Women's hooded flannel zip-up dressing gown

Start with what the garment is for: a dressing gown is for the hours either side of sleep: the kettle at seven, the sofa at ten. 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. There is more of this in our dressing gowns for elderly ladies range.

Women ask about the cut through the shoulder and where the belt sits at the waist before anything else, and they are right to — it is where most robes fall down. The same need shows up in our burgundy stripe dressing gown.

• 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
• A full-length zip — faster than a belt and it stays shut, which matters most on 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 dressing gown 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. That is also what our ladies dressing gowns zip up range is for.