So, is Bath Couture the hottest new fashion trend now?

[L]et’s set the scene: you’re lounging in your boutique Parisian pad. Perhaps there’s some champagne nearby, a towel is wrapped artfully around your head and bathrobe is draped in an effortlessly louche fashion to make you feel just like Natalie Portman in Hotel Chevalier. The epitome of luxury some might say. However, style statement behind clothes doors this has always been.

But in an unexpected twist on the sleepwear trend: Bath Couture is now a thing, apparently. Rihanna, who championed athleisure before streetwear took over every major runway, is now backing the unexpected fashion movement. One of her three Vogue Paris guest-edited covers photographed by Juergen Teller and styled by Anastasia Barbieri, features the singer adorning the most covetable accessory going: a towel.

Not just any towel mind: an orange, black and white printed style from Emilio Pucci’s Spring 2018 collection.

The ‘bath-leisure’ look has been bubbling under the surface for a while. There was Rita Ora’s recent runway stunt at the MTV Europe Music Awards, wearing a terry cloth robe and towel from cult menswear label Palomo Spain. Since 2014, fashion photographer Mario Testino has been posting his dedicated #TowelSeries, documenting shower-ready supermodels and musicians (Pharrell Williams is his 148^th shoot). Cult Brooklyn label Vaquera solidified the robe’s high fashion status at New York Fashion Week in September.

This next-level loungewear might be the incarnation of the #NSFW hashtag – though worth keeping in mind that all those lazy Sunday afternoons you spend in your dressing gown, you’re, like, so fashion.