Why our women love to wear robes at home
'17.04.2021'
Source: Rambler
Residents of America and Europe, for the most part, wear bathrobes either in the morning, or before going to bed, or after a bath. Whereas many Russians, especially women of the older generation, wear robes at home almost all the time. How did such a tradition arise in our country?
Originally from Turkey
For the first time the word "robe" appeared in Arabic. According to A. V. Semenov's “Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language,” translated into Russian, it sounds like “honorable clothes,” writes Rambler. Then the “robe” migrated to Turkey, where they began to denote “caftan”.
And this is not by chance. The fact is that in the East, a bathrobe was not originally a home wardrobe item at all, but was the real outerwear.
It is noteworthy that in the countries native to the dressing gown, these long-slicked clothes with a smell were subdivided into everyday and festive, into imperial and bureaucratic, into men and women. It was a robe with embroidery and other adornments that was often a generous and honorable reward for one service or another.
From Europe to Russia
From the Turkish coast, the robes "moved" to the European part of our planet. It happened in the XNUMXth century. However, the British and representatives of other neighboring countries of Great Britain began to wear robes exclusively at home.
Then the robe was worn exclusively over shirts, coupled with a vest and trousers, but it was still considered exclusively home clothes for more than 2 subsequent centuries. To imagine what it looked like, just look at the plots from the domestic series "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson."
It was indecent to appear in public in a dressing gown. However, already in the XNUMXth century, one could show off in front of guests in a beautiful Turkish robe.
The appearance of the robe in Europe coincided with the period of the reign of the Russian emperor Peter I. It is known that he borrowed a lot from abroad. Exotic robes were no exception. Of course, they were not immediately popular. But over time, the Russians also recognized them. Moreover, in the XNUMXth century, robes in Russia were already worn by both men and women.
Nevertheless, even after that, the dressing gown remained an item of home wardrobe, and therefore soon became associated with coziness and comfort, and sometimes with idleness and laziness.
Bathrobes in the USSR
In the Soviet Union, bright, richly decorated and quite expensive robes were initially perceived as a relic of the past. However, there was no more suitable clothing for spending time within the apartment, room and even the yard.
Therefore, over time, bathrobes were also produced in the USSR. Of course, they looked simpler than the Turkish ones: they did not have elaborate embroidery and were often sewn from simple chintz, flannel and terry fabrics. Nevertheless, Soviet women loved the dressing gowns. And there were several reasons for this.
First, being at home in a bathrobe turned out to be much more comfortable than in the same dress.
Secondly, due to the scarcity of the then wardrobe, other things intended for going out or for work served the ladies longer, since they did not wear out so quickly.
Thirdly, Russian women for the most part are accustomed to showing off fashionable items of clothing in public, but at home, in their opinion, there was no need to do this.
True, the majority of Soviet women had several dressing gowns. The more decent one was meant for meetings with girlfriends, and the dressing gown was worn worse for housework.
