When is a bathrobe not a bathrobe? When it’s fashion’s coat of the season

With temperatures plummeting, coats are being dusted off across the country. But this season it’s not the puffer or the parka vying for style awards. Instead, the bathrobe – or dressing gown – is emerging from indoors to become fashion-approved outerwear.

Vogue this month described the bathrobe as “the coat of the season”, after Angelina Jolie was pictured in a black fluffy one in New York, and both Rihanna and Isabelle Huppert were seen in similar garb on the red carpet.

This is not a look that takes inspiration from Jeff Bridges as “the Dude” in a ratty dressing gown in 1998’s The Big Lebowski. The dressing gown in 2024 is dressed up. Huppert paired hers with De Beers diamonds.

The adoption of the bathrobe could be seen as part of a wider trend of fashion co-opting the items more typically only seen by your nearest and dearest. “This summer, pyjama bottoms were a hit among the fashion set,” says the W fashion writer Matthew Velasco. “It’s only natural that bath attire and robe-style coats would make their way into the ether as temperatures continue to drop.”

As with many trends, Covid had a part to play here, with lockdowns normalising at-home loungewear. “In a world where we were stuck at home for a year, people got used to wearing comfortable clothing,” says Hannah Jackson, a fashion writer at Vogue. “People are realising that they don’t have to sacrifice comfort for fashion, and this is just a cheekier expression of that.”

If the bathrobe might seem like an unusual item to wear beyond a duvet day, Jackson argues that it aligns with other items typically part of daywear. “It’s basically a wrap dress, just constructed in more casual fabrics,” she says. “Like many trends, it is more extreme on celebrities. I don’t really imagine that people will be wearing their actual bathrobes to formal events, but I do think it could inspire an interest in the wrap dress, just perhaps in more voluminous, fuzzy, or textured iterations.”

The options are already available at retailers. Some coats available have the look of dressing gowns, with loose ties around the waist. Or there’s the option of shopping the sleepwear section for a coat this season.

Tekla, the Danish homewear brand, collaborated with the musician Jamie xx on a Bridget Riley-esque bathrobe, sure to make a statement. Or John Lewis’s £65 quilted duvet dressing gown, which is trending on the website, could easily double as a coat. How to get the full look? Just add diamonds.