The concept of a dressing-gown or robe for private wear at home dates back to the 17th century, when fashionable gentlemen began to don a comfortable full-length robe or morning gown before getting dressed or when relaxing indoors.
These informal garments, which offered welcome respite from the heavy, formal suits worn in public, were styled in a flowing, Oriental manner and were worn loose like caftans or, more usually, wrapped around the waist, kimono style. Originally introduced into Europe via the East Indian Companies, initially many were imported from Japan and India, but wearers generally referred to them as ‘Indian’ or ‘Persian’ gowns. Typically they were fashioned from expensive, exotic fabrics such as rich silk brocade, damask, velvet or chintz (bright printed cotton) – materials that initially came from the East, but over time were often reproduced closer to home.
By the 1700s such dressing-gowns – or ‘nightgowns’ as they were sometimes, confusingly, called (since they weren’t designed for bed) – were widely worn indoors and were often teamed with a soft cap called a morning cap or nightcap, instead of the formal Georgian wig. Fabrics grew increasingly diverse, to suit the season, climate and changing fashions, some robes remaining loose, while more fitted versions called ‘banyans’ were secured with elaborate cord or frogging fastenings. These remained in vogue until about the mid-1800s, when some robes evolved into smoking gowns or jackets while others attained a more modern form as comfortable, warm dressing-gowns with a shawl collar and cloth belt or cord.
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Women also enjoyed the comfort of wrapping gowns and other informal robes. A feminine mode was the negligée-style ‘tea gown’ popular for entertaining friends at home in the afternoon during the Victorian and Edwardian eras – a garment that followed fashion but was loose and unfitted, allowing relaxation or removal of rigid corsets.
Eventually luxurious banyans and picturesque tea gowns became anachronistic, outmoded in a modern world, but warm dressing gowns, worn over nightwear, and towelling robes slipped on after a shower have survived into the 21st century.
