![malibu, ca august 1956 rock and roll singer and actor elvis presley on the set of his film love me tender in august 1956 at the 20th century fox ranch, malibu creek state park, california photo by michael ochs archivesgetty images](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/gettyimages-74291434-1595928843.jpg?crop=1.00xw:0.769xh;0,0.231xh&resize=2048:* "Elvis Presley on the set of his film "Love Me Tender"")
By In Love Me Tender, the 1956 western starring Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll can at one point be spotted wearing a men's nightshirt. His bare feet peeking from the bottom of the long, loose gown, Presley makes the nightgown look cool in a way that, say, Ebenezer Scrooge never quite managed.
Fast-forward to 2020 and the men's nightshirt might have been replaced by tracksuit bottoms – or, let's face it, threadbare boxers – but the loud arrival of the 'Nap Dress' in womenswear might mean it's time you pulled your out of that chest of grandfather's clothes you keep in the attic.
Last week the New Yorker, ELLE and The Cut all declared that we are living in the age of the Nap Dress or Daytime Nightgown: a floaty garment best thrown on for luxurious afternoon dozing. At a time when many of us feel like ghostly figures floating around our homes all day and struggling to sleep at night, it is the perfect dainty-slouchy, daytime-nighttime, home-outdoor-wear hybrid.
The daytime nightgown is not so much a new trend as a resurgence from the past, when both men and women wore nightshirts around the house before they were adopted as clothing for bed. "A nightgown was not, of course, worn in bed," according to Margaret H Swain, author of the nightshirt-lover's bible, Nightgown into Dressing Gown: A Study of Mens' Nightgowns Eighteenth Century. "It was an indoor garment, worn about the house when the jacket, sword and wig worn abroad were removed."
If Swain lost you at "sword and wig", fear not, as there is a case to be made for the modern man including the nightshirt, or one of its modern counterparts, in their WFH wardrobe rotation. After all, what other garment is as alpha male as being the thing you slip into once you've hung your sword on the hat rack?
We're not suggesting you nip out to Aldi or attend a picnic in the park in a nightgown and cap, but the big shirt should have a place in your bedroom (and beyond those borders too).
An oversized shirt worn around the house mirrors the rule-breaking of unstructured dressing that is creeping into menswear. As trousers become wider and swing above the ankle, shirt proportions are changing to either stop short or droop lower than the eye might expect. The modern iteration of the nightshirt cropped up on the runway earlier this year in the oversized, panelled Oxford shirts at Prada, Chalayan and Liam Hodges.
"When fashion dictates tight fitting or uncomfortable clothing for formal wear, logic would have us believe that comfort was desired at home," writes Patricia A Cunningham in that other essential tome for the nightshirt completist, Eighteenth Century Nightgowns: The Gentleman's Robe in Art and Fashion. "Certainly the nightgown filled this requirement. When there was no need to leave home for business or pleasure, undress prevailed."
At a time when the need to leave the home for business or pleasure has never been less apparent, borrowing from the comfort of the flowing shirts of yore is a way to maximise comfort while retaining what Cunningham calls a "stately appearance".
That's what you and I in the year of 2020 might call "smart enough for a Zoom meeting" – from the waist up anyway.
Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more delivered straight to your inbox
