzy, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

taking sides: the alpha male vs the omega man

― mark s, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ans: The Gemini Man. For David McCallum's haircut.

― Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bah! In my rush to be smartarse I have made the schoolgirl error of confusing 'The Invisible Man' (McCallum) with 'The Gemini Man' (Murphy).

― Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mine is navy green and red. my mum bought it when I was 13. I reckon it's a bit short these days. The other guys would think I was such a tart if I wore it out.

But navy green and red says it all I guess. It's like Aston Villas away jersey from a few years back.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What do other girls think about men wearing swanky dressing gowns, esp. silk ones? Is it a no no?

Men in silk bathrobes/dressing gowns...rowrrr...as long as the man is willing and able to live up to the Noel Coward associations.

I don't wear my own bathrobes/dressing gowns because my apartment building is overheated. However, I have (1) heavy gray cotton jersey for fall/winter, (2) cotton sheeting (pink roses on a black background) for summer, and (3) turquoise silk, but I can't remember when I last wore that one.

― j.lu, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

mine is blue silk in paisley pattern

― anthony, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have no dressing gowns per se, but I do have about five Japanese yukottas (sp?) that I "obtained" during a college trip. I also have a lush black robe that my wife bought me precisely so she could steal it.

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My last two were a Conran ethnic thing, blue with yellow primitive birds stitched on by underpaid peasant labourers in Kerala. Then a beige and black yukata. But my New York den is so overheated I have no need of one. There are no public areas. If I meet someone in this apartment it's because they spent the night, and prudery would be inappropriate.

I just telephoned the Royal Bank of Scotland stark naked and made a perfectly sensible enquiry about a bank transfer. I swear they couldn't tell me from a clothed person.

― Momus, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I actually recorded most of 'Folktronic' stark naked. Damn these overheated New York apartments!

Of course, if this were still the 70s, the above fact would make me as legendary as Faust and Patti Smith. But everybody's naked nowadays.

― Momus, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Question: Do you wear a dressing gown *over* your pajamas or in place of? Based on my experience w PB Bear I would say over, but then ol PB is the modest type. I have not a dressing gown as they are not warm enough when you come from the Frozen North like I do. In cold weather we wear sweatpants, longjohns, thick socks, turtlenecks, sweaters, etc--bathrobes let all the cold air up!

― Pyth, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

By the way, who posts to ILX in the nude? I'd say about 50% of my posts are 'naked'. But I'm not going to tell you which, because some of you are sick.

― Momus, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

First of all I don't think Americans wear dressing gowns. We just have bath robes.

Secondly, do American men even wear bath robes?

Mine is a short coral-colored terry one that I've had since college. It serves its purpose.

― Samantha, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I wear my bath robe only when I am lazing round the house eating all day.

Always over whatever i slept in, t-shirt or the like.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Curse you Americans coming on Katie's thread with your 'bath robe' ways! Start your own thread, this one's for dressing gowns only!

― Emma, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually, I never put on a bathrobe unless I'm leaving the bathroom to get dressed. Hence, I use my bathrobes like dressing gowns! NYAH!

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I realise now I have no idea what the difference is. My life is incomplete.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bath robes can only be considered real if they are made from terry cloth. I have a dressing gown that is warm, fuzzy and blue. It is such a treat to come out of the shower, freshly shampooed and wear it in preparation of girly lotions and perfumes for some night out.

― Evangeline, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have 3 robes and only wear them if I must. I love night shirts!

― Gale, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Never wear 'em. House is much too hot....plus I end up using them for kite material, anyway...

― Nichole Graham, Wednesday, 27 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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