Friday 25 June 2021

Converted to Pyjamas

 For most of my adult life I have unthinkingly dismissed pyjamas as a kind of sartorial analogue of Horlicks, most definitely not for me. Then, earlier this year, I had, for no evident reason, a sudden conversion and, at last, I saw the point of pyjamas. Not, I hasten to add, the cosy brushed-cotton jimjams of my boyhood with the white drawstring, but light pyjamas of thin cotton (or ideally, if I could afford it, silk). As with my less recent conversion to the cravat (see early Nigeness, passim), I seem to have discovered the virtues of pyjamas just as they are falling out of use. Standard sleepwear these days looks more like some kind of sportswear, with various combinations of T-shirts and what I believe are known as 'sweat pants', all pretty unattractive and surely uncomfortable to wear in a warm bed. Pyjamas, on the other hand, allow the skin to breathe and air to circulate around the body – and they do look rather good, they have a certain elegance about them. What's not to like? Apart, that is, from the odious habit of tucking the pyjama jacket into the trousers, but I'm sure my discerning readers would never do that. 
  The word 'pyjama' or, in the American form, 'pajama', is of Persian and Urdu origin, and originally meant only the trousers ('pae' leg, 'jamah' clothing), 'worn by both sexes among the Mohamedans', as the OED puts it, 'and adopted for night wear by Europeans'. 
  As it happens, I have a pair of pyjamas very similar to the ones in the above painting, 'The Conversation' by Matisse. This only confirms me in my new-found love of this stylish and versatile garment, perfect alike for sleeping in and lounging about in before addressing the vexed question of what to wear for the day. As Beerbohm puts it in his essay on Dandyism, 'So to clothe the body that its fineness be revealed and its meanness veiled has been the aesthetic aim of all costume.' Pyjamas, correctly worn, seem to me to achieve that aim rather well. And, if not, they can always be covered by a dressing gown.  
 

7 comments:

  1. I will have to search out your post on your conversion to the cravat, where no doubt you set out excellent arguments. At first glance, however, I am a little shaken.

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    1. Try searching 'cravat' on this blog, Zoe, and you'll get some startling results...

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    2. I’ve been feeling a little weak since having the 2nd of 2 vaccinations for the world's most famous virus but, assuming I return to full strength, I will definitely have a look then. Cravats in my life so far have been the things European diplomats put on when asked by Australian diplomats to a ‘casual’ occasion. The contrast between the cravat wearers & the Antipodean shirts & flip flops crowd is what I suspect a pompous tutor at university meant when he used to refer to ‘a clash of registers’.

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    3. A clash of registers indeed, Zoe – I can picture the scene...
      Did you know the word 'cravat' is a corruption of 'Croat' (via German etc) – from the style of scarf worn by Croatian mercenaries in France? You live and learn, eh.

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    4. Hope you're soon over the vaccination.

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  2. Snap.

    After forty odd years of eschewing them as the domain of the old and sexless I converted when I caught the dreaded 'Rona at Christmas and haven't gone back.

    Cotton/wool mix for winter, with all its schnoogly qualities.

    Linen for hot summer nights.

    And plain cotton for the inbetween times, like now.

    'pj pan' is a good brand.

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    1. Thanks Recusant – good to know I am not alone in this...

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