Easy Does It

Why stylish guys everywhere are wearing pyjamas in public.

- Kareem Rashed

THESE DAYS, THE only real rule in menswear is that anything goes. Tweens are suiting up, boomers are collecting sneakers, and Brad Pitt recently hit the red carpet in a skirt. And while some of the more outre moves are best left to the professionally bold and beautiful, there is one long-standing fashion taboo worth reconsidering: pyjamas in public.

The entry of pyjamas into the light of day can be attributed largely to the pandemic. Days, weeks and even months of nearly uninterrupted time at home all but dissolved the line between ‘house clothes’ and clothes-clothes, which gave many a renewed appreciation for finely made loungewear. Elevated pyjamas have since turned up at the likes of Valentino and Prada, as well as on the backs of stylish dudes from Florence to Miami. Although conventional thinking might dismiss wearing one’s sleepwear outside the house as slovenly, the key distinction is that this breed of pyjamas is intentionally made for sporting en plein air. There’s a big difference between a matched set in crisp piped poplin and the ratty T-shirt and boxers one might typically wear to bed – more Rear Window, less The Big Lebowski.