Baby blue hooded flannel bathrobe

Start with what the garment is for: a bathrobe earns its place in the ten minutes after a bath, when you want to be dry and warm at the same time. Flannel is a woven cotton brushed on both faces. The brushing raises a soft nap that traps warmth, without the synthetic feel of a fleece. That is the difference between a flannel robe and one that only looks the part.

In use it shows up as one thing: warm and breathable at once — the combination fleece cannot manage, because the base is still cotton. On that note, see also our boys blue dressing gown range.

Parents ask about how fast a wriggling baby can be got warm and dry before anything else, and they are right to — it is where most robes fall down. That is also what our boys hooded dressing gown range is for.

• Soft from the first wear — no breaking-in period: the nap is raised at the mill, not by use
• It looks like clothing, not like loungewear — which is what makes it wearable when someone knocks at the door
• A hood on a robe — it keeps wet hair off the shoulders and off the back of the neck, which is the single thing that makes a robe worth keeping on after a bath
• Easy on, easy off — one hand on the shoulder and it is done, which is the whole test with a child who will not stand still

Flannel pills slightly at the cuffs over a couple of winters. A fabric shaver takes care of it in two minutes, and the fabric is otherwise very long-lived. Machine wash at 40°C, tumble dry low. Treated that way, a flannel bathrobe lasts five winters rather than one — the difference between a robe you keep on the back of the door and one you replace every autumn. There is more of this in our baby boy dressing gown range.