For those of us privileged enough to still be able to stay home while the global pandemic rages on outside, loungewear has become an important consideration. This category of clothing that otherwise may have been reserved for weekends and evenings is now creeping into the everyday, as we seek comfort both physically and emotionally.
Clothing retailers are reporting record sales in this category since COVID kicked in, which makes sense. I, too, have been expanding my collection of comfy clothes – but as any fashion-conscious materialist will tell you, there’s always more to want! Here are some lounge-appropriate items I’ve been lusting after lately…
Gap Dreamwell Tiered Dress in “Off-White Geo Dot”
Have you checked out the Gap’s “Dreamwell” collection recently? It’s full of sleepwear essentials in comfy fabrics and fun prints. It’s also the perfect name for such a section; if a friend asked me during a Skype chat what I was wearing, it’d feel so much more glamorous to say “It’s Dreamwell, darling” than to simply call it pajamas or a nightgown!
This froofy little number reminds me of this recent article by Rachel Syme about the “Nap Dress,” a creation by Hill House. However, the actual Nap Dresses are frankly way more expensive and way more matronly than I’d prefer, so I like this Gap nightgown better. It looks like the sort of thing you could roll around in on insomniac nights if need be, and that wouldn’t cause you to wake up sweaty after a humid summer night.
There’s also just something so iconic about a white dress. I imagine I would wear this out of the house at some point – I’m big on reappropriating sleepwear as streetwear if at all appropriate – and I doubt I could resist standing on a subway grate to have a bit of a Marilyn moment.
Playboy x MissGuided Pink Bunny Oversized T-Shirt Dress
I have a secret habit of scrolling through eBay and Etsy late at night, looking at vintage Playboy merch from decades past. They’ve made some truly wild things: I’ve found Playboy-branded martini glasses, pink leather jackets, even a cake pan.
There was a time when I looked down my nose at this brand – they’re not exactly known as a paragon of female empowerment, to say the least. But their mission seems to have changed a lot over the years; as of this writing, there was a Black Lives Matter section on their homepage, along with articles about erotic knife play, the racism of drug laws, and how BDSM interacts with mental health. Increasingly, I feel like rocking their logo on my person – while definitely capitalistic and materialistic – would be more of a progressive statement than a regressive one.
All of that said, I need to draw your attention to MissGuided’s collaboration collection with Playboy. It’s full of athleisure gems that would look just as good on the street as they would in your bed. This loose T-shirt particularly caught my eye because of the cute hue and the soft jersey fabric. Imagine waking up beside your lover in this – you’d feel as foxy as a centerfold!
Re Ona Scoop Long-Sleeve Bodysuit in Black
Re Ona is a Black-owned business (thanks to the Zoe Report for introducing me to them!) that focuses on simple basics. Most of their pieces are available in just 2-3 colors and are all about clean lines and classic shapes.
This bodysuit is made of a double-layered viscose/spandex blend that would make it heavenly for lounging around in (so long as you can put up with the thong back, which I know some people aren’t into). But it’s also designed so that you can wear it under jeans, shorts, or a skirt, without needing to worry about panty lines or the kind of riding-up that happens when you wear a T-shirt this way.
With its deep scoop-neck and PANTY SNAP CLOSURE (!!), this bodysuit is almost impossibly sexy, and also very easy to get in and out of when you need to pee (normally an urgent struggle in any bodysuit/romper/onesie). This is the kind of infinitely useful basic piece you could wear 100 times and still have more ideas about how and where to wear it.
Yoga Jeans Rachel Skinny Jeans in “Red Lip”
Okay, normally I would not consider jeans to be loungewear – days when I’m wearing jeans are days when I strip naked IMMEDIATELY upon arriving home. Begone, leg prisons!!
However, having owned a pair of Yoga Jeans for years (mine are these same ones in the color “Orchidée“), I can attest that they are shockingly comfortable and stretchy. This company – which, by the way, makes all its jeans right here in Canada in an eco-friendly and sustainable way – is called Yoga Jeans because you supposedly can do yoga while wearing their pants, due to their fabric which is specially designed for “4-way stretch.” Pretty neat!
I’m including these mostly because I know it sometimes doesn’t feel great to wear loungewear day after day when you’d rather dress up a little – but at the same time, you don’t always have the energy to put a whole fancy outfit together. For some people (like me), the ideal solution to this problem is fancy nightgowns or silk robes – but for some people, maybe a garment that looks like jeans but feels like yoga pants is the better pick! (These are also available in basic navy denim and honestly, I am tempted.)
Calvin Klein Sophisticated Lounge Sleep Pants in Black
Calvin Klein made one of my favorite nightgowns ever, which I’ve worn many many times both as sleepwear and as a base layer for various outdoors-appropriate outfits, so I trust this brand for my loungin’ needs.
I wouldn’t blame you if you looked at this image and at first assumed the model was wearing a full-length black dress – but no, that’s actually two separate pieces, one of which is this WILDLY wide-legged pair of pants. They describe it as “an updated Calvin Klein ’90s silhouette” but I think this shape actually would’ve looked delightfully out-there in almost any decade.
Made of modal – which is, IMO, the best material for any clothes you’re gonna lounge in, bar none – I suspect these would make you feel like a Greek god(dess) swishing around on a sunny day. It’s great to feel runway-level fashion-forward while you’re just lying in bed drinking coffee and reading a book!
Are you rocking lots of loungewear/sleepwear lately? Any favorite pieces you want to gush about in the comments?
A note for full disclosure: None of the links in this post are affiliate links, because most clothing retailers wouldn’t dream of accepting a sex blogger into their program – so if you want to support me as a writer (which I always appreciate very very much), you’ll have to pick a different avenue!