Women's linen 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. Linen is spun from flax, a fibre far thicker and stronger than cotton. It moves air rather than trapping it, which is why it feels cool even on a close night. That is the difference between a linen robe and one that only looks the part.

In use it shows up as one thing: the coolest fabric here — the open structure lets air through, so it works on the nights nothing else does. In the same vein, have a look at our bathrobes linen.

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. In the same vein, have a look at our off white dressing gown.

• It gets better for decades — linen softens with every wash and outlives most of the wardrobe around it
• It never feels clammy — it moves moisture away instead of holding it against the skin
• 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
• Belt loops that hold the belt — a small thing, and the first thing missing on a cheap robe

Linen creases, visibly and immediately. That is the fabric, not a fault — if creases bother you, cotton is the calmer choice. Machine wash at 40°C and line dry. Treated that way, a linen 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. The same need shows up in our his and hers dressing gowns.