Category: Pyjamas

The first pair I owned properly, not borrowed from my brother, came in a multipack with a cartoon print and fabric so thin you could read a text message through the sleeve. They taught me that cheap pyjamas are a false economy almost immediately, because by the third wash the waistband had given up and the top had gone see through at the shoulders exactly where a bra strap shows. I wore them anyway for two more years out of stubbornness.
Pyjamas are not a neutral garment, whatever the multipacks would have you believe, and the wrong pair will actively work against you. A set that's too fitted through the hip looks like loungewear pretending to be underwear, and anything with a drawstring that sits right on a soft stomach after a big dinner is its own small punishment. Short pyjama sets, the type with shorts rather than full bottoms, are brilliant in a warm bedroom and useless the second the heating goes off or you need to answer the door to a delivery driver without a dressing gown handy. I've learned the hard way that anything with a built in shelf bra is a lie men's loungewear doesn't have to tell, because it never fits properly and always digs.
What they clash with is anything that asks to be taken seriously nearby. Don't wear a good pair of pyjamas with a scratchy old dressing gown that smells of the tumble dryer, it undoes the whole effort, and don't pair a smart matching set with trainers for the school run just because you're in a hurry, it reads as having given up rather than having style. They also don't love being worn under a fitted coat, the collar bunches and you end up adjusting yourself at the bus stop.
Where pyjamas genuinely earn a place in an ordinary wardrobe is as the thing that makes everything around them better. A soft long cardigan thrown over a matching set turns ten minutes of making tea into something that feels deliberate rather than desperate. Thick socks fix the gap at the ankle that cheap pyjama bottoms always have. A proper dressing gown, heavy enough to stay closed on its own, is the one thing that makes a thin summer set work right through October.
The one mistake I'd steer you away from is buying a size down because the pack looks small folded in the shop. Pyjamas need room to move in your sleep, not room to look neat on a hanger.
Picked by Aisha Rahman. More in Nightwear & Loungewear.