Men's Woven Pajama Set

Threads crossed at right angles are what you are buying. The cloth is woven rather than knitted, with no loops and no stretch of its own. The top holds a shirt's shape instead of following your ribs. A full button front, a notch collar folded like a jacket lapel, one chest pocket and straight leg pants on a covered elastic waist complete the set. Both halves come off the same bolt.

Poplin and broadcloth at 3.5 to 4.5 ounces per square yard are the cloths that make the style work, since the gaps between threads let warm air off your skin pass out through the fabric rather than gathering against you. Piping does more than decorate: a thin cord wrapped in cloth and sewn into the collar, shoulder and pocket seams adds a second row of stitching, which stops those seams pulling out of line after fifty washes. Yarn dyed stripes, meaning threads colored before they are woven, read the same on both faces and never wash out, where a printed stripe sits on one side only and fades from the first cycle.

Switch to the Knit Pajama Set and the same outline stretches and clings, which suits a restless sleeper and feels warmer at the same weight. Same pattern, different surface: the Flannel Pajama Set brushes a nap up on the face and moves the set from a 68 degree bedroom to a 58 degree one. A Nightshirt deletes the pants and the waistband together. Measured against all three, a woven set is the one you can sit down to breakfast in without explaining yourself.

Warm bedrooms between 65 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit are where this earns its place, along with any night you expect to sweat. Houses with guests, shared holiday rentals and hospital stays favor a set that reads as clothing rather than as underwear. Men who dislike cloth touching them sleep better in it, since woven cotton hovers slightly off the skin. Cold rooms are the wrong call, because 4 ounces of open weave holds almost no heat once you are out from under the covers.

Read the label for pre-shrunk or sanforized cloth, since untreated woven cotton gives up 3 to 5 percent of its length in one hot wash and the pants lose it at the hem. Check that buttons sit in a cross of thread rather than two parallel stitches, given that you will be lying on them for eight hours. Wash warm, hang the pants by the waistband, and expect visible creasing, which is the price of a cloth that breathes.