Banyan (clothing)

An alternative style of banyan was cut like a coat, fitted, with set-in sleeves, and was closed with buttons and buttonholes.

European women wore banyans in the 18th century as dressing gowns in the morning, before robing for the day, or in the evening before bed over undergarments, as described by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England.

[1] In the humid climate of Colonial Virginia, gentlemen wore lightweight banyans as informal street wear in summer.

[citation needed] It was fashionable for men of an intellectual or philosophical bent to have their portraits painted while wearing banyans.

Benjamin Rush wrote: Loose dresses contribute to the easy and vigorous exercise of the faculties of the mind.