Lounge sets for slow weekends at home

A lounge set is the outfit you pull on Saturday morning and somehow still have on at dinner, a soft top and matching pants cut from one fabric in one color. Ours come in velvet, fleece and two-thread jersey, and each of them looks decent enough to answer the door in.

Sunday on the couch, in fleece or velvet

Fleece is the cozy one. The inside is brushed and soft, and on a gray January afternoon with the heating barely on, that’s the side you’ll be grateful for. Our pink hoodie set is roomy enough to fit a thin thermal top underneath. Add fuzzy slippers and a blanket. Done.

On a colder weekend, a thin turtleneck under the beige hoodie works too, with the hood lying over the collar. And if you’re out sledding with the kids later, the pink one looks bright against snow in photos.

Velvet feels different on the skin. It’s smooth, with a short pile, and you’ll hear plenty of people call it velour. In black, red or emerald it looks a little festive, so it’s the lounge set you can keep on when family drops by for the holidays.

Cropped sweatshirts, zip hoodies and a stand collar

Tops come in a few shapes. The fleece sweatshirts are cropped, and the beige one pairs with high-rise joggers, which keeps your waist in view even though everything’s loose. Under the black cropped sweatshirt, a white tank that peeks out at the hem looks nice.

The velvet sets zip up the front and have a hood. Wear the jacket open over a T-shirt at home, zipped once you step outside.

One black velvet set has a stand collar instead of a hood, and it covers your neck well enough under a jacket that you won’t miss a scarf. Its top and pants share a single size, so pick it by whichever is bigger, your bust or your hips. For most fleece hoodies we’d go one size up if you like them baggy. Every style is made from XS to XL, and our L is about a US 10.

Lighter two-thread sets for spring evenings

Without any brushing inside, two-thread jersey is the set for days when fleece would be too much. It’s medium-dense and stretches a bit. A warm April evening on the balcony, a cool July night with the windows open, a lazy morning at a rented cabin.

These pants sit closer to the leg than the joggers, so choose the size by your hip measurement. The gray melange set goes with pretty much anything, and the powder pink one looks good with gold earrings and white canvas sneakers for a coffee run.

When the lounge set leaves the house

A black velvet lounge set is easy to sit in for a long train ride, and the dark color still looks tidy when you step onto the platform. Wear chunky white sneakers by day and low-heeled ankle boots in the evening. The emerald one goes downtown just as easily, with a short camel jacket, white canvas shoes and a cream bag.

Both pieces split, too. Zip top with jeans, pants with a plain sweater when you’ve got five minutes to leave. If you’d rather have something built for walks in the cold, browse our sweatsuits for outdoors, and the velvet ones also have their own velour page.