To champion the return of the "housecoat"?

[LadyTrevelyan]

My Grandma and Auntie B.both removed their coats when getting home and then put on their housecoat - a bit like Mrs Overall. I swore I would never wear such a thing but...

So practical and has pockets to pick up bits and pieces and, also, keeps my shoulders warm. I picked up mine from a charity shop.

I am single and I don't think this is related.

Tabards often have poppers at the side that undo when your pinnie pocket is too full.A Howie coat could be good, elasticated cuffs too.

The traditional, old-fashioned housecoat was not a dressing gown. Nor was it an 'indoor coat' to keep you warm.

It was - as many PPs have said - a lightweight, long-sleeved, overall-type garment to wear over your normal clothes whilst you were doing housework to keep your clothes clean.

Margo Leadbetter would have rather stuck needles in her eyes before she wore a housecoat. And, after all, I bet she would have had a cleaner (who probably did wear a housecoat). And I bet Margo L would have called/referred to her cleaner as "my treasure" or "Mrs C".

But if I buy a housecoat when i answer the door to the postman will he know that I'm wearing a respectable housecoat and not slumming it in my dressing gown?

You don't answer the door in it! It has poppers so you can take it off quick to answer the door.

Margo did indeed have a cleaner, who came daily and her husband looked after the garden.
I often wonder what she did all day. No children, no job, no housework to do, no gardening, no Mumsnet!

I bet Margo was shaggin the postman

Margo spent loads of her time with the local AmDram/Music Society - run by Miss Mountshaft.

It only occurred to me relatively recently that the writers of The Good Life must have had fun naming the never seen, but supposedly single, woman Miss Mountshaft

A housecoat is still a thing in the US, but it's not worn over clothes. It's something like this:

www.amazon.com/National-Garden-Melodies-House-Coat/dp/B0007N3NP4

Mountshaft snigger

Stop the thread. I've found it:
www.suzannecharles.co.uk/housecoats/full-length-floral-quilted-housecoat.html

Quite, Chipped. I'm so ancient I remember The Good Life when it was first televised (although I was probably too young to snigger at Mountshaft then). But bearing in mind all the re-runs I've watched since then, I'm staggered that it only occurred to me a couple of years back!

Nope, sorry, Pipbin! That's a dressing gown.

That's not a dressing gown.
Dressing gowns are towelling and belted.

I wear a battered old gillet around the house much as my gram did before me. Warm so good for an impromptu spot of gardening and pegging out washing. Could also answer the door in it. unlike my Gran we have central heating but I feel the cold!

24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_memtql7Qew1r17y54o1_1280.png

Perfect ...

A dressing gown doesn't have to be towelling & belted, does it?
(Wouldn't that be a bathrobe?)

I thought that a dressing gown was something that you put on when getting up & before getting dressed?

Well. From my thorough research, I find the perfect housecoat/duster will leave you feeling fresh, crisp, and put together should anyone call unexpectedly. So who wouldn't want one?

I've found a darling pattern, very Doris Day circa "Please Don't Eat The Daisies", but be warned, pps, vintage patterns from the 1950s will have smaller sizes than today.

Meanwhile, I can't find anything to buy that's made in cotton (obviously not fresh and crisp is menopausal and working my way through 6 loads of laundry).

I remember my granny also putting special sleeves over her house coat for washing up. ..? Whereas my mother used to do housework in her underwear. No doubt in revolt against bri-nylon.

Op, YANBU...

But it's not a housecoat either! (Sorry, Pipbin, I was interrupted for a while!)

I've been thinking about this - unsurprisingly.

I think the old-fashioned, British 'housecoat' did originally refer to the "lightweight, long-sleeved, overall-type garment to wear over your normal clothes whilst you were doing housework to keep your clothes clean"

But, I think that the term 'housecoat' has morphed over the years. Partly in the UK it's now used as a generic name for anything that resembles a dressing gown type garment. And, similarly, in parts the US/Canada/Australia it's used for for the same thing.

Also, I think it's an age-related thing. Those of us who are old/er remember the original description - whilst those who are young/er use the term in a far wider sense.

YABU arrggghhhh - this brings back not so great memories, whenever my mother had hers on (fucking vile brown and white checked jobby or blue and white checked polyester monstrosity) it meant she would be cleaning and this generally lead to much shouting and screaming and possibly a good hiding becuse "people" left the place in suh a mess and "they" never put anything away. I used to think thatwe had malevolent ghosts that used to mess up the house until i realised by "people" she was referring to me and my long suffering father.

Good memories of the gypsies in the strawberry fields who used to wear house coats and marigolds to pick in, complete with head scarves - those ladies could pick strawberries at a rate of knots!

LEM difference between overalls and housecoat though? You'd never call Margo''s stuff overalls

Love the idea of protecting your clothes, but not sure I could face answering the door in a housecoat. Also don't you get hot having the extra layer on? I do often wear an apron though...

I was thinking about Housecoats recently and wondering where I could buy one (as in proper overall Housecoat, not a dressing gown). When I was young, most women wore them to protect their clothes when they were doing the housework. They are really useful for all the reasons mentioned upthread. Dressing gowns don't work as well becuase they're too bulky and don't dry as quickly when washed. Wearing old clothes is an option but, unlike a housecoat, you can't just whip them off when the doorbell goes.

That is true lorelei in fact i can't find an image under housecoat, am off to google overalls!

But, Itinerary, in the 'old-days' when women wore housecoats to do their cleaning, houses weren't centrally heated like ours are now - in fact the houses probably weren't heated at all - so they weren't going to get hot the way you'd imagine that we would these days.

My grandmother had a Royal blue nylon housecoat, long sleeved, buttoned, knee length to wear over her clothes during the day to keep her clothes clean. We very rarely saw her actual clothes. Just on Christmas Day really.
I just use my dressing down picked for filling with crap and wear pjs to clean in.
I'm hankering after old fashioned nighties.
In the 70s as children we wore nighties not pjs.
Pie crust collars, elasticated gatherings, ribbons. Flammable.
I would love a winceyette nightie but DH is horrified.

A dressing gown doesn't have to be towelling & belted, does it?
(Wouldn't that be a bathrobe?)

I thought that a bathrobe was the American name for a dressing gown.

Ultimately, get a sodding cleaner and then you won't have to wear anything over your clothes.

Could be.

I tend to think of towelling being a bathrobe because you can out it on when wet, which you wouldn't with a dressing gown.

I find the idea of a housecoat to over your clothes whilst you clean really twee