PJS ON THE PROWL
Karen von Hahn finds a line of sleepwear stylish enough for a night on the town,
I cannot even think of how many times I’ve wished I could leave my house still dressed in my pyjamas.
According to the trend reports in fashion magazines, this is now acceptable, perhaps, even fashionforward behaviour.
However, nothing in my own loungewear drawer has ever been quite as nice as this slithery silk pythonprint pair from a new Torontobased line called Ware that elevates not wanting to get out of your PJs into a fashion statement.
Ware is the result of a freshly minted collaboration between former Joe Fresh creative director and stylist Adrienne Shoom and Miriam Zittell, an importer of Moroccan rugs and textiles with a west-end shop called Mellah, who used to be the design director for Olivier Theyskens. The pair met on the design equivalent of a blind date: a mutual friend who noted their similar styles suggested they should work together.
“We’re both small Jewish girls who wear baggy men’s clothes, so I guess she thought we would get along,” Zittell laughs.
Shoom is a longtime pal and a former neighbour of mine, and it is true, she is always dressed like the most fashionable teenage boy ever. Even when we were both pregnant at the exact same time with our first children, and she had this cute little bump (which turned out to be Sam) in a pair of boyfriend Levis, and I was struggling to find anything sufficiently forgiving to drape over my majestic frame (my Sophie, who is now a willowy five-foot-10, was a very large baby). I remember when I was in my ninth month of pregnancy and throwing a party at TIFF for the premiere of Sex, Lies and Videotape, one of my most creative solutions was to find a pair of red satin men’s silk pyjamas that not only were bang-on theme-wise, but given their generous drawstring bottoms, worked perfectly as maternity eve- ning wear.
But that was long before there was such a thing as a line of sleepwear with attitude, let alone one made right here in Canada — and from the bolt ends of super-luxe dead stock fabrics that’s designed to be equally comfortable worn at home or even out on the town by both men and women.
Unsure how to pull it off? Mixed up with a cashmere blanket or a fur-trimmed pair of exotic mule slippers, “you feel like a rock star,” says Shoom, who rocks one of her pretty Ware slips layered over a turtleneck in this month’s issue of Zoomer magazine.
And, yes, Shoom still looks like a teenager, which might be annoying if she weren’t so cool. And she and Zittell hadn’t come up with a line that’s as comfortable as it is chic — because that’s one collab that, as far as I’m concerned, will always be the height of fashion. Karen von Hahn is a Toronto-based writer, trend observer and style commentator. Her new book, What Remains: Object Lessons in Love and Loss is published by the House of Anansi Press. Contact her at kvh@karenvonhahn.com.