How Slippers, Bathrobes And Towels Become Fashionable Clothes

Pajamas

Another life of things that we are used to seeing exclusively within the apartment began back in the 1930s. Naturally, from the leader of all fashion revolutions Gabrielle Chanel, who walked in a silk shirt with contrasting trim and a small pocket on her chest along the beaches of Lido, Deauville and Biarritz. This image of the designer is captured not only in old photographs, but also in the film by Anne Fontaine "Coco do Chanel". In one of the scenes, Gabriel in his pajamas is reading in bed, and then, throwing a cardigan on top, runs out onto Ryu Cambon and gets into the car to Boy.

Photo: Still from the movie "Coco do Chanel"

After Coco Chanel, Jeanne Lanvin, Joan Crawford, Sophia Loren and Marlene Dietrich began to appear in public in pajamas. Journalists even drew attention to the sleeping images of the German actress: after the release of the film "Shanghai Express", in which Dietrich starred in a black silk set, they wrote that this is how modern elegant ladies should look on trains.

Pajamas did not appear on the catwalk, which demonstrates the personal preferences of designers and actresses, but trends related to the social, cultural and economic environment, only half a century later, in 2002. Miuccia Prada, apparently confident that after the 1990s, with their revealing outfits, leopard fur coats and dog collar necklaces, nothing will surprise you, showed pajama shirts as part of the spring-summer collection. But the context was important here: each of them tucked into classic woolen shorts, and the collection itself glorified office style. Fashionists, shocked by the proposal to wear pajamas to work (or not to go anywhere at all), discussed the legality of such an idea until a similar show by Dolce & Gabbana in 2009.

Photo: Karl Prouse / Catwalking / Getty Images

Combinations

More controversy was conducted only in relation to slip dresses, which before the show of Gianni Versace were definitely not a thing for prying eyes. His 1995 spring / summer collection, which was presented on the catwalk by Karla Bruni, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Kate Moss, included brightly colored silk dresses reminiscent of nightgowns. It was proposed to wear them with sandals with thin straps and handbags to match, as well as with golden hairpins that repeated the accessories of the dresses. That they were not as shocking and shameful as it seemed to the common people and the press then, it became clear in 2016. For the spring / summer season, many of the leading brands - from Celine led by Phoebe Fileo to Balenciaga led by Alexander Wang - featured pajamas and slip-ons that barely expose both female and male bodies. If and to promote the trend, then only this way.

Three years later, during which the fashionable public experienced Kubler-Ross's "denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance", things from the home wardrobe ceased to be something extraordinary. They constantly appear on the catwalk, on the street and even on the red carpet (hello to Rihanna, Tilda Swinton and Jessica Alba) - not in a frank form, which was promoted in 1995 and 2016, but in combination with sports and ethnicity, as in new collections Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Ann Demeulemeester.

Ann Demeulemeester Fall / Winter 2019/20

1 of 2 Burberry, Spring / Summer 2020 © Ann Demeulemeester Press Office, Fall / Winter 2019/20

Bathrobes and towels

The 1995 Versace collection is not without reason called legendary: in addition to silk slip dresses, it featured terry towels and robes, which were redesigned and shown again at the brand's show more than 20 years later. In the era of social networks, the idea became so popular that a month and a half after the show, in November 2017, Rita Ora entered the MTV Europe Music Awards in a bath kit, but from another brand - Palomo Spain. The singer looked as if she had really just taken a bath (she was given out shoes with rhinestones and chandelier earrings, although some swim in them too), but Rihanna, who starred for the December cover of French Vogue in the same year, combined a "terry turban" with yellow fur coat and top with glitter.

As with pajamas and slip-ons, after showing the trend openly, the designers moved on to interpret it. It was no longer typical bathrobes with the name of the brand or the name of the wearer that hit the podium, but outerwear reminiscent of them. It is a loose-fitting coat with long sleeves and a thick belt, made of quilted leather or soft fleece. Recently, they have been seen at Balenciaga, Salvatore Ferragamo, Stella McCartney, Lacoste and Miu Miu, who suggest combining a bathrobe - no, not with towels and slippers - with baseball caps, boots and turtlenecks.

Slippers

With slippers, which seem to be suitable only for walking around the apartment, everything turned out exactly the opposite. Four years ago, Gucci introduced something that resembled slippers - fur-lined mules, nicknamed "grannies." The idea of wearing them with knitted suits, cashmere coats and all the same silk pajamas quickly caught on in fashion circles - and they are still being walked by Hayley Bieber, Gigi Hadid, Jared Leto and A $ AP Rocky. After the premiere of such slippers, other fashion brands rushed to interpret them, including the domestic Razgulyaev Blagonravova and To Be Woman: they suggest using mules with pom-poms and appliqués based on Malevich's paintings in winter at home and outdoors in summer.

For Demne Gvasalia, flirting with tendencies seems meaningless: if they produce house slippers, they will immediately be the ones in which many Russians cross their legs and watch The Irony of Fate - polyester, checkered, with thin grooved soles. In the lookbook of the new resort collection, the Balenciaga team combines them with architectural coats, trousers with arrows and branded cross-body, as if forgetting the demands of the weather on shoes. Although you probably won't have to go out in such slippers: Demna in 2019, like Miuccia in 2020, determines the presence of home clothes in everyday clothes with social trends. According to experts' calculations, by 2024 the number of unemployed may increase to 7.8 million people, and 60% of the working-age population will work as freelancers. Why would an idle housewife or designer at a stationary computer need something besides beautiful pajamas, a terry dressing gown and cozy mules?