Someone explain to me the concept of the bathrobe. I have never been a bathrobe user. When do you wear them? Why?
Theory: It’s for wearing after you bathe/shower.
Rebuttal: After I shower, I get dressed (am) to start my day, or I climb into bed (pm) to go to sleep. I don’t wear a robe to walk the ten feet to my closet or bed.
Theory: It’s for wearing in the morning before you get dressed.
Rebuttal: Then aren’t you getting dressed twice? Why not just put on your clothes?
Theory: It’s for wearing when you’re sick.
Rebuttal: Serious sickness finds me in bed (with no bathrobe), and for colds or sniffles I am dressed as usual and going about my day.
Theory: It’s not a “bathrobe”, it’s a “dressing gown”, and it’s sexy and glamourous.
Rebuttal: No, it’s not.
Theory: It’s not a “bathrobe”, it’s a “smoking jacket”, and it’s for wearing while sitting in a leather armchair in front of a fireplace, with paper, pipe, and faithful spaniel at hand.
Rebuttal: Don’t be ridiculous, you poncy git.
Bathrobe users, explain yourselves! I want to understand!
A few years ago, I didnt get it either. Then my parents gave me a warm heavy bathrobe for Christmas. Ive found that I just LOVE being in it…
In the mornings (on workdays) when I get out of the shower I towel off then throw on the robe so i am nice and warm when I open up the bathroom door to the cooler temperature. For me, I sport it in the morning while I prepare for the day- pick out my clothes, put on my make up on etc…
On the weekends when I get out of the bath/shower I will stay in my robe as long as possible. When you live with roommates and tooling around naked isnt an option, its the next best thing.
You should try it! I always thought it was stupid until I did!
I have coffee and read the paper in my jammies before I shower in the morning. On cold mornings I toss on my my cozy flannel bathrobe before heading downstairs.
Now, I’m not really much of a bathrobe user, but I love your question so much I had to join in.
I have one bathrobe. It is much more luxurious than most things I own (It is my one and only purchase from Saks Fifth Avenue, made with a gift certificate) It is incredibly thick cushy white terry cloth. Mostly I wear it after I’ve taken a long bath that is a special treat to myself. These occasions are rare, so the bathrobe gets used only infrequently. I usually kind of loll around in it for awhile, then put on pajamas and go to bed. So for me it’s kind of a special occasion item.
In old movies, you often see people put on a bathrobe over pajamas when other people are present. I get the sense that at one time appearing in only pajamas was indecent, but a bathrobe made it decent. So it was really a way of staying in your jammies. Maybe this was especially a consideration if you had servants.
Probably today there are still people who use a bathrobe that way and feel that jammies are indecent on their own. Me, I run to put the trash out unbathrobed, hussy that I am.
I don’t have a bathrobe per se, but I do like to air-dry a bit before I get dressed after bathing. Since we live out in the sticks and have no children or neighbors, I just do this au naturel.
There’s also the lounge factor. Maybe you just aren’t in a big stinkin’ hurry to get dressed immediately. Or haven’t decided what you want to wear yet. A nice fuzzy bathrobe is warm and comfy. Or, in warm weather, a silky one is cool and feels nice against your skin.
You can’t really have a rebuttal for people’s personal preference. You don’t like to use a bathrobe. Other people do. So what? Differences keep things interesting.
Judging from what I’ve read, “dressing gown” is just British for “bathrobe”, and a man’s ordinary terry robe can be called that. At least, Douglas Adams used it that way in the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.
I sleep in the nude. I have to feed the cats, give the dogs their treats, and let the dogs out before I shower. I don’t want to get dressed before my shower, but don’t want to go out in the nude. We have a privacy fenced yard, but by the gate there are parts of the yard visible from the road.
After a shower, I let my hair dry (it’s long, and hair dryers fry it, so I let it mostly air dry) while checking email at the computer. I could get dressed right after I shower, but I do that after my hair is dry - it’s just my routine.
(1) My bathrobe came in very handy in college when I had to walk down the hall of the (coed) dorm from my room to the shower and back.
(2) I wake up gradually and spend some time listening to music, working crosswords, reading the paper, and drinking caffeine before bathing and getting dressed. During this time, if it’s too chilly to sit around in just my undies (which I slept in), I’ll put on a bathrobe.
You have any idea how long it took before I realized Arthur wasn’t actually putting on a nightgown? Well, I claim the innocence of youth but really, it took an embarassingly long time before I figured that out. (And, no, it wasn’t this post that made me realize it )
We live way out beyond, and it’s also come in handy when you have to jump out of bed in the middle of the night, grab a shotgun, and scare something off. That way, you don’t scare off the other people in the house so much.
They also come in handy should you be required to stay in the hospital, yet are well enough to get out of bed and walk around. You definitely need something to cover the unflattering hospital gown.
Bathrobes are for keeping you warm when you are out of bed. When you are in bed, in PJ’s or nekkid, the blankets keep you toasty, but when you get up it’s difficult to drag the blankies around, so you wrap up in a robe. Since jammies are usually thin and revealing, a robe keeps you decently covered when you need to be around family or roommates who don’t care to see private bits poking out of your nightie at the breakfast table. Retain some mystery!
I’m always cold in the morning, and I like to eat breakfast before taking a shower. ( and until recently I only showered before bed at night). I have a nice thick and warm bathrobe, and without it, I don’t think I could summon the will to get out of my nice warm bed.
I am a heavy bathrobe user. I started wearing a robe when I was about 9. I keep my old one at my parents’ so when I visit them (about once a year), I have one there to use in the mornings.
I use my robe primarily on weekends, when I get up and lounge around a lot before I take a shower. It’s very comfortable and takes 5 seconds to put on. Also, when there’s more than just me and my wife in the house, I wear it to the bathroom to shower and back to the bedroom, so I’m not nude in front of my guests.
Yes, it is. Well, according to some. For instance me. I’d love to find a guy who’d walk around his house in an outrageous, sumptiously embroidered dressing gown.
I have cats, and I don’t get dressed until right before I leave for work, so I won’t have cat hair on my clothes. So after my shower, I wear my bathrobe while I get breakfast, browse the SDMB, and all those other morning things.
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I started wearing a robe when I was about 9. I keep my old one at my parents’ so when I visit them (about once a year), I have one there to use in the mornings.