I am 68 and the first pyjamas I have ever written a letter about were standing in a hotel car park at half past two in the morning.
I am 68 and the first pyjamas I have ever written a letter about were standing in a hotel car park at half past two in the morning.
Six things these two pyjama sets get right that fifty years of nighties, multipacks and old T-shirts never did, from a woman who found out the hard way what she looks like when the fire alarm goes.
Pat Holloway · Customer · Leeds · 5 min read
I had better say who is talking first. I am Pat, I am 68, and I live in Leeds with my husband Brian and his spaniel Wilf. I have bought nightwear for fifty years, mostly in a hurry and mostly in a multipack, and I have never once thought any of it was worth writing to anybody about. Well. I have changed my mind, and it took a fire alarm and a woman called Dilys to change it.
The pyjamas I am writing about are from the pyjama set collection at Manchester Boutique, a small British boutique that has been quietly finding women like me the things we did not know we were allowed to have for a few years now. They are two-piece sets, a proper button-down shirt and long trousers, in prints I would happily wear in daylight. When the boutique asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
I first saw them in a hotel car park. My sister June and I have a weekend away every November, and this year it was a little old hotel in Ludlow. At half past two on the Saturday morning the fire alarm went off, and every guest in the building ended up standing outside in the cold. June was in her dressing gown with her coat over the top. I was in an old T-shirt of Brian’s from a fun run twenty years ago and a pair of leggings gone at the knee, and I spent forty minutes with my arms folded hoping nobody would look at me. Then I noticed the woman next to us. She was in a matching pyjama set, slate blue with orange and rust leaves all over it, the collar lying flat, every button done up, a cardigan round her shoulders, and she looked as if she had dressed for the occasion. It was a burnt bit of toast in the kitchen, as it turned out. At breakfast I asked her, plainly, where her pyjamas were from. Her name was Dilys, and she told me. Read on.
The blue one, in my own armchair by the window, first cup of the morning. Brian says I look like I am about to go somewhere. I am not. That is the point.
Here is what fifty years of buying nightwear taught me. It comes in two piles. The pretty sets, satin or lace, that you get given at Christmas and that are cold and slippery and end up in a drawer. And the sensible things, the faded nightie, the multipack, your husband’s old T-shirt, that are comfortable and that you would die to be seen in.
Nightwear was either too nice to sleep in or too far gone to be seen in. I had never once owned anything I would have been happy to stand in a car park in.
These are the first I have owned that I would. I have slept in two of them through a cold, wet autumn now, and it comes down to six things.
The morning they came, laid out on the bed before I had even taken my coat off.
A print you would wear in daylight
The one Dilys had is called the Autumn. It is a slate blue, printed all over with little fan-shaped leaves in orange and rust and a soft sage green, scattered every which way like the ones on our back lawn. It does not look like nightwear. It looks like autumn. I have opened the door to the window cleaner in it and he did not bat an eyelid, and the boutique says as much themselves, that it is smart enough for lounging at home or opening the door to guests.
Folded on the kitchen table with my tea. You would not know it was a pair of pyjamas.
My daughter asked where I had got the shirt and could she borrow it for the weekend. I had to tell her it was my pyjamas.
Margaret L., ClunA proper shirt, with a proper collar
This is a real pyjama shirt, the kind my grandmother would have recognised. A notch collar that lies flat, five buttons down the front, long sleeves and a chest pocket, which is where my tissue lives now. Every button does up and the collar sits where it should, even first thing when I am letting the dog out. That is what made Dilys look dressed in that car park and the rest of us look like we had been pulled out of bed, which of course we had.
The collar, the buttons and the pocket. The little orange edge is what catches people’s eye.
Finally a pyjama top with buttons that stay done up. I feel properly dressed when I come down to make the tea.
Jean H., Craven ArmsThe piping that makes it look dearer than it is
Round the collar, down the front, along the top of the pocket and round each cuff there is a thin line of contrast piping, orange on the blue one. It is a small thing, but it is the small thing that separates a set somebody chose from a set that came in a packet of three. June noticed it before she noticed anything else, and June does not notice much before ten in the morning.
The piping is such a lovely finish. They look like something from a much more expensive shop.
Susan T., Cleobury MortimerSoft, light, and a crinkle that is meant to be there
I will not tell you what they are made of, because I do not know and the boutique does not say. What I can tell you is how they feel. Soft against the skin, light enough that I do not wake up too hot under the duvet, and with a gentle crinkle texture all over that is part of the fabric. That crinkle is the clever bit. It is supposed to look a little rumpled, so it looks the same at breakfast as it did when I put it on at bedtime.
So soft and light. I run warm at night and these are the first pyjamas I have not kicked off by two in the morning.
Pauline R., Tenbury WellsTrousers that leave you alone
The trousers are long, with a relaxed straight leg and a soft elasticated waist. No cord to knot, nothing digging in when you turn over, and they come down to the ankle properly, which matters in a cold bedroom in November. They come in sizes from UK 10 up to UK 18, and the second set I bought was the rust one, the Kinsley, a warm rust background with big cream leaves printed across it and cream piping instead of orange. Same shirt, same trousers, a different autumn.
The rust one, waiting on the wardrobe door for Sunday night.
Comfortable waist that does not cut in, and the trousers are a proper length for once. I bought the rust one and went straight back for the blue.
Christine W., KnightonTen sets, every one the same price
There are ten sets in the collection, all at the same price. As well as the blue and the rust, there is a green with a dainty little floral, a red medallion print, an orange one with stars, a plain blush pink, a blue floral, a dusty pink floral, a charcoal one with bunnies on it and a coral daisy. Dilys has three. I have put the green floral away for June’s birthday, because if there is a fire alarm next November, she is not standing next to me in that dressing gown again.
The pair of them at the foot of the bed. Blue for weekdays, rust for Sundays.
Bought one for myself and two more as Christmas presents. Every one as nice as the picture.
Valerie D., PresteigneThese pyjama sets, against what you have been sleeping in
You can carry on with a nightie from a multipack or a set too nice to sleep in, like I did for fifty years. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Too nice to sleep in, or too far gone to be seen in
A top that gapes and rides up
Plain or babyish prints
A drawstring that digs in
Comes in a packet of three
A print you would wear in daylight
A proper collar and five buttons
Leaf prints, florals and more, ten sets
A soft elasticated waist
Contrast piping, a finish somebody chose
About the price
Every set in the collection is £41.95, down from £84.00. The same price whichever one you pick, from UK 10 to UK 18.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that these are in their sale while the autumn stock goes, and once a set sells through in a size, that one is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that I have paid more than £84.00 over the years for nightwear I was ashamed to be seen in, a multipack here and a Christmas set there, so £41.95 for a set I would happily stand in a car park in made it an easy yes. Twice.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.
If your nightwear drawer is a mix of things too nice to wear and things you would not want anybody to see, this is where I would start. Have a look at the sets before somebody else takes your size, because the autumn stock will not wait for the cold nights. And if you are ever stood outside a hotel at half past two in the morning, look for the woman in the slate blue leaves. It might be Dilys. It might be me.
Pat
THE PYJAMA SET COLLECTION
- Ten two-piece sets, every one the same price
- Autumn blue leaf and Kinsley rust leaf prints
- Button-down shirt with notch collar and chest pocket
- Contrast piping on collar, cuffs and pocket
- Long trousers with a soft elasticated waist
- UK 10 to UK 18 · Free UK delivery
Sale on now. The autumn stock is already going.