I've had two close encounters with the wearing of pyjamas in public. The first was as an 18-year-old student in Wellington when three or four of us caught a taxi from our university hostel to a takeaway bar in our pyjamas. We thought it was hilarious and that no one else had ever considered doing such an outrageous thing before. The second was at school drop-off one morning when a fellow mother flashed me to reveal that beneath her immaculate trench-coat was a pair of pyjamas.
The subject hit the headlines last year when it was reported that a "heated debate has erupted in Gisborne over whether pyjamas should be banned from being worn in public.". This was in response to a "trend of wearing nightwear to the supermarket, cash machine or around the CBD" which some locals thought showed "a lack of self-respect" and lowered the town's appeal to boot.
It's not a geographically confined phenomenon. Authorities around the world (even in places where pyjamas are called "pajamas") have grappled with the same issue. In 2010 a Tesco supermarket in South Wales "banned people from shopping in their pyjamas after complaints that under-dressed patrons were making other customers feel uncomfortable" following "a spate of people doing their weekly shop in their nightwear".
And a lawmaker in Louisiana "decided to push for an ordinance that would prohibit wearing pajama pants in public" after witnessing young men clad in this manner at Walmart. In 2010 efforts were also made in Shanghai to discourage locals from this practice. "Catchy reds signs reading 'Pajamas don't go out of the door; be a civilized resident for the Expo' are posted throughout the city ... Celebrities and socialites appear on TV to promote the idea that sleepwear in public is 'backward' and 'uncivilized'."
Twitter contains a number of revealing remarks on the subject:
