Fashion In Art: the Bed Edition
In this iteration: musings on loungewear and the glamour of staying in bed. (You have no idea how tempted I was to call this the Bedition.)
Hey Matryoshkas,
2024 has gotten off to an odd false-start for me, commencing with a severe joint-pain flareup that’s left me struggling to get around the house most days, let alone leave it. (A ME/CFS symptom or rheumatoid arthritis? I’ll find out when my blood test results are back next week. Until then, rest and co-codamol.) Earlier this week, I had a minor surgery on my feet which has further reduced my ability to get around. As a result I’ve been doing a lot of lounging in bed.
I’ve still been making the effort to get dressed every day, although my definition of “dressed” probably isn’t the same as everyone else’s. Once I’m awake, I’ll drag myself out from under the covers and switch the pyjamas I slept in for a pair of comfortable lounge pants or leggings and a t-shirt or camisole, most likely – given the freezing temperatures we’re dealing with at the moment as the climate continues to disintegrate – paired with a jumper or cardigan. (Sometimes both. I run very cold.)
It’s the same thing a lot of us wore during the 2020-21 lockdowns, and the uniform I don most days when I’m planning on staying at home, which is often. Why? Because with my chronic illness at its current level, I frequently need to return to bed mid-afternoon for a nap. And when that happens, I need there to be as few steps as possible between getting up the stairs and collapsing into bed. That means no jeans to shimmy out of; no bra to remove. (Sleeping in a bra is awful and you cannot change my mind.)
The drawback of this uniform is, of course, its connotations. It’s hard to feel glamorous in loungewear. Hard to feel put-together, or like you’re working hard, even if you are. Countless articles have been written in the last few years discussing the toll wearing loungewear day-to-day can take on your mental health; I’ve certainly felt it. This HuffPost article notes that putting effort into our appearance ― even if it’s just the tiniest bit ― is, according to Tracy Thomas, “one of the most important things people can do for their emotional, mental and psychological health.” Thomas elaborates:
Typically, the people who would have the most struggle with emotional issues are also the people who need to create. And if you’re not creating every day — including creating your own self with your different wardrobe and the way [you] adorn and decorate yourself — you’re essentially taking away part of your creative process and then that can create sadness and depression.
As someone who derives a lot of pleasure from playing dress-up with myself – combining different pieces to create new looks and wearing them out and about – this really resonated with me. Often, when I’m at home, I don’t get to indulge in that creativity and play with my clothes. Instead I throw them on, get some work done in them, fall asleep in them, take them off and forget about them. It’s depressing.
The Retail Bulletin puts a more positive spin on the rise of loungewear, calling it “symbolic of the societal shift towards self-care, as comfort breeds confidence.” I think that certainly can be true, although it isn’t always – and one has to acknowledge, when reading this article, the emphasis it places on customers and buying. “As the demand for quality loungewear skyrockets,” author Angela Beevers notes, “the market is set to grow and diversify with expansion into multi-purpose styles [...] Brands that didn’t previously sell loungewear are launching new collections, while existing brands are expanding to incorporate diverse styles that meet this new customer demand.” By the sound of it, loungewear certainly sells – but does buying it really give us the result we’re after? Is this a successful act of self-care, or a retail-therapy-shaped plaster on a much larger problem?
It's a question I’d like to give a lot more consideration to when I’m feeling better. In the interim, though, I’ve been thinking about what positive changes I can make to my own wardrobe that will alleviate the creeping gloom that comes with wearing loungewear all the time. It’s not as simple – for me – as deciding not to wear loungewear anymore; that simply wouldn’t work with my lifestyle. So – just as I would for a going-out outfit – I need to get creative. I need to reframe the way I think about the clothes I wear around the house; to pare back the ones I don’t feel nice in, and going forward, invest in ones that spark creative joy.
To inspire myself, I’ve been thinking about the things that make me feel better about working from home (and, more often recently, from bed). The vibes I want my indoor wardrobe to evoke.
Joking with my friends that I have the constitution of a Victorian ingénue and I need to go to the seaside for my health puts me in a better mood than joking about being a slob does; there’s something dainty, to me, about that mental image, which lessens my feelings of self-loathing. (Yes, I know there are problems with that trope – it’s classist, for one; only rich women would have had the luxury of restoring themselves in soft beds by the coast – but I think as a chronically ill working-class girl I have some right to appropriate the image.) It helps that my style is already heavily Victorian-inspired; I’ve enjoyed being compared to an 1890s vampire in the past, as well.
Hans Christian Andersen’s The Princess and the Pea, with its whimsical motif of towering mattresses and the princess who can’t sleep despite it all, is another tale whose imagery greatly appeals to me. Seeing it referred to in this shoot Elle Fanning did for ICON made me very happy. And there are lots of other works of art that make lying in bed look glamorous and luxurious.
For this edition of Fashion In Art, I’m going to share some of the artworks which have helped me to refine the vibe I’d like to aspire to in my indoor wardrobe going forward.
Back when twitter was a functioning website (hi, I have a Bluesky now instead), I must have seen this painting in a dozen or more tweets captioned “me napping”, “mood” and other similar things. Napping on a sofa like that, with so little cushioning, probably isn’t very comfortable – but aesthetically, the painting is gorgeous. I particularly adore the subject’s swirling skirt, dusty rose with delicate hints of violet and blue. It’s almost like a blanket. And while I don’t imagine it would be practical to buy an Edwardian gown of my own to fall asleep in, I would like to feel – when I’m napping – the same way looking at this picture makes me feel. Elegant and peaceful.
I believe this sketch by Karl Lagerfeld depicts him sleeping in his childhood bedroom (but don’t cite me on that). I’m not much of a Lagerfeld fan – it’s hard to be – but admittedly, I’d like to steal this room off him. Its comforting rosiness makes the whole space feel inviting, and the strange foreshortening of the bed’s footboard – like it’s a part of the blankets trying to envelop its sleeping subject – only heightens this effect. The cluttered nightstand reminds me of my own. Fashion-wise, I have always been drawn to soothing pinks and florals; the deliberate black brushstrokes and dark wooden furnishings present in this piece lend them a sophisticated edge.
Admittedly, I don’t know much about the history of the two Whitmore illustrations I’ve chosen to share here. (I haven’t even been able to track down which publication they appeared in, though I will keep looking and update if I find out). I encountered them floating around on tumblr, and enjoyed them for their – admittedly highly styled – aesthetic. No real woman looks like this when she’s lounging in her bed, of course. We don’t wear makeup; our hair is an unbrushed mess. We yawn magnificently as we’re stretching, creating a ripple of chins. But the setting – the squashy pillows, the pastel upholstery, the lampshades on the nightstands with their light frill trim – has that same elegant, comforting quality that I find myself drawn to again and again.
Lastly, Sailor Moon. I actually haven’t watched this anime yet (I know!!), but every time I see a still or GIF of Usagi’s bedroom, I envy it a bit. Again, it’s the pastels, the squashiness.
What I’m getting from all of this is that I like to be surrounded by feminine beauty and comfort. If I was Thumbelina-sized, I would curl up under the cushion of a blush compact and sleep there. While I can’t afford to just up and replace my entire loungewear collection – and that wouldn’t be very responsible of me, anyhow – I can use this knowledge about myself to make more informed loungewear choices going forward. I can weed out the ratty old things that don’t give me this elegant, comforting feeling, and focus on collecting pieces that allow me to dress up creatively and play even when I’m not well enough to leave the house. (Maybe at some point – when my health is better – I can even take a stab at making myself a duvet coat from one of my old coverlets, like the one by Maison Margiela.)
Until next time,
Holly
The Doll House
First of all, I hope you feel better soon. Second of all, you need a Bedition section!! And I think we have the same definition of "dressed". I love fashion and using my wardrobe and jewelry but ever since the pandemic I think I have forgotten what my true style or aesthetic is and I'm trying to rediscover it.
I can relate to this almost two years into being mostly bedridden from a long term illness. I’ve found some very soft things to wear which is truly a spirit lifter, but as to being my personal style? Not necessarily. It’s also easy to make mistakes when shopping online through necessity and return policies vary so much. I’d definitely follow along a Beditions series with great interest. I hope that you find what you are looking for!