Have to agree that a housecoat is an exclusively feminine garment. I think of what my grandmother would wear to mop floors or do the laundry. They had zip(per)s or buttons, which would surely disqualify them as "robes."
Bathrobes and dressing gowns are the downmarket and upmarket versions of the same thing (terrycloth / flannel bathrobe; silk / embroidered / tasseled dressing gown).
House coat - bright coloured nylon nasty tabard/coat things old ladies used to wear to do their housework in, not seen since about 1975.
That's exactly what I had in mind. Nora Batty-esque.
A man could also wear a dressing gown in some Noel Coward comedy, preferably with an ascot.
That's hilarious. No wonder North Americans sometimes think the British sound quaint.
I haven't owned a dressing gown/bathrobe since I was in my teens but always thoroughly enjoy those big thick towelling ones when I'm staying in nice hotels (which is nowhere near as often as I'd like).
I think of what my grandmother would wear to mop floors or do the laundry.
Both my mother and my aunt wore what they called a "mickey" when doing housework or laundry. My recollection is that it was a cotton dress that had lapels of a different color, some buttons, and a fabric belt that tied.
British English speaker. I would think of a bathrobe and a dressing gown as being identical in cut and shape but the bathrobe being made of much thicker material.
What brought this up was a conversation with a non-native speaker about whether my robe could be called a bathrobe. She thought not because it wasn't terrycloth or otherwise absorbent, and I see that she has some authority (e.g. NorthAmerican) on her side. I would have used robe and bathrobe indistinguishably, with a thought that robe was more likely to be seen in advertising and bathrobe more likely to be used by actual people.
Apparently my mental picture of housecoat (not a term I've had much occasion to use) isn't widely shared. When I google around I can find images that look like what I would I would call a housecoat but they seem mostly to be called "loungers" -- differing from robes or dressing gowns in that they button or snap up, but not apparently intended for work around the house, and quite different from what Norah Batty is wearing in MMB's link.
I'm from the northeastern US.
Speaker of Newzealandic:
to me, bathrobe and dressing gown are exactly the same, be they long or short, and made of silk, satin, linen, towelling, hessian or wicker. Bathrobe is perhaps a more modern term, and is certainly the one used by hotels.
Shave coat used to be around, but I haven't heard it for a while.