With the advent of these recent snow days, one can’t help but daydream about curling up on the couch next to the fireplace, book in lap and a mug of steaming hot chocolate in hand. The dress code? The snuggest, most festive pajamas one can imagine, of course! After all, what else are you supposed to wear? Jeans? A suit and tie? Nowadays, we think of pajamas as the epitome of coziness and comfort. But, back in the early 20th century, it was the fashion of dodging bombs dropped by zeppelins. 

Before we discuss such a starkly different occasion, it’s important to acknowledge just where pajamas came from before they were popularized on a global scale. Pajamas—derived from the Hindu word “paejama”—were a style of loose-fitting, silk trousers and shirts worn in the Indian subcontinent. When Britain colonized the Indian subcontinent around 1870, they adopted the style and brought it back to England as lounging attire and sleepwear for men. After all, the material and cut made it comfortable and breathable for stuffy sleeping conditions of the time. In such a way, pajamas had a connotation as only men’s attire until the advent of World War I.

Starting in January 1915, Germany began to send zeppelins to England in order to bomb major cities like London to destroy domestic morale and support for the war effort. Suddenly, in the dead of night, families now had to rush out of the privacy of their homes into the frigid London air just to avoid the flames that followed. However, women had to contend with long, unwieldy nightdresses—ones they had to detangle from themselves to escape. And of course, who wants to be caught out of the house in something so frumpy? So, women began to adopt pajamas as both a practical matter and as a fashion statement. Suddenly, it became the outfit of the year with fashion magazines lauding such a chic new style.

By 1918, though the war was coming to an end, pajamas as a fashion statement remained popular. French fashion designer Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel began to adopt pajamas as a form of elegant and comfortable high fashion to be worn on the beaches of France. Thanks to her vision and influence, pajamas moved away from a form of nightwear and instead became the vogue for having fun in the sun. Lido Beach in Venice, the Juan-les-Pins Resort in France, and all of Britain’s beaches were lined with women sporting pajamas in the 1920s and 30s. In 1931, even Vogue Magazine featured pajamas in their issue. 

However, after World War II, bikinis arose as the new beach-appropriate fashion, and pajamas once again returned to the bedroom. Since then, pajamas have continued to be a staple of sleep routines and, to this day, line the racks of fashion brands around the world. Their longevity continues to be a testament to humankind’s innate desire to be comfortable, no matter the situation. Who knows? Maybe they will make a comeback into the public sphere again. Today, we’re already seeing this in our schools—what if we teenagers are the forefront of a new wave of fashion?

Information retrieved from Britannica, The BBC, and The United States World War One Centennial Commission.