Pajamas

Pajamas (or pyjamas in Commonwealth English, (/pəˈdʒɑːməz, pɪ-, -ˈdʒæ-/ pə-JAH-məz, pih-, -⁠JAM-əz)) are several related types of clothing worn as nightwear or while lounging.

Pajamas had been introduced to England as "lounging attire" as early as the seventeenth century, then known as mogul's breeches (Beaumont and Fletcher) but they soon fell out of fashion.

It was adopted from the Mohammedans by Europeans as an article of dishabille [highly casual clothing] and of night attire, and is synonymous with Long Drawers, Shulwaurs, and Mogul-Breeches [...] It is probable that we English took the habit like a good many others from the Portuguese.

Thus Pyrard (c. 1521) says, in speaking of Goa Hospital: "Ils ont force caleçon sans quoy ne couchent iamais les Portugais des Indes" [fr., "They have plenty of the undergarments without which the Portuguese in India never sleep"] [...] The word is now used in London shops.

When Bette Davis wore her husband's pajama top as a nightie in the 1956 film Old Acquaintance, it caused a fashion revolution, with I. Magnin selling out of men's sleepwear the morning after the movie opened, and all of it to young women.

[9] Since the late 18th century some people, in particular those in the US and to some extent Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, have worn pajamas in public for convenience or as a fashion statement.

[12] In January 1976, the gulf emirate Ras Al Khaimah, UAE introduced a strict dress code for all local government workers forbidding them from wearing pajamas to work.

[15] In January 2012, a local Dublin branch of the Government's Department of Social Protection advised that pajamas were not regarded as appropriate attire for clients attending the office for welfare services.