THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. **** Saturday/Sunday, March 28 - 29, 2020 |D5
THE OFF DUTY SLEEP ISSUE | STYLE & FASHION
said Ellen Vargo, Hanro’s e-
commerce coordinator. The
market for Hanro’s hand-
sewn, $196 cotton nightshirts,
she said, occasionally includes
“younger men looking for
something a bit different.”
Writer J.A. Shapira, 37, is
one such man. He bought his
first nightshirt a decade ago
as a lark after watching “A
Christmas Carol.” But when he
wore it to bed, he realized it
was excellent sleeping attire.
“I live in a 100-year-old house
in Winnipeg, where it can get
colder than Mars,” said Mr.
Shapira, who likes Derek
Rose’s batiste cotton styles,
which run around $230. He
appreciates that the shirt’s
open bottom facilitates air-
flow. With more than a dozen
in his closet, Mr. Shapira be-
lieves the shirts are a worthy
investment. “We spend so
much of our lives asleep. It’s
important to be comfortable.”
With working at home sud-
denly the norm, nightshirts
have the potential to do more
for the modern man than
merely keep him insulated.
Hanro’s Night and Day Night-
shirt “has a half-henley
placket and a mandarin col-
lar,” said Ms. Vargo. She sug-
gested it’s well-suited for the
stylish teleconferencer. “You’ll
look like you’re wearing a
top—not a nightgown.”I
N FICTIONALtales
nightshirts are largely
associated with aged
villains and lovable
fools. Picture miserly
Ebenezer Scrooge in his long-
sleeve caftan or Squidward of
“SpongeBob SquarePants”
fame in his knee-length
nightie, a look that led Bikini
Bottom dwellers to mistake
him for a girl. Show a man (or
squid) in a nightshirt, and it
signifies stodginess or a cheap
gender joke.
People didn’t always think
that way. According to Fash-
ion Institute of Technology
professor Mark-Evan Black-
man, men wore nightshirts,
without triggering mockery,
as far back as antiquity. The
ancient Egyptians favored
linen ones; Henry VIII liked
his made of silk; and before
the Industrial Age, U.S. field
laborers wore cotton versions
all day, tucking them into
their trousers during working
hours. The nightshirt’s appeal
was its ability to regulate tem-
perature in the pre-thermo-
stat era. “It’s a really efficient
way of...locking in that body
heat,” said Mr. Blackman.
While heating innovations
in the 1920s helped pave the
way for breezier pajamas,
shifting notions of masculine
style really curtailed the
nightshirt’s viability. “We in
the West made it clear...that
men wore pants and women
wore skirts,” said Clare Sauro,
director of the Robert and
Penny Fox Historic Costume
Collection at Drexel Univer-
sity. “There is a certain gen-
der-bending quality to wear-
ing a nightshirt today that
wasn’t there when it was
common.” She believes this
rigid perception is changing.
“More men are getting com-
fortable with themselves.”
After years of back-burner-
ing nightshirts, Hanro, a Euro-
pean company that has been
creating luxury sleepwear
since the 1800s, started mak-
ing the garment again in 2016.
“People were searching for it,”BYWILBERTL.COOPERFew garments can trans-
port you out of our current
reality like a luxurious robe.
Put one on and you’re
magically a 1920s movie
star (think the dapper
Douglas Fairbanks) loung-
ing on a leather chester-
field. A robe makes you
look like the sort of man
who would have the morn-
ing newspaper brought to
him in bed by an Airedale
named “Rascal.” For a par-
ticularly posh downtime
topper, consider this silk
number from New York la-
bel Paul Stuart. Its deco
paisley motif has a Gatsby-
ish air, which will surely in-
spire dreams of being any-
where but in your cramped
home office struggling
with remote-connection is-
sues. Robe,$1,195, paulstu-
art.comTie On
A Fine
Tradition
12There’s a curious little scene
in last year’s film “The Irish-
man” in which the virile
crimesters portrayed by
Robert De Niro and Al Pa-
cino wear complementary
pajama sets. To some view-
ers, the elder statesmen
looked a bit silly in their PJs,
but to us, the look was inspi-
rational. Many of us have
spent at least a week
cooped up at home, so
surely we all can appreciate
a pair of tailored cotton pa-
jamas like these from British
brand Sunspel. The hand-
some gray get-up, with its
natty button-up shirt and
loosefitting trousers, suc-
cessfully toes the line be-
tween a professional labor-
ing from home and “Hey,
pass the remote control.”
Pajama Shirt,$165, sun-
spel.com;Pajama Bottoms,
$130, sunspel.comHave a Jam
Session
13From Bed to
Digital Boardroom
Nightshirt,$80,
brooksbrothers.comGETTY IMAGES (TOP); F. MARTIN RAMIN/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, STYLING BY ANNE CARDENAS (SLEEP SHIRT, ROBE, PAJAMAS)
Most view nightshirts
as woefully out of date.
But as more men begin
working from home, the
buttoned-up bedtime
look is primed for a
night-to-day comebackHit the
Sheets in
A Shirt
11
Cat Nap
A feline-
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style in 1956,
long before
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399Pleasevisitusonline:
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(TEMPORARILYCLOSED)
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