Cool as a…

Right – oh ho ho!!! – you are going to love this.

I was invited the other day to see a new-ish nightwear brand called Cucumber and it’s absolutely terrific.

Their USP is that it is nightwear for women who get too hot at night. It is made of a whizzy technical wicking fabric which does something with sweat like turns it directly into dreams or something. Anyway you won’t get sweaty in these.

I’m not sure if the implication is that it’s for peri-menopausal or straight-up menopausal women but the story is: if you’re too hot at night, wear this.

BUT! I went to have a look and a feel and a stroke of the merch, (which includes nightdresses and harem pants as well as pyjamas), and I quizzed one of the co-founders, Nancy, and it struck me that the fabric was a very good sort of temperature-regulating thing generally. For everyone, hot or cool.

Nancy was strangely shy about telling me what exactly the fabric was. “It’s a polyester micro fibre” she hissed in a stage whisper. She went on to say that she is reluctant to announce this because any other fabric than “cotton” goes down very badly, especially with women of un certain age who just recall the sweaty stinky manmade fabrics of the 70s and shudder.

Personally, I think cotton has got an awful lot to answer for and the fact is that fabrics have come a long way in quite a short time; this fabric has almost nothing in common with drip-dry fabrics of yore, other than the fact that neither of them are cotton.

Anyway I demanded a pair – the v neck t-shirt and cropped pyjamas in navy jersey – and wore them and they are so good. Very soft and comfy. I enjoyed the practical scrubs-ish element to them, which I require as I spend at least two hours downstairs in the kitchen every morning from 0615 before I get dressed, so any nightwear of mine needs to broadly double up as daywear. They have nearly replaced in my affections my pineapple print pyjamas from asos.com. (Their new season version of those PJs is here.)

Cucumber are still a very small company – only 6 months old – run with determination and passion by two women just like you and me (if only I could count and not panic at the slightest sign of financial risk and if only you had not just had a baby). Their range is limited as they are so new but the product is great and I really do think we are seeing the start of the next Hush or Me+Em.

Now, look, these are not cheap – (a pair of cropped pyjama bottoms is £79) – but nothing good usually is, and if you are in need of a smart new pyjama set for a group holiday or a hospital trip or you do genuinely get really hot at night or, goddamnit you’re just sick of your shitty old PJs, these are for you.

These are true to fit, take your normal size.