From the Shower to the Streets: Unpacking the Bathleisure Trend
I really, really love my bathrobe. Can I wear it in everyday life?
By Susannah Cohen
The bathrobe at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort is quite possibly the most comfortable garment I have ever worn in my life.
With a slight sheen to the outside, the robe is smooth to the touch and striped with satin, lending it a pleasingly unisex feel. On the inside, though, it’s unashamedly deluxe, so soft and fluffy it’s just like wearing a cloud.
I don’t want to take it off. Would it be OK to wear it out to dinner? Or to the casino? In other words, when is a bathrobe considered fashion, and when is it just a faux pas?
I’m not the only one asking this question right now. Indiana teen Evan Dennison recently went viral when he wore a very fetching bathrobe (navy, with contrast piping) for his high school senior portrait. The internet declared him “a legend.” His mom was less impressed.
But it seems that what’s good enough for a graduation photo shoot is also good enough for the red carpet. In January, director Boots Riley arrived at the Critics’ Choice Awards in a blue silk bathrobe with a shawl collar, and, naturally, a pair of embroidered smoking slippers. The following month, the internet accused Melania Trump of wearing a Fendi wrap coat that looked a lot like a waffle bathrobe, although this was stretching it, frankly.
It’s Cardi B, though, who’s really made the bathrobe a signature look. Whether she’s out shopping (May 2019), arriving at the airport (April 2019) or performing at Bonnaroo (June 2019), here’s a woman who is proud to wear her bathrobe out of the house.
This is not actually a new thing. The trend of wearing a bathrobe in public has been bubbling away for a couple of years now, peaking, arguably, in November 2017 when Rihanna appeared on the cover of British Vogue with a towel on her head. The look inspired The Cut magazine to coin the term “bathleisure” to describe it — a neat play on “athleisure.”
It wasn’t long before Instagram became flooded with posts from influencers eager to showcase their covetable bathrobes, and, in the final months of 2018, searches for Versace’s baroque bathrobe rose by 240% after Drake, Kanye West, and Kevin Hart were all snapped wearing their own.
What’s weird is that just as bathleisure was reaching its peak, there was another — rather bigger — cultural moment happening at exactly the same time; one that included quite a few creepy men wearing bathrobes.
In October 2017, film producer Harvey Weinstein was exposed as a sexual predator by the New York Times, with his ousting sparking the beginning of the #MeToo movement. As it turns out, bathrobes were central to his modus operandi — both Kate Beckinsale and Patricia Arquette reported encountering Weinstein in a hotel room wearing nothing but his robe.
A terry cloth bathrobe figured prominently in accusations against TV host Charlie Rose, too. Factor in the whole Hugh Hefner association, and it’s no wonder that bathrobes became a shorthand for sleaze.
But then, as the Wynn Resort’s smooth and fluffy version so beautifully demonstrates, the bathrobe has always had two sides. On the one hand, it’s an Instagrammable perk of staying in plush hotel rooms or getting pampered at high-end spas.
There’s also an element of the whole girls-night-in movement to it, too, where it’s OK to celebrate your introverted side with bubble baths, box sets, and a bit too much wine. For many, bathleisure is sort of like hitting pause on their day-to-day life, the kind of uniform one wears when it’s time to practice some self-care and self-love.
On the other hand, well, bathrobes have some less aspirational correlations. They can be associated with squalor, laziness and even illness; days when everything — including getting dressed — just seems a little bit too hard.
Certainly, lawmakers are well aware of the bathrobe’s seedy side. In 2017, managers at the U.K. supermarket Tesco were given permission to eject customers wearing nightwear in their stores. Moms doing school runs are also a target, with several schools in the U.S. issuing no-pajama dress codes for parents dropping off their children in the mornings. There is even talk online of an old law in California that forbids women from driving in their bathrobes, although it’s not apparent if it’s actually a fact or just fiction.
Cut costs and create room in your closet by using your bathrobe as a winter coat. (Credit: Loren Kerns)
Still, none of this has stopped the bathleisure trend from running and running. These days, there’s even a whole new category of garment that you never knew you needed: the bridesmaid robe.
Yes, that’s right. Getting ready now requires you to have a completely separate wardrobe. Which begs the question: If the bride-to-be didn’t furnish her squad with matching bathrobes at her bachelorette, does she even deserve to get married?
On the international runways, meanwhile, the bathrobe silhouette is still going strong. Chanel showed logo-printed robes for its Resort 2020 collection, while Dolce & Gabbana and Etro both sent luxe housecoats down the catwalk for their Fall 2019 shows. Missoni, too, got in on the look, throwing unstructured robes over both men’s and womenswear.
Gucci — never afraid to throw another eclectic reference into the mix — is currently offering a very luxe take on the dressing gown with its checked wool “chemise de chambre” that clocks in at nearly $5,000.
Nice bathrobe…erm…or is that a jacket? (Credit: Gucci)
And as London Fashion Week got underway this September, the talk was not of the goings-on runway-side, but of the latest arrival in Gucci stores: a quilted bowling shirt that looks just like the dowdy housecoat worn by Northern battleaxe Hilda Ogden, a character in the long-running British soap opera Coronation Street. Hilda wore her housecoat to clean houses; the Gucci version, with its price tag of $3,400, should be worn for decidedly more posh activities.
Just a couple of weeks later in Paris, meanwhile, bathleisure made a full-scale comeback with a serious message thanks to emerging French fashion designer Marine Serre.
Bathleisure is elegant and comfy. What’s not to love about that? (Credit: Toast)
One of a new generation of designers with a commitment to sustainability — 50% of her collection is made from upcycled materials — Serre shared her vision of life after the apocalypse, with survival wear including recycled raincoats and dresses made out of towels. This was less bathleisure as self-care, and more bathleisure as sheer survival. But really, what’s the difference?
Those looking to spend less than a couple thousand dollars on a bathrobe of their own should check out British brand Toast.
Known for its elevated workwear vibe (if you’ve ever dreamed of giving it all up to throw pots in your cottage by the sea, this is the brand for you), Toast’s Kantha quilted coat is a marvel: a cover-up made by artisans using vintage saris that can be worn as a housecoat or, as the reviews on the website attest, as a perfectly respectable jacket.
Then there’s Lady/Lay, whose terry sleeveless wrap robe works equally well as a dress or towel alternative.
Loungewear brand Lunya’s latest collab is designed to take you “from the sheets to the streets” and includes sleep shirts and oversized jumpsuits that are gender neutral and one-size-fits-all.
So is bathleisure the answer? It depends.
Don’t tell me you haven’t fantasized about wearing your bathrobe as a dress. (Credit: Lady Lay)
For those days when getting dressed feels too much like work it definitely can be. Donning a bathrobe gives you a chance to enjoy those in-between moments in life, those periods when you’re transitioning from one activity to another. Like a comma, they mark a sort of pause or hesitation, a fashion gray zone when you’re neither coming nor going.
But do we really want to live in our bathrobes? Ultimately, it’s up to you, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have one on-hand, hanging patiently on a hook, for whenever — and wherever — you might need one.
Susannah Cohen is a journalist from London and Providence, Rhode Island (via San Francisco), who writes about fashion, beauty, and wellness.
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