There’s a moment after a good shower or a long bath when you reach for whatever is hanging on the back of the door and wrap yourself in it. For most people in the UK, that thing is either a supermarket special that went bobbly in 2019 or a hotel robe they’re not entirely sure they’re allowed to have.
Neither is doing the job it should.
The dressing gown has spent decades in a strange limbo — too domestic to be taken seriously as clothing, too useful to be replaced. But attitudes to how we dress at home shifted considerably after a few years of working from it, and what used to be an afterthought is now something people are actually thinking about. Rightly so. You wear it every day. It should be worth wearing.
The Fabric Question
There are three materials worth knowing about, and they suit different people for different reasons.
Terry cotton is the traditional towelling robe — the kind you get in a decent hotel and immediately want to take home. It’s absorbent, which makes it the obvious choice straight out of the bath or shower, and it gets softer over time rather than degrading. The weight varies: lighter cotton robes dry faster and work better in warmer months, while heavier ones are genuinely warm enough to wear on a cold morning without putting the heating on. The Towel Shop’s range of dressing gowns covers hooded and shawl collar styles in towelling cotton — made in Bolton, so the spec is consistent rather than varying batch to batch the way imported product tends to.
Waffle cotton is the other option worth considering. Lighter and more breathable than terry, it dries faster both on your body and on the washing line. The texture is different — more structured, less plush — which some people prefer and others don’t. Worth trying if you run warm or live somewhere that doesn’t always call for a thick robe.
Microfibre exists and is fine. It’s also not cotton, which means it doesn’t breathe the same way and tends to feel synthetic against skin. It’ll do the job. So will a bin bag.
Fit and Length Actually Matter
Most people buy a dressing gown the same way they buy a bath mat — one size, without thinking much. The result is usually something that’s either too short to be comfortable or too long to wear on the stairs without engineering a trip hazard.
Full length — ankle to shoulder — is the warmer, more practical option for a cold house. Three-quarter length works better if you’re moving around the kitchen in it. Hooded styles are worth the extra bulk if you wash your hair at night and don’t want to deal with a wet collar.
If you’re buying for someone else, err longer. A robe that’s slightly too long is fine. One that’s too short is just a dressing gown that looks like it belongs to someone smaller.
The Beach Towel Problem
Completely different context, but related point: the same logic applies to beach towels. Most people take whatever is oldest in the airing cupboard to the beach — a 500 GSM bath towel that picks up half the sand on the beach and takes three days to dry in a bag on the way home.
A beach towel is a different product built for a different job. Lighter weight (300–400 GSM), larger in size, faster to dry, and made to be shaken out rather than washed after every use. The Towel Shop’s beach towels are worth a look if you’ve been using the bathroom cast-offs for years — the size difference alone is noticeable.
If you’re comparing options across suppliers, Absolute Home Textiles carries cotton dressing gowns in similar towelling and waffle styles, which is useful if you want to see the same category across more than one range before buying.
What It’s Actually Worth Spending
The price range on dressing gowns is wide and mostly reflects weight and cotton quality rather than brand. A decent 100% cotton terry robe in a weight that’ll last five or six years of regular washing sits in the £25–£45 range. Below that, you’re usually buying a lighter fabric with a shorter lifespan. Above £80 you’re paying for branding more than cotton.
The same is true of beach towels — the difference between a £6 one and a £14 one is mostly in whether it’ll still look reasonable after ten washes. In both cases, the mid-range is where the value actually sits.
The Short Version
Buy terry cotton if you want something absorbent and warm. Waffle if you run warm or want something that dries faster. Get the length right — especially if it’s a gift. And retire the old bath towel from beach duty. It has served its time.