CHENNAI : There is no doubt that this year has brought on a very strange, apocalyptic spring. Some of us are channelling our anxieties into pandemic pastries and quarantine cookies, while the rest of us are aimlessly drifting about in the confines of our homes. I promise you that eating cookie dough while watching Tiger King will keep you warm at night when nothing else can, with the exception of the faithful and revered housecoat. You know the kind I’m talking about.
The real deal, grandma-style robe…the most functional garment designed for the needs of today’s woman (and tomorrow’s grandma) in mind. This is less a style of a garment but more my life’s calling: far away from sup e r - c i n c h e d waists that don’t let food babies breathe.
These sensibly fashioned garments bring in looser fits, longer hemlines, and massive pockets for carrying around everything you could need: chapstick, emergency chocolate, tissues and hand sanitiser. If you’re anything like my adorable grandmother, you’d use these pockets for stuffing freshly picked mint leaves that you had just harvested from her backyard, to be lovingly added to our dinners that evening. I sadly have no lawn to speak of and shall practise patience while waiting for my Amazon Pantry order to be delivered.
While life didn’t give me a luscious backyard to scavenge my meals from, it gave me chores and deadlines instead. Here are some of the things I’ve been doing in my robe lately: the shavasana, eating my greens while standing by the kitchen window, and cleaning things I don’t typically clean: like the inside of the exhaust fan over the stove. Laying spread-eagle on the floor with kids in a house dress works too! These beauties are pixie-approved for all occasions from stacking blocks to changing a poopy diaper for the 15th time with ease and grace.
If you know me and have seen how I dress, then you would probably figure that I didn’t entirely wait for a pandemic to turn me to house dresses. I’ve been a staunch devotee of these for years, and have directed many a friend to these lovely babies. You can bend and reach for anything in these without worrying about an unseemly rip: it’s the Swiss Army Knife of clothes, really. A dear colleague of mine recently told me that she cut her entire wardrobe down to just 40 pieces, and her housecoat is one of them. Does the whole minimalism vs maximalism keep you up at night, too? Tell me about the things you are letting go of during these humbling times, to live your best-sequestered life.