My mum had a housecoat when I was a child.
It was blue, or maybe green, and made from a fabric best described as "devoid of warmth or insulation". It used to hang on the back of the bathroom door on a bronze hook, on top of my dad's terry towelling one.
I remember she would put it on every morning before making us breakfast and getting us dressed. It would waft down the hall behind her as she ferried shirts, skirts and tights from the bedroom I shared with my sister to the kitchen fireplace where we would always huddle in our towels.
For a time my sister and I both had a housecoat too. I don't recall much about hers but mine was a Christmas present, a scarlet red silky thing that quite frankly had little right hanging in the children's or teenage section of any shop. I think it was from Marks & Spencer.
Aged about 15 years old I parted company with that housecoat – it wasn't cool any longer. Housecoats didn't seem cool any longer, and even though no-one would have ever seen me in mine, it was time to let it go. Even my mum gave hers up some time soon after that. My dad didn't though, he still wears one to this day.
Recently I found myself hankering after a housecoat once again. Nothing slinky, just something to keep me warm when the radiators in our flat have failed to do their duty, which at this time of the year is quite often.
In the end I plumped for a dusky pink fluffy towelling one. The choice, to be honest, had little to do with style and everything to do with cosiness. Yet in spite of its humble cut, simple shape and giant towelling hood (not cool) I love my housecoat and I've vowed to never be apart from it or its successor again.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article