Dressing for our dreams

Nap dress, house dress or just that nondescript silhouette worn at home and beyond has become the emblem of a pragmatist’s wardrobe, finds Akanksha Kamath

- Akanksha Kamath

With every year comes the most- talked-about item in a woman or man’s closet. A piece of clothing so polarising, it puts a damper on world politics. While 2019 gave us cycling shorts, 2020 belonged to sweatpants, a hardworking piece that quickly replaced the quotidian denim in our wardrobes. 2021 will likely be remembered for the more transitional, trans-seasonal and ethereal house dress.

To really understand the ubiquitous appeal of the house dress is to comprehend its core tenets. Loose and voluptuous fabrics, with large pockets to hold precious cargo, and ruching to create shape—it can or cannot be worn outside the house for shopping, coffee runs, errands and, if you’re Selena Gomez, even birthday lunches in Rome.

TRIVIAL PURSUITS

There are as many ways with the house dress as there are designers and brands. Nell Diamond, behind the ‘Nap Dress’ success (her brand Hill House Home sold US$1 million worth of its nap dresses in just half an hour in November last year), harked back to her favourite pre-Raphaelite era for mood boarding. “In Victorian painter Rossetti’s portraits, you see women wearing nightdresses to wind down or get dressed, as opposed to pyjamas and boxer shorts, which many women wear now,” she explains via a Zoom call, dressed in a smocked dress with puff sleeves and a crown for a hairband, looking much like the Victorian picture she paints.