The glam jam... your hunker-down wardrobe

With parties off the cards for at least a month, it’s no surprise designers are thinking about bedtime, says Bethan Holt

‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” so the saying goes. For British womenswear label

Rixo, it goes more like:

“When life gives you lockdown and a slew of excess material from cancelled wholesale orders, make pyjamas.” What designers Henrietta Rix and Orlagh Mccloskey couldn’t have planned was that their debut pyjama collection would launch in the first week of England’s second lockdown.

At this time, the five-year-old label would usually be doing a roaring trade in its signature vintageinspired silk party dresses, but with those off the table this year, they’ve done a savvy pyjama pivot that leans into the same look.

“When lockdown happened we had lots of cancelled orders, so we realised we could do the pyjamas using the leftover fabrics,” says Mccloskey. “We took our time with them, making sure the fit was perfect, then decided to launch in time for Christmas.” And, it turns out, during at least a month of quarantine.

While our usual pyjama modus operandi over the festive season might be to slouch about in something fleecy while recovering from the excesses of the parties, this year, a fabulous pair of PJS looks like it could be the zenith of our dressing up possibilities, so it’s worth making them count.

In fact, upbeat loungewear arguably has the power to lift spirits. “We want you to feel really good wearing them at home, you can feel really down when you’re in for a month, it really affects your mood,” observes Rix.

Like so many of the PJ ranges now, it would be a waste just to sleep in Rixo’s glam jams. “With everything we’ve designed, we’ve thought about how you can wear it at home but then after lockdown, too,” Rix tells me, “the blouses could be worn with jeans and you could wear the slip or the robe as a dress next summer.”

What she’s most looking forward to is seeing how households style their pyjamas together, remembering the first days of Rixo when she and Mccloskey would work from home in their PJS together all day. “It’s a nice family thing if you’re locked down with your sisters, your daughters, your mum or even your flatmates, you can wear them together. I know my mum, aunties and cousins are going to be living in them.”

Time to pyjama party…