Dressing gown, housecoat or robe?

[mdinbc]

What do you call it, and do you wear one?

I used to call it a dressing gown, but slowly changed over the years to call it a housecoat. I'm in Canada, so maybe it's regional.

I have a short, thin summer one, but do not own a warm one for winter. i have a old adidas track jacket that I put on over my pyjamas. It makes it easier to do dishes/chores before getting dressed.

Dressing gown. Yes, I have a towelling one that goes over my pyjamas in the morning.

Housecoat sounds like the sort of thing my great gran would have said to me. It's dressing gown here, I would like one but don't have one, I live in an unimaginably small place and there is nowhere to hang one, so I just get dressed as soon as I'm up. The day I get to buy one for myself will be a great day as it will be a lovely sign I have moved onto better things.

And when I get one if like it to be a thin silk type thing in splendid colours, as I will have a lovely warm house and will be elegantly floating about looking other worldly a leisurely way.🦚

In a leisurely way

I was brought up to call it a robe. I now call it a dressing gown.
Confusing as I’m at the Bar - in court I wear a wig and gown (and bands) which I put on in the ‘robing room’
I do not own domestic gown/robe.

My granny wore a housecoat. I wear a bathrobe, my DH wears a dressing gown. American and British.

top here’s to your ‘dressing gown days’ when they come.

Dressing gown. I have a fleece one and a thin cotton one for summer

Housecoat is a thin polyester type garment worn by ladies of previous generations to protect their clothes whilst cleaning isn't it?

Bathrobes are generally white and heavy and found in hotel rooms

Dressing gowns are soft and fluffy and worn over pyjamas at home

Not sure what a silky item to be worn over sexy underwear would be called - a robe I suppose? Non existent in my house 🤣

I have a long fleece dressing gown for winter.
And a short waffle cotton one for summer/travel. It's from Seasalt and called a 'pottering gown'!

Yes, a housecoat is a thin polyester coat you wore to protect clothes when doing chores.

To me a robe is like a floor length neglige
A dressing gown is the plush thing we all know and love
And a house coat is more like a kind of long quilted jacket posh women wear around the house

I grew up calling them housecoats. When I got to uni I discovered everyone else called them dressing gowns and didn’t understand me when I referred to it as a housecoat, so I switched.

Years later I married a European, and he calls it a bathrobe, so now sometimes I find myself calling it that.

I currently own a pink fluffy zip up one from M&S for winter, a pretty blue and white quilted cotton one for summer, and a short silky floral kimono for holidays.

I have a Monsoon lined kimono and a knee length plain hoodie from Hush, which play somewhat dressing gown like roles, but the actual towling dressing gown I have never leaves the bathroom except to be washed and is in effect my bath towel - I put it straight on after showering while I brush my teeth and put my contacts in etc. and then I'm pretty much dry already and ready to get dressed. I never wear it around the house.

Towling dressing gowns make me rhink of illness and frailty and the idea of wearing one around the house is deeply unappealing for this reason. I also prefer to get dressed before going downstairs and only wear the hoodie or kimono over slobby stuff like leggings and a t shirt if I've showered early in the day after getting home from a night shift or getting frozen/ muddy/ soaked outdoors.

I'd call the towling traditional version a dressing gown though. A house coat wouldn't be that but more the kimono I think - something that you could go outside in without feeling like an invalid/ very small child/ alcoholic unable to get up in the morning...

@HeronLanyon

top here’s to your ‘dressing gown days’ when they come.

Awwww, thank you!

I use bathrobe / dressing gown. I rarely wear them these days as I got a snoodie thing from primark.

I have a lovely warm wool/cashmere dressing gown.
I agree a bathrobe is more a white towelling thing that you would put on after a bath, possibly to dry you, but not wear for very long.
A housecoat is to keep your clothes clean when you clean the house (I don't have one, but do sometimes keep an apron on for this!)

I think of a house coat as the thin, short or no sleeves floral over dress women used to put on when cleaning, but googling it just now it was a much more glamorous cross between a dressing gown and dress! Like the equivalent to a man's smoking jacket.
So there you have it - what I call a dressing gown is not nearly as glam as the old housecoat, which I thought was not glamorous at all!

Dressing gown here is definitely called a bathrobe in the US (where I grew up).

I'd call it a robe. Can't bear them though, put a hoodie on if I'm cold.

Dressing gown.
I have two long black fleece hooded robes, which come from a theatre, but I still call them dressing gowns. I wear them over my clothes when I’m cold and as I mentioned before in a long ago thread, end up looking like a sort of grunge wizard.
In the summer, I can waft about in lighter cotton dusters, bought at a hippy shop ages ago, and again, called dressing gowns, because I no longer wear them as day wear.

Dressing gown, bathrobe If it’s a Toweling one. To me a housecoat are the thin checked things worn to protect clothes like dot cotton wore in the launderette. My Nan used to see one for doing housework.

T-bag. I have a lightweight one for summer and a fleece one for winter. They are like a kaftan. DH has a dressing gown.

Dressing gown , I own 3 a summer one, a thick heavy winter one and my grandad's, he died in 1977.

I wonder if the housecoat name for it is regional? It is fairly common in central Scotland to refer to what I call a dressing gown as a housecoat.