Fed up of political correctness
which requires effort to maintain, many will opt to react with tongue in
cheek reaction where people can make statements about their place in society
and their desire to feel alive and sense their own exceptional uniqueness.
This may manifest itself as a sense of needing personal at home luxury,
against showing concern for global devastation where having access to luxury
enhances the responsibility to give of the self to those less fortunate.
Indulging the sense of self at home, the one
place where you can be yourself, has not escaped the marketer's fashion
input. A
whole new apparel market called
housewear, also known as loungewear, afterwear or even chilloutwear as I like to
call it, has become important to the ever shifting change
of homelife
patterns.
Basically this fashion is really comfy casual
dress intended to serve the rather nasty phrase 'slobbing out at home.' We all know exactly what it means. In yesteryear it was the oversized
Kaftan/muumuu Liz Taylor was caught wearing at the end of a very long lens. More recently it was the oversized T-shirt Cherie Blair wore to open the
door of No.10 Downing Street the morning after the first labour election
victory. But wait, marketing man has been looking at the need for clothes to
fit these moments and he came up with the concept of luxury lazing clothes.
It's impossible to give these clothes a
really good name. The best and most descriptive is actually slobwear,
but for the sake of sounding attractive I like to think of it as
Chilloutwear.
Calling it chillwear was my first inclination, but that might imply it was
for skiing or mountaineering!!!
These fashions usually consist of relaxed
pocketed hoodies, vests, camisoles, cashmere socks, and casual trousers often with
drawstrings or easy elastication. Fabrics used are soft and
comfortable knit constructions like cashmere mixes, Vincel jersey, cotton
jersey, angora and velour. They are just the kind of clothes to don
after a hard day shopping or working and after a quick shower or lazy bath.
It's not quite nightwear, you can still safely answer the door to a
neighbour who knocks at 9pm in these outfits, but also curl up in ball on
the sofa being totally lazy and self indulgent knowing your designer outfit
is safely hung up for another day.
This area is likely to be a hugely expanding
market as more people work from home or feel the need to express their
desire to unwind, particularly after work, not by changing into nightwear,
but into at home evening wear so that time slots within the day are just
that, occasions to dress for in a specific way to differentiate precious
hours in a short time space before the next day begins again.
Soon we will have come full circle and be
very much like the late Edwardians who changed 5 or 6 times a day so that
they were completely at ease with the particular role they played at any
moment in 24 hours. Just ask yourself reader do you already change
outfit 3 or 4 times day now for work, gym, evening, then chillout and then
bed?
Fashion-Era.com looks at women's costume and fashion history and analyses the mood of an era. Changes in technology, leisure, work, cultural and moral values. Homelife and politics also
contribute to lifestyle trends, which in turn influence the clothes we wear. These are the changes that make any era of society special in relation to the study of the costume of a period.
Fashion-Era.com can take no responsibility for any information on the site which may cause you error, loss or costs incurred from use of the information and links either directly or
indirectly. This site is owned, designed, written and developed by author: Pauline Thomas and Guy Thomas. This site is designed to be viewed in 1024 X 768 or higher.
Before you write to me for costume/fashion help or information please, please consult the extensive sitemap which lists all our pages. If you still cannot find the answer after searching the site, then before you email me, please consider if you are prepared to make a donation to the website.
Donations Reader's donations help this site flourish, in particular donations encourage me to write more articles on fashion history as well as current trends. PayPal
allows anyone with a credit card to donate easily and securely. You may donate any sum you feel appropriate.
If you have any comments, or if you see any broken links, then please email with details of the page url or problem.
