I remember back in the late 1990s being flabbergasted when paparazzi snapped movie star Nick Nolte out walking in scruffy pyjamas.
It was all the funnier because the Rich Man, Poor Man actor looked like the tramp he portrayed in Down And Out In Beverly Hills.
I chalked it up as nothing more than oddball behaviour from an eccentric celebrity in La La Land.
I never imagined it would ever catch on as an outlandish fashion trend here.
After all, I told myself at the time, we Irish have too much self-respect to be caught dead going out looking like someone that just crawled out of bed.
Sadly, I was very much mistaken. But what’s even more bizarre about this growing craze is that the culprits are mostly women.
Back in the good old days, Irish mammies warned their kids to wear clean underwear going out in case they got into an accident and rushed to A&E.
But now some of them actually believe it’s fashionable to go out dressed up like a hospital patient. I wouldn’t be seen dead outside in my jammies – unless I was literally dying and being carted off in an ambulance.
Some unabashed Irish mammies are not only nipping out in PJs for milk but also now turning up at the salon to get their hair and nails done, it emerged last week.
The Style Bar in Portlaoise hit the headlines when it banned pyjamas after not one but three customers turned up on St Patrick’s Day in their nighties.
The owner David Finn was horrified to witness customers pulling cash out of their bras and underwear, which he pointed out was “very unhygienic”.
It’s worrying he was forced to take such action because etiquette shouldn’t have to be spelled out in the first place. It doesn’t bother me if anybody wants to look ridiculous in public, dressed up like they should be tucked up in bed. But you shouldn’t enter such establishments in bathrobes because it shows a lack of respect.
I assumed this craze was confined to those rushing kids to school, or someone either downright lazy or who had lost the will to live.
But I was flabbergasted when I heard a listener call The Niall Boylan Show on Classic Hits 4FM last week to brag about buying “going out pyjamas”, as she put it. Why not wear sweatpants or a tracksuit if you want to pull on something comfortable?
I’m surprised they don’t realise it’s slipshod at best and most people snigger at them behind their backs.
As fashion statements go, I think this pyjamas trend is up there with teaming a tracksuit with high heels.
It appears to be no longer confined to disadvantaged areas either.
There’s a growing trend among yummy mummies in leafy suburbs being spotted in expensive designer nightgowns when driving kids to school.
No doubt they’re naively influenced by trendsetters like Victoria Beckham who was pictured out in pyjamas that look like something you’d buy as a Father’s Day gift.
I believe parents are setting a bad example by ferrying their kids to school in their nightwear.
A child’s role model should set a good example by getting up in the morning and dressing appropriately.
This excuse about not having enough time to put on proper clothes doesn’t wash because it only takes two minutes to slip into a pair of jeans and a jumper.
I’ll leave the last word to broadcaster Boylan. He told me last night: “Only lazy scumbags walk around in pyjamas anywhere during the day apart from their own home.”
