I avoided loungewear for years, convinced it was just pyjamas with better marketing and a price tag to match. What changed my mind was a weekend spent entirely in a set that looked like it belonged outside the house too, and realising I'd happily worn it to answer the door twice without caring.
The useful thing about a decent loungewear set is how little it asks of the rest of what you own. A soft ribbed top under an open cardigan does a Sunday morning without looking like you've given up. The same trousers, swapped for a proper jumper and boots, will see you through a supermarket run on a day when nothing else felt right. It sits comfortably next to ordinary things, a denim jacket, old trainers, a scarf thrown on for the school gate, rather than demanding its own separate occasion. That's the test I apply now: if a piece only works lounging on a sofa with the heating on, it's pyjamas, whatever the label says.
What separates the good from the disappointing shows up after a few washes, not on the first wear. Cheap loungewear pills under the arms and along the inner thigh within a month, and the waistband, which should sit flat and hold its shape, starts to curl and lose its memory. A better one uses a heavier cotton or a proper cotton and modal mix with enough weight to drape rather than cling, and the seams are flat set rather than overlocked and scratchy. Check the drawstring is actually threaded through proper eyelets and not just looped and stitched, because that's the first thing to give out when it's been stuffed in an overnight bag and pulled out creased. Colour matters too. A dark or dyed set that still looks even after a dozen washes, with no patchy fading at the knees or seat, tells you the fabric was dyed properly rather than just coloured on the surface.
If you've none at all, start with something plain and not too loose, in a fabric with a bit of structure to it rather than something that collapses the second it's on. Avoid anything with heavy printing or embellishment to begin with, since that's usually where the fabric underneath is thinnest and the finish cheapest, the decoration doing a job the cloth can't. A set in a sensible neutral will still look presentable in its second year, by which point you'll know whether you want the version with more colour.
Get the basics right and it quietly becomes the thing you reach for more than you expected to.
Picked by Maggie Pell. More in Nightwear & Loungewear.
