Today her pyjamas are sold in over 150 stores in 27 countries. How different things were back in 2009, when early 20-something Olivia was newly arrived in Shanghai from the UK with babe in arms. Though she was working as a trend forecaster at the time, she’d be the first to admit that she didn’t exactly see the pyjama craze coming. As with many designers, her journey started with her own wardrobe: “I went to an old tailor in the city who used to make me the most beautiful silk pyjamas.”
Silk pyjamas are a big part of Shanghainese culture, being worn out and about on weekends by well-to-do women for centuries. Cottoning, or perhaps it should be silking, on to a new way of cutting a dash on the Saturday-morning shop, Olivia got a few pairs of her own made and started wearing them to go out in. Back in England, her friends became covetous and she soon had a book filled with their inside-leg measurements to take back to her tailor.
Though she was working as a trend forecaster at the time, she’d be the first to admit that she didn’t exactly see the pyjama craze coming
“He looked at me and smiled, saying there was no way he would be able to make that many pyjamas”; it was then that the penny dropped. Olivia moved back to London a few weeks later and registered her brand name. Working out of a small space in west London, her designs soon found their way between the sheets, as well as onto the streets: “At the time it felt quite radical, a real rejection of the expectations of femininity, something intentionally modest and comfortable.”
Like a sort of inverted Puritanism, many people were offended by the new craze of wearing pyjamas out of the house, believing it to be a sign of slipping standards of femininity, “Girls were being banned from schools for wearing pyjamas and celebrities were being ridiculed in the tabloids and glossies for stepping out of the house in loungewear.”
But, rather than let the gatekeepers of the industry deter her, von Halle persevered, knowing she could claim a seat on an ideological sleeper train going all the way back to Coco Chanel, the original sartorial subverter, “She used to wear her lover’s silk pyjamas and everyone called her crazy, when I found that out I had a little smile to myself.” Eventually, she got the big publications on side and soon dress codes up and down the land were being relaxed like so many elasticated waistbands.
“I’d always thought the idea of making everybody wear the same thing was incredibly regressive and almost anti-fashion, people should be allowed to wear whatever they want at any event. We’ve even had people get married in our pyjamas.” In hindsight, luxury pyjamas can almost be seen as a cashmere-clad stalking horse of the move away from party fashion to loungewear and going out to staying in.
Rather than let the gatekeepers of the industry deter her, von Halle persevered, knowing she could claim a seat on an ideological sleeper train going all the way back to Coco Chanel
But von Halle insists her pyjamas are still made for being seen in, rather than for cuddling up behind closed doors. And at £420 a pair for her bestselling Lila silk ones, you’d probably want to get a bit of flash out of that sort of cash. She insists all her products are more than worth their price tag: fabrics are made and hand dyed by her team, focusing first and foremost on ‘feel appeal’ i.e. their chemistry with human skin.
Von Halle claims she used to baulk at the words ‘cosy’ and ‘comfortable’ even while making sure all her clothes satisfied those two requirements. But she now understands how important comfort is to people, even if they won’t be sleeping in her pyjamas: “Women have to put up with so much discomfort in their lives that it’s only right that they demand that attribute as a prerequisite of any clothing purchase.”
Still, the most important thing is that a nice pair of pyjamas still feels like a luxury: “We want people to think a lot about a purchase and to take into consideration colour and fit.”
This sense of the special also extends to the shopping experience, during which customers are given chilled glasses of champagne and offered on-the-spot monogramming. One of the great things about her wares is that they can be gifted “to all the women in a man’s life: aunties, grandmothers and girlfriends.”
This sense of the special also extends to the shopping experience, during which customers are given chilled glasses of champagne and offered on-the-spot monogramming
For the rest of us, silk pjs are an aspirational garment and one that if we’re lucky enough to get our hands on, we might not want to take them off. “That’s brilliant,” replies von Halle, “Victoria Beckham wears hers all the time.” That said, how often should one wash a pair of silken jammies? “Depends what you get up to in them,” she shoots back.
What we’d like to get up to most is a solid night’s sleep, and anything that can elevate (or increase the chances of) that experience is right up our boulevard. Screw FOMO, this storm season’s it’s all about FOGO. If you need us, we’ll be tucked up in bed with our nightcaps on, like Wee Willy Winkie.
