Why nightgowns are making a comeback – Mad Men’s Betty Draper would approve

For a long time, this revolution focused on high-end pyjamas. Nighties (seen as the preserve of old ladies, little girls and women on honeymoon) took longer to find themselves back in fashion, and their return was largely thanks to British handmade nightwear brand If Only If.

Emily Campbell – a former primary school teacher who took over the business from her mother, Issy Falkner, just before the pandemic – has long been a nightie acolyte. She argues that spending time and money on sleepwear is a habit people got out of in the 70s, when clothes became cheap and mass-produced. Bucking this trend, she drew inspiration from both her grandmothers – one living in India, the other in Africa, and both of whom would wrap their nighties in tissue paper.

“Mum saw a gap in the market,” says Campbell, who notes that for too long, nightwear was either dull and practical, or decorative and uncomfortable. For Campbell’s mother, who was then navigating menopause, neither option was right. “She wanted beautiful nighties that were also breathable,” she says.

This became the foundation of If Only If. Initially, the collection began as a handful of nightdresses made in India. “Mum was just selling to her friends,” Campbell says. “But the feedback was immediately positive. I always wanted to take over [the business] – we really are obsessed with nightdresses, and it has always been so difficult to find the right styles. But I’ve never worn anything else, and I knew there’d be others like me.”

After the birth of her second child in 2020, Campbell faced a crossroads. “I didn’t want to go back to work. Covid hit. I felt ready for change,” she says. The timing, though daunting, was ideal. Lockdowns reshaped how people dressed, shopped and lived. Nightwear left the bedroom to move into kitchens, gardens and impromptu doorstep conversations.

“The pyjama market back then was saturated,” she says. “There are so many women who love to wear nighties, and I knew it was the time to push the brand hard.”

She also wanted to fight the idea that nighties had to be sexy in an explicit way. “Indian cotton voile is lovely because it’s so breathable; it’s romantic in its drapery and is so feminine. I think the most beautiful parts of a woman are the collarbone, ankle and wrists. Our nighties highlight all those parts. Women say they feel sexy in their nighties, but in a different way to [how it was with] the scratchy, uncomfortable, lingerie-type gowns we were sold in our youth.”