Perhaps you’ve noticed the packs of celebrities traipsing about town in their bathrobes (Rihanna, Beyoncé), slips (Amanda Seyfried, Saoirse Ronan, Lily Aldridge) and pajamas (Cate Blanchett, Selena Gomez, Jaime King). You’d be forgiven for wondering if they were all headed to some fabulous pajama party.
To be sure, the spring 2016 runways were rife with slinky slip dresses (Céline), lace-trimmed camisoles worn with robes and tailored pants (Givenchy), and bras layered over vintage-style slips and slashed pajamas (Alexander Wang). If this were the Golden Age of Hollywood and the women wore marabou mules, this would be the attire the minx donned after purring, “Let me slip into something more comfortable.”
But before a boudoir look takes to the street, a few adjustments are required. “I choose very chunky heels when I do the bedroom look,” said Wendy Nichol, whose dark and sexy lingerie-like designs are a hit with Beyoncé, Jessica Alba and Jemima Kirke. “It takes the sexiness off, and you can just let the clothes be what they are.”
“Having the right clutch under your arm is also a cue that you’re not going to bed,” Ms. Nichol added.
Jamie Schneider, a stylist to Suki Waterhouse, Nicole Richie and Katy Perry, insists that a professionally fit body is not a prerequisite. “We all have bodies we have to work with,” Ms. Schneider said. “I wear turtlenecks under slip dresses. I throw a cardigan, a fur or a peacoat on top.” It’s fine, she said, to have a bra strap showing.
There are slip dresses in substantial fabrics, like the Michael Kors that Atlanta de Cadenet Taylor wore recently (“It covered all the things you want covered, and not every dimple was showing,” she said), but if the dress is on the sheer side, layer another slip underneath.
If you’re more daring, Ms. Nichol suggests a half-slip or Wolford tights to cover the bottom, leaving the top sheer. Or wear a bra and high-waist granny panties, as Ms. Taylor likes to do. Or a bodysuit, as her friend Ms. Aldridge did at the Victoria’s Secret show after-party.
You can easily slip a robe over lacy bits, à la Givenchy. Beyoncé wore a Wendy Nichol duster (basically a silk bathrobe) to a U2 concert, belted over jeans. Or add a favorite leather jacket, as Ms. Waterhouse did over her plunging Alexandre Vauthier lingerie-pink slip dress.
The key accessory is attitude. If you take a boudoir look out on the town, own it.
“I think we judge ourselves way harder than everyone else does,” Ms. Taylor said. “I would never look at my friends and be like, ‘Wow, her butt looks weird.’ I’d be like, ‘Wow, she looks amazing.’”
