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Once upon a time, everyone wore robes all the time. These
days, however, the robe has become neglected, even demode.
There are two basic kinds: those you wear over pajamas and
those you wear for taking a bath. Very often they are the
same thing: big, white, and cotton, with the name of the manufacturer
or the hotel you filched it from emblazoned on the front.
 Many
of us simply don't don our robes, which sit dry and useless
on a hanger at the back of the closet or on a peg on the back
of the bathroom door. Instead, we swathe ourselves in big
bath towels and dart dripping and chilled from room to room.
But there is one situation where robes are not just functionally
requisite but almost the cynosure of style and that is at
a spa.
When
you are at a spa, no matter how spartan the surroundings,
the height of fashion "and realistically, the only fashion"
is the robe you wear. Coming and going, slipping in and out
of hot healing waters, lounging on the lanai, consuming fruit
and bean sprouts on the patio, or staggering dreamily down
the corridors after having your flesh pummeled by the masseur,
your robe becomes your second skin, your jacket, shirt, dress,
coat, all rolled into one. So it had better become you.
 THE
BASIC STYLES
Robes for the spa can be subdivided into two main shapes:
kimono and full-length bathrobe style. A kimono or kabuki
robe is cut like the Japanese kimono, with wide sleeves and
a sash, and typically comes down to the upper thigh. The bathrobe
style usually has a shawl collar, patch pockets in front,
and belt loops to hold the sash around your waist. (Shorter
versions of this style, with short sleeves, are known as a
men's shaving coat and are hard to find nowadays.)
SOME
CHOICE STYLES
Whether you choose kimono style or the bathrobe style, chances
are you will want to buy one in high-grade cotton, a fabric
which combines absorbency and comfort with washability. Terrycloth,
an absorbent form of cotton pile weave, is one of the most
common and utilitarian fabrics. The best terrycloth has uncut
loops. Fine terrycloth robes can be had at Portico Bed & Bath,
the New York linen emporium, which stocks a Kimono Robe, in
ivory and white ($85), and a longer, shawl-collared plush
terry, dubbed its Hotel Robe ($135) in the same two colors.
Some spa-goers undoubtedly prefer the smoother, lighter look
of polished cotton robes. Portico carries such a one, its
Cairo Robe, a hotel-style robe in Egyptian cotton, whose long
fibers are said to make the softest cotton yarns on earth,
in four colors ($110).
 PRIME
PIMA
Robes
made of Pima cotton, named for the county in Arizona where
the climate and soil conditions enable Egyptian-cotton plants
to thrive, also are exceptionally soft and comfortable. You
can get one from Telegraph Hill, a San Francisco-based company
that has long made robes to sell directly to the spa and resort
industry, but now offers Pima and other cotton robes to consumers.
Its Pima cotton knit robe comes with a shawl collar made of
microfiber, a soft polyester that dries out very quickly (it's
also used in raincoats). Telegraph Hill also stocks a seersucker
robe, for those ultra-hot desert spa locations.
PIQUE YOUR INTEREST
Another
fabric option that seems a natural for the spa is cotton pique,
which typcially is woven in a waffle-texture pattern and tends
to keep its shape. Leron, a fine linen importer on Madison
Avenue, sells waffle pique cotton blend robes in a variety
of colors ($350-$395). Leron also has splendid microfiber
robes lined in terrycloth ($295) that have to be special-ordered.
The blend of fabrics make them very easy to travel with and
easy to wash. (Leron is justifiably renowned for its Sea Island
cotton pajamas, made from the legendary long-staple cotton
from the islands off the Georgia coast. But, alas, it makes
no robes in that luxurious stuff.) For the spa robe as status
symbol, try D. Porthault, the famous Italian linens store,
also on Madison. Their waffle pique kimono has navy piping
($125) and their white terrycloth bath robes ($295) are thick
and plush, with the Porthault emblem embroidered on the breast
pocket. It's not the kind of robe you wear to hang around
the house with rollers in your hair smoking a Salem. it's
for when you really want to be pampered.
Woody Hochswender, a former fashion columnist
for The New York Times, is currently completing a book on
Buddhism.
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