Forget the Myers-Briggs personality test – if you really want to find out what someone is truly like, there is only one question you need to ask: do you have indoor-only clothes?
It’s a divisive prompt, and the results tend to leave people in two wardrobe camps. There are those who come home from work and immediately change into “house clothes”, and those who are happy to flop onto their sofa in the same outfit they just wore to work. If that last sentence made you shudder, you know where your allegiance lies.
The debate last broke out on social media in 2020 when there were heightened concerns about the cleanliness of clothing and the spread of Covid-19. Now, with the threat of a bedbug invasion looming, the discourse is set to crawl back into our lives.
Earlier this week, a TikTok video of what appeared to be a bedbug crawling up the leg of a passenger on the London underground went viral. On Tuesday, the mayor of London Sadiq Khan said that bed bugs were a “real source of concern”. There have been reported sightings of the blood-sucking insects on public transport in Manchester and Liverpool.
So is it time that the in-and-out wardrobe is taken seriously? “I always recommend having indoor and outdoor clothes,” says Jason Tetro, a microbiologist and author of The Germ Files. “I know that when I am out in public my clothes are going to come into contact with microbes. So I come in, change my clothes and then I don’t have to worry about potential pathogens. The same approach goes for reducing the risk of bedbugs.”
Online, advocates of indoor-only clothes stress that they are different from pyjamas. For those unfamiliar, think of them as the wardrobe equivalent of an amuse-bouche, presented between work and bedtime. They could be leggings or lounge pants worn with a T-shirt or a hoodie. Or silk trousers and a cashmere jumper. The main distinction is they haven’t been sullied by the seats on public transport, hung out at a local cafe or schlepped around a supermarket.
In many cultures, house clothes are standard practice. On Refinery29 in 2020, the writer Connie Wang wrote how the tradition was instilled into her by her Chinese parents: “I grew up learning to leave my shoes in the garage, to transfer into house slippers in the mudroom, and to go straight into my bedroom – no detours to the kitchen or, god forbid, the sofa – to immediately strip out of my outside clothes and get straight into my inside clothes.”
Another writer, Or Gotham, credits his “Filipino matriarch” for passing the habit down to him, while the comedian Phoebe Robinson, who regularly writes about her experience of being a Black woman living in the US, even entitled a 2021 book of essays: Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes.
It’s a sentiment that clearly resonates. A spokesperson for John Lewis says loungewear sales are up 67% compared to the same time last year. Last week, its bestseller was a three-piece set featuring a lightweight T-shirt, long cardigan and loose-cut trousers.
But while it might be tempting to strip the second you set foot in your home, it is worth noting that bedbugs have been around in the UK since at least the 1700s. It says something that the British Pest Control Association has not seen an unusual increase in requests for bedbug services. Although, as technical officer John Horsley notes, the heightened media coverage will lead to an increase as people become more aware.
For bedbugs to hitchhike its way from public transport to your home, Tetro says there has to be direct contact. “The good thing is they are not like cockroaches. They cannot jump.”
For those that have come into contact with bedbugs, professional exterminators will suggest placing clothes that cannot be put into a hot wash or tumble dryer in a freezer for 48 hours.
However, what about those who just feel generally itchy when thinking about getting public transport? Despite claims that silk bed sheets can reduce the risk, when it comes to clothing Tetro says there is no material that acts as a deterrent. Instead, Tetro advises storing the clothes you were wearing in a “safe space” such as a bathroom for a couple of days. Bedbugs cannot climb up the side of a bathtub plus, if it’s white, you will have a greater chance of spotting them as they look distinctly like apple seeds. If the thought of that doesn’t make you want to adopt the practice of indoor clothes, I don’t know what will.
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