MEN'S SLEEPING CLOTHES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5861, 1 May 1897, Page 7

MEN'S SLEEPING CLOTHES.

A PROTEST AGAINST PYJAMA JACKETS, There can no longer be any doubt that the nightgown, as an article of male attire, has gone out of fashion in England. Our tmtravelled elders probably adhere to the old wear, but the younger generations are obviously all for pyjamas. Some few shop-windows still expose curiously-em-broidered or flannel nightshirts for men, but these are but the exception among the many. They may well suggest, however, one reason for the gradual decadence of the nightshirt — its obvious effeminacy. What can a healthy man want with broidered prettiness in bed or a huge gown of flannel? And as ladies have long since added the nightgown to their store of long-flowing garments, it is only fit that men should adopt a characteristic bifurcated garment for the night as well as for the day. But the question may well arise whether this form of sleeping dress, universal as it has become in the •last twenty years, is really as satisfactory as it might be. Pyjamas have undoubtedly reached us from the East, as the name alone might tell us, and the climate of India and China is very different to our own, without considering the fact that these string-tied drawers are there used chiefly as a day garment, and by women as well as by men. But pyjamas as known in London imply two garments instead of one. We have not only the drawers, or pyjamas proper, but also a jacket resembling to some extent a, common Asiatic upper garment; and chiefly because of the large amount of epidermis which is too often visible through the ill-closed opening down the front. And whether the opening be secured by turks'heads and frogs, or the more occidental buttons and button-holes, wearers of pyjama jackets will readily acknowledge that the ventilating capacity of the garment is decidedly more agreeable in summer than in winter. In fact, while the popularity of the nether garment is readily understood, owing to its non-slipping properties in bed, and its seemly appearance (compared with that of a night-shirt) in hotel passage or on earlymorning deck parade at sea, one can find little or no praise for the jacket which is now its invariable companion. Even in hot weather it is far more comfortable to deep in a thin skin-tight jersey than in this half-buttoned, halfway-up-your-back jacket ; while in winter, unless some sort of cummerbund be worn in addition, the resulting feeling of chilliness round the waist is enough to drive a faint-hearted subject to the gruesome flannel nightgown recommended by the health people. The man who is above convention has Ms obvious remedy close at hand. He will refuse to purchase the shop-shown pyjamas, but he will order, instead of the jacket, a lie-down collar shirt of similar material, buttoning with reasonably small buttons, such as can be depended upon not to come undone. And when the tails of this shirt are secured, after the daily fashion, within the strings of his pyjamas, he can then go to sleep with confidence that throughout the night his whole body will be safely protected from the chilly touch of the sheet. We may make one concession to the doctors with a good grace. There can be no doubt that in cold weather flannel, or that modified form of it known as Calcutta cloth, is an eminently suitable material out of which to have pyjamas made. But though we shall do well to avoid the flaring patterns which are apparently beloved by those who purchase what they see in shop windows, we need surely not be forced to clothe ourselves, even in bed, with that sackcloth-resembling stuff which is known as sanitary or natural wool. For one advantage of pyjamas, just noted, is the possibility of being seen in them without loss of

reßpect ; and how shall this be attained if your garments are a dirty grey to begin with, and return each time a still more offensive tint fr6m the wash ? But during tho hot nights of summer the more hardy among us are likely to long for something cooler than flannel, cooler oven than Calcutta cloth. For the luxurious there is silk, ribbed or plain ; the less extravagant of us can be equally cool and comfortable, if not so magnificent, in soft linens or canvas shirtings. But in summer as well as in winter it will be found as well to f orsak'e the modern and senseless jacket, wearing in its place a shirt such as one nowadays wears at cricket, or else the still more slender jersey, of the kind that is preferred by the " wet-bob" in his racing boat.