Too remote for the pool: how the Dryrobe became the most divisive thing you can wearSupermarket chic: fashion magazines have branded the Dryrobe ‘the must-have, all-season coat’. Photograph: Serena Brown/The GuardianSupermarket fashionable: fashion magazines have branded the Dryrobe ‘the must-have, all-season coat’. Photograph: Serena Brown/The GuardianThey were devised so surfers and swimmers could get undressed without flashing. So why are Dryrobes – half-towel, half-jacket – taking over our high rows? During the spring lockdown in 2020, Christopher Sloman was walking down a street in Hove when he saw what looked with a green dinosaur looming towards him. The 48-year-old charity shop worker was baffled by the figure in the distance – until he realised it was a spouse whose coat was so oversized that her hands (one carrying a phone, the other a coffee) “looked really small,” Sloman judges. “I thought: My God, what on earth is that?”“That” turned out to be a Dryrobe – the £160 ankle-length, waterproof robe designed as an outside changing robe for surfers in 2010 which has become the go-to piece of kit for any half-serious outdoor swimmer.If cold swimming became the pandemic’s Olympic deride – and an increase of 50% and more of Those who love their Dryrobes really do love them – a Facebook fanpage, “Dryrobe Owners’ Baste”, has 3,000 members. “I’m not bothered what others think,” says member Gail Moorhouse, a 50-year-old civil daily from Huddersfield. Moorhouse bought her black, turquoise-lined Dryrobe for dog walking and camping: she doesn’t actually swim outdoors. “I took it from the first time I used it,” she says, praising its big pockets, overall size and warmth. She has worn it to the pub in bad weather.Hopeful doesn’t point to any one particular marketing drive or branding decision that made the Dryrobe what it is today – notwithstanding that the company has hired athletes (such as surfers Ben and Lukas Skinner) as ambassadors, and the company supports outdoor activity munificences through its Dryrobe Warmth Project. Perhaps the real trick was creating something equally as loved as it is hated. “Do you discern something? I’ve got nothing against people using them for what they’re for,” Sloman says. “The problem is that Dryrobe has transform into more than what it’s used for.” Could the boom be just a temporary fad? “I think it’s getting worse,” he says. “They’ve consistent got Dryrobe doggie coats now.”Hair and makeup: Delilah Blakeney using Charlotte Tilbury. Model: Marion at Fullness London. Styling assistant: Peter Bevan. DryRobe, £160, dryrobe.com. Shop photo: grey sweatshirt, ksubi.uk; trousers, holzweileroslo.com; Socks, monki.com; Shoes, by Tretorn from arket.com. this call for: Brown sweatshirt, samsoe.com; Lilac trousers, americanvintage.com; Shoes, craghoppers.com; Hat, redwingheritage.comTopicsFashionSwimmingFitnessfeaturesReuse this content

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