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WHEN it comes to sartorial solutions at bedtime, men tend to be practical. Most crawl in between the sheets wearing a T-shirt and shorts, which they combine either in line with their tastes or the whatever-is-nearest-at-hand principle. Classic men's pyjamas are passe.
Today's fashion designers have set out to make men rediscover pyjamas, however. Using light and skin-friendly fabrics, sophisticated styles and unusual patterns, they hope to reawaken men's nightwear from its slumber.
"It's sensational that something like this is happening to nightwear," enthused Alexandra von Richthofen, an expert in next-to- skin garments for textile industry trade magazine. Men, after all, are not exactly fashion hounds in bed.
Designer Niels-Holger Wien is among the fashion leaders who feel that men's pyjamas nowadays need not be kept hidden under the covers. "Pyjamas used to be an eyesore," said Mr Wien, who works at the German Fashion Institute in Cologne. But now, he said, they are becoming good-looking enough to be worn in living rooms.
Jersey fabrics are a key innovation in the collections, experts have noted. Their breathability made for a pleasant sleeping atmosphere. The new fabrics are elastic, too, and allow the wearer freedom of movement.
"That means a lot of comfort when you turn in bed at night or read a book before going to sleep," a store sales assistant in a Bahrain mall added. "It's also an easy way to keep warm now that the weather has turned a little chillier!"
The fabrics alone make the new nightwear more pleasing to men, Mr Wien agreed. "A bias in favour of pure cotton still exists," he pointed out. But he said that men who slipped on high-quality blends of cotton and synthetic fibres changed their tune. Be it Meryl, the microfibre Tactel or "Micromodule," the new fabrics are lighter, skin-friendlier and more absorbent.
Men's pyjama designers have not only been creative with fabrics, but with colours and patterns as well. Dark hues play a big role. Black is named a "trendy theme" in a fashion collection report.
Petrol, espresso and dark aubergine are according to fashion experts the colours of the season. Gloom has not taken hold of the bedroom, however.
On the whole, the style of the new men's nightwear is high-class and refined - shades of Hollywood in the 1940s. "There's a lot in the way of Cary Grant now," a fashion writer said.
