Men's long fleece 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. Fleece is a brushed knit: the surface is raised into thousands of fine fibres that trap a layer of still air. That trapped air is the warmth — not the weight of the fabric. That is the difference between a fleece robe and one that only looks the part.

In use it shows up as one thing: warm the moment you put it on — no waiting for the fabric to warm through, which is the whole point on a cold morning in a cold hallway. On that note, see also our dark grey dressing gown range.

Men ask about room across the back and enough length in the sleeve before anything else, and they are right to — it is where most robes fall down. The same need shows up in our plus size dressing gown.

• Light for how warm it is — nothing pulls on the shoulders, so it stays comfortable through a whole evening on the sofa
• Dry in a couple of hours — it holds almost no water, so it is back on its hook the same day
• Cut to the ankle — cut to the ankle, it keeps the draught off the legs when you are standing at the kettle at seven in the morning, and it reads as a proper robe rather than a cover-up.
• Cut for a fuller figure — room across the back and through the arm, and a belt long enough to tie properly — which is where most robes fail

Fleece does not absorb water. Straight out of the bath you will want to towel off first — for that job, towelling is the fabric that works. Machine wash cool at 30°C and air dry. Treated that way, a fleece 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. For more on this, browse our mens fleece dressing gown.