Everything you need to know about our latest (and now firm favourite) rho loungewear product: the Alison robe.
What is the Alison robe?
The Alison robe is the latest addition to the rho essentials and already an absolute fave with us founders. It is made of the same 100% GOTS certified organic cotton as the rest of our products, and hand block printed with AZO-free dyes in our Chapter Two prints: Clay Stripe & Peachy Ginkgo. Plus, it's available up to size X Large (UK 20-22). This robe is the perfect addition to your luxury loungewear look, and we have been practically LIVING in ours!
Who is it named after?
The Alison robe is named after our co-founder Elena’s lovely Mum, Alison. It’s Alison and Elena’s birthdays this month too — Happy Birthday Leo Ladieeeees!
We have named all of our products after our Grandmothers and Mothers, as tribute to the amazing women they are and were, and how grateful we are for the impact they have had on our lives.
When can you wear it?
The Alison is designed to be comfortable enough to never want to take off, and versatile enough that you never have to! It’s the perfect addition to your luxury loungewear look, worn with your Jacqui trousers and Michelina cami for a chic start to the day or a luxe cosy evening in. It can be a breezy throw-over to wear with jeans and a tee, but also works VERY well as a gorgeous bikini cover-up that you can chuck on when you pop out of the water on holiday — it dries super quickly too. The deep wrap, inner tie and wide extra long outer waist tie are all designed to help you feel secure and confident enough to even wear the Alison as a dress! Because, why not?!
Why did we want to make a robe?
Honestly, we had been dreaming about creating a gorgeous versatile r(h)obe 😉 since day one, but felt like we wanted to get our loungewear tops and bottoms nailed first. So when we started to create our second collection Chapter Two, and had the opportunity to introduce another product to our small-but-perfect range, we knew it HAD to be a robe.
One of the challenges for small self-funded businesses like ours when first starting out, is that you have to keep your product range very limited in order to meet the minimum order quantities (MOQs) set by your manufacturer and not spend an absolute fortune! Adding new products, sizes and colour-ways to your range has to be done slowly and strategically so as not to over-order on stock and spend way more than your business can afford. Which is why we decided to wait until Chapter Two to create the Alison robe, but boy is she worth the wait!
How did we design & develop it?
Luxury, comfort, versatility and durability are our key design principles. So when designing and developing the Alison robe, we kept all of these principles front-of-mind, as well as how to make it as accessible to a range of body shapes and sizes as possible.
We originally imagined that the Alison robe would be full-length, but when we tried and tested our first development sample it just didn’t work. It looked great when it was open, but when closed—with a deep wrap to make sure you feel covered and secure enough to wear the robe out if you wanted to—the fabric didn’t sit nicely and got caught around the legs. We also worried about how the length would work for shorter people and how the extra material would impact the price. So, we chopped it up and experimented with finding the perfect length for a short robe instead, and never looked back!
Alison has been cut slightly a-line and oversized for ultimate comfort and to make it work for more sizes, but it can be easily cinched in using the inner tie and the wide, extra long outer waist tie to keep you feeling nice and secure. The outer tie can actually be wrapped around the waist twice if you want extra security and/or fancy wearing the robe as a dress out to a summer garden party, for example!
We went for wide cropped sleeves (so you won't accidentally dip your sleeves in your brekkie!), deep hems and roomy pockets to make this staple piece feel extra chic.
After spending a LONG time refining all the details, we sent our final technical packs off to our lovely manufacturer and waited to receive our final printed samples. We used these samples for our amazing campaign photo and video shoot for Chapter Two, which gave us more time to try them out on our lovely models and shoot team, and we made a few final tweaks (adding a hanger loop to the back neck and moving the belt loops down) before confirming everything for production. And Voilá! The rest is her-story!
