If you know me well, you'll know that one of my very favourite things is proper pyjamas. Not wispy floral slips, not jersey leggings and a T shirt, definitely not a onesie: proper, men's style pyjamas. 100% cotton, with contrast piping preferably. I'd been looking out for a new pair for a while, since my APC swiss dot ones from ages ago were starting to fall apart, and my Toast Japanese print ones had needed some repairs - I was starting to feel embarrassed when I answered the door to the postman.
If you work from home, you need good pyjamas. If I was just sleeping in them I wouldn't bother. Lounging is also one of my essential activities, which requires the correct pyjama.
Obviously
Olatz is the dernier cri, the ne plus ultra, the creme de la creme (sorry, I've been watching too much
Del Boy) of the pyjama world, but they're SO spen, even when they often go on sale, and they're silk, which means dry cleaning. Can't get my head around doing that - and how often would you need to? I'll be wearing them all the time, so that doesn't really work for me.
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| Olatz |
I'd had my eye on the gorgeous, remind me of t
hose Coco Chanel ones,
Poplin Gatsby pjs with teal piping for so long that it actually felt almost too easy to just click and buy those (which I still may do).
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| Poplin Gatsby |
Sleepy Jones has the vibe I am utterly down with, and has exactly the pyjamas I want, but they're not cheap, and they don't ship internationally yet. Once I saw the red trim on blue end on end of their
Marina style though, I knew that was it. But surely I could find some like that here in London.
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| Sleepy Jones Marina |
This is how I found myself in Jermyn Street, home of world renowned shirt makers
Hilditch & Key (where Karl Lagerfeld gets his nightshirts made FYI) in a wood panelled room full of shirts, being measured and pinned and ordering monograms. I had to have them altered because they're
gentlemen's pyjamas, cut for gentlemen, who evidently have much longer arms than me, but the same length legs, generally speaking. H&K only do the blue with the red trim in men's - though they do have ladies' pyjamas but they're all baby pink or baby blue or something not proper. I only like proper, as if I hadn't driven this point home enough. In any case they don't have red piping for ladies, although I'm sure you could probably special order it.
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| Hilditch & Key blue end on end - they don't give them names, cos they're proper. |
For a freelancer, it's sort of like buying a suit, I thought; as I wandered back up to Piccadilly clutching my receipt for the monogramming, which was being sent away to be done by hand and collected two weeks later. There's something almost uniform-like about them; such a classic combination of sky blue with red trim. Which is when it hit me: Royal Mail. The uniform of Royal Mail is sky blue with red trim and embroidery on the chest pocket.
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| Instagram by Charlotte Bland of my crumpled, just unpacked pjs - this is not an accurate representation of her photographic oeuvre. |
Oh well, at least I'll be showing solidarity next time I open the door to the postman.
