In the primary episode of Lena Dunham’s new Netflix sitcom Too Much, viewers may be taken with cameos from Dunham, Jessica Alba and the mannequin Emily Ratajkowski, or the burgeoning romance between Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe. However – so far as style is anxious – it’s nighties which have a starring function.
Early within the episode, Stalter wears a brief frilled pink nightie, together with her canine in an identical design. Later, she wears a white frilled floor-length design, and it’s clear the merchandise is one thing of a signature. If it’s a cute quirk for a personality, it’s additionally according to wider tendencies.
Pyjamas have come out of the bed room and into daywear during the last decade. Nighties may be in line to carry out the identical trick. The actor Daisy Edgar-Jones and mannequin Kaia Gerber have worn nightdresses in daylight, with Gerber collaborating with the California-inspired model Dôen final yr to create her personal. Sabrina Carpenter is thought for her babydoll nighties, whereas Addison Rae wore a nightie-like costume for her efficiency at Coachella.
Most individuals will nonetheless affiliate pyjamas and nighties with mattress – a non-public area which has, till just lately, been free from style tendencies. A survey by YouGov in 2022 discovered that most individuals within the UK slept in pyjamas (47%) whereas 20% slept of their underwear and 20% slept bare.
Submit-pandemic, clothes worn at house is far more on the radar of style. Like Parker Posey’s in The White Lotus, Stalter’s nightie is prone to immediate others to consider switching from pyjamas when turning out the sunshine.
The design, which prices £130, is made by a British nightie model If Solely If. Its proprietor, Emily Campbell – who additionally made the bespoke nightie for the canine – says the recognition is already rising. “Our annual progress is between 80% and 90% and this yr is seeking to be extra,” she says. She anticipates that Too A lot will enhance the demand, though she received’t alter her small-batch manufacturing mannequin. “They’ll promote out,” she says. “I’m nice with that. I’m by no means going to over-produce and have a load of nightgowns left over.”
The excessive road can also be seeing extra curiosity within the nightie. John Lewis experiences searches for “nightdress” elevated by 21% from 2024 to 2025, with gross sales up 14%. Cotton designs – akin to a £34 white seersucker nightie – are notably standard this summer season.
The heatwave may nicely be an element for an increase in reputation – cotton nighties are a cool choice. If Solely If was based by Campbell’s mom, Issy Falkner, who was going by menopause on the time. “I feel that positively had a bearing on her desirous to put on pure supplies,” says Campbell. The model’s cotton is natural, and “simply probably the most stunning factor to sleep in”.
If Too A lot is the lifestyle instance of the nightie on display, different notable moments embody Sofia Coppola’s first movie, The Virgin Suicides, and Grace Kelly’s nightwear in Rear Window. Elena Babić paperwork these moments in her Instagram account Nightgowns in Cinema. “Nightgowns have allure and style,” she says. “They make you are feeling like an previous Hollywood star about to dramatically crash into silky bedsheets and cry, [or] like a 2000s teen lady about to name her greatest pal from a spiral-cord telephone.”
In recent times, pyjamas have dominated romcom display time – as worn by Bridget Jones within the unique 2001 movie – they usually stay a well-liked bedtime selection.
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One other development at John Lewis is mix-and-match designs – with gross sales up 55%. Marks & Spencer, in the meantime, experiences that pyjamas with shorts are standard, with gross sales up 20% this yr.
Naomi Pike, a commissioning editor at Elle UK, has about 20 pairs of pyjamas. “It helps how I sleep,” she says, “if I’ve clear pyjamas that match nicely, really feel good.” She buys two or three sizes up for additional consolation. In the meantime, Babić – regardless of her love of the nightie – wears an outsized T-shirt and shorts to mattress. “[Nighties] make me really feel trapped,” she says.
“We admire them, however when it’s time for actual relaxation, we at all times attain for the comfiest and most secure choice.”
In fact, an alternate is nighties making the transfer from mattress to daywear. “It appears like it is going to be this summer season’s story,” says Pike. “They really feel fairly light … all of us want a bit extra gentleness.”
If, up until now, sightings of the nightie development has been restricted to skinny celebrities, Stalter will open the development up. “It will probably convey liberation to individuals who aren’t used to seeing their determine on the display a lot,” says Pike. “I feel it might encourage [people to] suppose ‘Oh, I’m a curvier determine and I can nonetheless put on this development, and I’ll put on this development, and that is how I can put on it.’”