Fall Is the Season of Victorian Nightgowns That Also Show Butt Cheek

It has been a pajama-swathed summer during which the act of fastening a button has begun to feel like putting on airs in service to a set of rules for acceptable streetwear that are now profoundly useless. I am not even sure what I wore in the sepia-tinged, bygone summers of antiquity before pandemic-not-giving-a-shit led me to decide my sleeping bralettes were close enough to shirts to wear under overalls. Whatever clothes belonged to the beforetime are finished now. And I, for one, relish the new age more receptive to the idea of sleepwear as wakewear. Much of my life has already been devoted to trying pass nightgowns off as daygowns, since I’ve long been of the opinion that all dresses should be conducive to napping.

But it could be that we are (hopefully?) soon tasked with shedding our disgusting snack-stained pandemic pajamas and leaving our homes to eat or meet a stranger for casual, anonymous sex or simply stroll in the crisp air for the feel of outside on our sun-starved bodies. If that is indeed the case, might I suggest a sexy, but still pajama-adjacent, alternative to pants, which is simply not wearing pants.

The long-sleeved, high necked minidress seemingly inspired by a Victorian ghost child’s outgrown nightgown has long been a favorite of mine for fall, as it shows a healthily slutty amount of leg with the occasional fun hint of butt cheek while keeping the wrists and neck modestly, and seasonally appropriately, covered. The fitted sleeves and structured neck give the dress all the fussiness of clothes, while the unfitted waist grants all the forgiveness of pajamas. Underneath, wear a pair of high-waisted panties/shorts to shush all the pants police who might ask, “Did I just see a little bit of your butt when you lifted your arm?” A pair of over-the-knee boots is the finishing touch to remove all doubt that one is wearing a full costume of clothing meant to be worn outside the bedroom, not something pilfered and cropped from a community theater production of the Nutcracker.

There has never been a better fall to sexily parade pajama-adjacent clothing out of doors, and that statement comes with the full authority of someone who has been answering the question “Is that a dress or a nightgown?” with “What’s the difference?” for over 30 years.