This year, the fourth Beaumont London Craft Week Exhibition celebrates the luxurious, glamorous loungewear garments seen on screen during the golden age of Hollywood and conjured up in Jean Harlow's famous misquote, "Excuse me while I slip into something more comfortable". In collaboration with some of the UK's finest makers, The Beaumont presents a collection of beautifully crafted dressing gowns, kimonos, pyjamas and leisure jackets made of the softest cashmeres, opulent printed silks, richly embroidered velvets and innovative, plant-based fabrics, all exquisitely detailed and hand-finished.
Many are crossover items, bridging a gap between loungewear and nightwear, with pieces transitioning into eveningwear. Harking back to a more sumptuous time, each design takes inspiration from one of the screen or stage icons whose portraits line the walls of The Beaumont. The 1920s saw a seismic shift in fashions, with the more restrictive clothes of previous eras giving way to something looser and more comfortable.

A key innovator behind this change was Coco Chanel, whose popular 'lounging pyjamas' were worn as eveningwear and based on the silk pyjamas she stole from her lover. Versions thereof have continued to be fashionable over the decades. The dressing gown was similarly a garment first worn by men, then adapted by women, rendered in sumptuous satins and plush velvets, and worn both at home and in public.

Of course, men have traditionally paid equal attention to leisure wear, and far from being hidden from view, in the early 20th century, dressing gowns and smoking jackets could be seen in chic homes at early evening cocktail parties, where they would stand in for a dinner jacket until it was time to out and the dinner suit was donned. Visitors will be able to experience the Jimmy Beaumont Luxury Loungewear Collection, thus named after the hotel's fictional founder, in the hotel's striking Art Deco lobby from Wed 30 Sep to Thu 8 Oct, from 10.30am to 8.30pm.