How The Women Behind Two Luxury Sleepwear Brands Are Redefining The World Of Pajamas

There’s a certain feeling that comes with buying a new piece of clothing: a need to protect this latest addition to your wardrobe, to save it for only the most special of occasions, to tuck it back into the garment bag after every wear—and let’s be honest, to make sure you get a good photo of it for Instagram. This sort of behavior is par for the course with the purchase of a new sundress, a cashmere coat, or a great pair of heels, but the last thing you’d expect to elicit this response are the contents of your pajama drawer.

Typically a home for old concert tees and “borrowed” sweatshirts from exes, pajamas haven’t been a source of sartorial excitement since the days of Grace Kelly’s stylish nightgowns in Rear Window. But as modern brands Olivia von Halle and Sleeper draw inspiration from the polished sleepwear of yesteryear and restore its long-lost elegance, it’s now more alluring than ever to, as Kelly’s character would say, “slip into something more comfortable”—both in and outside of the bedroom.

Olivia von Halle, founder of the eponymous line known for its sumptuous silks and playful patterns, never planned on a life in pajamas. After studying fashion and textiles at university in her native England, she knew she would pursue a career in the industry, but it wasn’t until she spent three years working as a trend forecaster in London and Shanghai that she even considered designing and launching her own brand. “This gave me a really solid understanding and appreciation of the role that fashion plays in culture as the manifestation of a collective feeling and mood,” von Halle says. “But I had no experience working ‘in-house’ at a fashion brand, which in hindsight was a blessing, as it gave me the freedom to dream everything up from scratch.”

While living in Shanghai, von Halle found herself craving some luxurious loungewear. “Coming home from nights out partying with friends, I wanted to ditch my restrictive outfits for something relaxed but glamorous, so I could continue the party at home,” she recalls. “At the time, it felt like clothes were to be ‘seen’ in, but loungewear was not.” After reading that Coco Chanel used to wear her lover’s pajamas to the beach, marrying practicality with her signature glamour, von Halle knew that in doing this, the iconic designer was likely not only comfortable but also empowered and effortlessly chic. “I wanted to capture this feeling, so I set out to take the forgotten and humble pajama and turn it into a beautiful, aspirational piece that was at once comfortable and able to conjure up all the glamour of a balmy Shanghai night,” she says.

Von Halle had recently discovered a talented tailor in town who could “replicate Lanvin dresses from pages torn out of Vogue” and decided to place her idea in his skilled hands. “He made me a pair, and I instantly became addicted to them and started wearing them all the time,” she says. Her friends took notice too, begging for a pair of their own, and before she knew it, she had an order list longer than the tailor could manage. So, in 2010, the designer decided to officially launch the Olivia von Halle brand.

Sleepwear was similarly never in the cards for Asya Varetsa and Kate Zubarieva, the women behind popular pajama brand Sleeper. The two came from the fashion world, working as a fashion editor for ELLE Russia and editor-in-chief of Ukrainian magazine Pink, respectively, and they knew the industry from the inside out. Though they met through Varetsa’s boyfriend, a pal of Zubarieva’s, and socialized on occasion, it wasn’t until they found themselves both living in Kiev and in between jobs that they really became close.

On Christmas Eve in 2013, the ladies were watching the John Hughes classic “Curly Sue” with some friends when they both spotted a black-and-white striped robe atop actress Kelly Lynch. “We exchanged glances and simultaneously decided that it was a truly cool look,” Zubarieva remembers. That night, the former editor had a dream that she was standing in the middle of a pajama factory and called Varetsa first thing the next morning with a proposition: to create a fashionable loungewear brand. She loved the idea but proposed they make sleepwear garments for the real world, not just for home. “At the time, it was really challenging to find elegant and chic nightwear outside of the luxury end of the market, never-mind loungewear that could be worn outdoors,” Zubarieva says. “So, we created the first-ever walking sleepwear brand, Sleeper, with the idea of a pajama top that could be worn to the office, a robe that could function as a summer coat, and silky white pajamas that could serve as a wedding outfit.”

Since launching in 2014, Sleeper has grown to include dozens of pajama variations, from feather-adorned to silk and polka-dotted to linen, as well as myriad nightgowns and dresses, all designed to be worn in and out of the bedroom. “We wanted to create real pajamas, something that surpasses its original and expected purpose,” says Varetsa. “You wake up in your pajamas, throw over a coat, slip on sneakers or mules, and voila: you are ready to go out for your morning cup of coffee.” She and Zubarieva were initially inspired by their own tendency to wear pajamas in an unintended way, a practice they hoped customers would share. But as the likes of Emily Ratajkowski, Leandra Medine, and Aurora James, among countless others, have slipped into Sleeper’s impossibly chic nightwear and headed out for their own morning coffees, it seems there’s a bigger trend at foot, one that has completely reimagined the role of pajamas in recent years and continues to do so in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Von Halle has noticed the same push towards repurposing sleepwear for outside the home in recent years. “It now feels like less of a statement to wear a head-to-toe pajama look, and our pieces tend to blend seamlessly into women’s capsule wardrobes, alongside favorite cashmere sweaters and treasured smoking jackets,” the designer says. “Consumers are also much more playful with their choices now, and we see this reflected in the colors and prints they are buying into.”

And as much of the fashion industry has been hit with a new wave of challenges since the spread of coronavirus began and the world has effectively shut down, von Halle has actually seen more demand for her line than ever before, with online revenue up 360% in April and May. “People are seeing the value in investing in pieces to wear at home—whether they’re looking for comfortable but chic pieces to work from home in or luxe loungewear to elevate their downtime,” she explains, noting that the most popular styles during the pandemic have been those that tread the line between lounge and ready-to-wear, providing a laid-back glamour that helps customers feel like the best version of themselves.

“Home fashion has never had as much influence on fashion in general as it does these days,” adds Sleeper’s Zubarieva. “Clothes that are good both for going out and for staying at home have now become a bridge to reality between our home routine and our social lives.” The six-year-old brand has seen a similar uptick in online purchases since March, and its founders believe loungewear has essentially taken the place of more traditional fashion and beauty buying. “Today, more than ever, we need to rely on something solid—on comfort, coziness, family and self-care,” Varetsa says.

With no clear end to the pandemic in sight and talk of remote work becoming the new normal even once Covid-19 is behind us, it seems the rising demand for stylish sleepwear will remain and indeed flourish. “I think, and hope, that this crisis will offer humanity a chance to reset its values,” von Halle says. “Once we’re out the other side of this, I believe we’ll have a much more restrained approach to consumerism and increasingly people will invest in everyday items that will bring them frequent and lasting joy.” She believes the Olivia von Halle line’s ability to bring comfort, pleasure, and a sense of joy to the everyday will continue.

Sleeper’s founders concur. “This whole situation has forced people to think about who they want to dress for, and we believe that we need to dress first and foremost for ourselves and then for those who define our lives, be it our loved ones, our children, our relatives, or our friends,” Zubarieva notes. “For us, the comfort of our home is a sort of subculture; it’s a tiny religion we are so vigilantly preaching. It is candid and personal, and it’s all about what people think of themselves, how they feel, and what they want.”