You couldn’t make it up; though in hindsight, when the modern moms began dropping off their kids at the school gate whilst dressed in their pajamas, one was entitled to wonder ‘what next’. Anyway, the ‘next’ has come, so leading on from there; do you know what this autumn’s fashionable types are wearing? Of course you don’t … and this is where YCBS comes into the frame.
Bathrobes, that’s what! This is the outdoor attire adopted by a rake of celebrities, influencers, and all the fashion conscious that follow such trends. Isabelle Huppert recently wore a fluffy white bathrobe to an A-list gala event. Angeline Jolie and Rihanna have also been seen out and about in their bathrobe attire.
And it’s not only the sisters that are throwing this bathrobe bravura. The influential men about town are at it as well. Some say that the ‘working from home’ age is partly to blame for the new fangled fashion. Men and women are more comfortable in their own home lounging around in a bathrobe.
What happened next is that the business executive got a call to go into the office at short notice – and so he went as he was. The female counterpart promised to meet a colleague for elevenses; and so she too, pops out as she is. Next thing they are all buying designer and more out-door type bathrobes.
Should you be in the market for one of these garments, Derek Rose will send it to you for a mere €875. Oh, I almost forgot, delivery is free!
If you intend heading in that direction, the first lesson is that you must never refer to your bathrobe as a dressing-gown. The Gorls need to think like Isabelle, Angeline and Rihanna, whilst the Lads have the perfect role model in Hugh Heffner. Hugheen did his best work at home and in so doing he made the men’s bathrobe famous.
In an effort to try and find out if the new fashion will take off on Main Street, I decided to do my own little bit of research. Dress has become so casual over the past few years that it is very probable the bathrobe will be adopted by the masses as our everyday attire.
Outside Delvin Cattle Mart I met a big burly farmer from Kilskyre. Victor and I had always been sort of on a nodding acquaintance level, so I reckoned he might be well disposed to being interviewed by me.
He was dressed in wellington boots, baggy trousers, woolen waistcoat, sports jacket and a fawn gabardine overcoat.
Victor was quite approachable when I enquired if he might like to answer a couple of questions for this newspaper. The first thing I noticed when he fixed his quizzical gaze upon me was that his peaky cap was way off line. I decided to get straight to the point, summoning up my most sincere, inviting and earnest reporter tone.
‘Would you consider coming here next week wearing a bathrobe?’ I asked; believing this to be a very reasonable first ceist that would lead to the makings of a great interview. It didn’t go well …
All I heard was the ‘swish’ of an ash plant around my head. The notepad went flying into a puddle of pi… ah you know yourselves; followed by my stars and stripes straw hat, with ‘Howdy’ emblazoned on the front, landing in a splatter of green goo.
When I got the cow dung out of my eyes I could see Victor talking to mart owner, Thomas Potterton, with my interviewee pointing an angry finger in my direction. I left … having come to the sad conclusion that not everybody is in favour of moving with the times …
Fashion is much more than being cutely dressed. Dress codes are driven by culture, events, popular music and celebrity influence. From austere suits of the 1930s depression, to the laid-back leather jacket of the 1950, the bell-bottoms of the 1970s, the shiny opulence of the 1980s – to the bathrobe of today!
Men’s fashion usually resides in the shadow of the ladies; until now, that is, with a his and hers bathrobe!
But back to the bathrobed broads …just think where we have come from. At the beginning of the 20th century, styles were proper and demure. Ladies wore high-necked dresses and hemlines that brushed the floor. Come the 1920s and with it the Gorls shed their shackles and dressed with abandon to dance the Charleston and the shimmy.
Maybe that was the thin end of the wedge and once again we have to ask of the robed rabble … what next …?
Don’t forget
The older we get the more of our friends we bury. We don’t ever forget them though. This week our thoughts are with the family of Assumpta – especially because she was such a devotee of this column, and she let everybody know it. Rath De ar a Anam.
