It’s official. We’re all slowing down. Time to relax, breath, and let go. It’s time to find joy in our passions such as cooking, drawing, reading, whatever tickles your fancy. We’ll sort our wardrobe and rediscover lost treasures. Spring cleaning while dancing to our favorite playlist. Seeing as many of us are currently spending our time at our home, we reached out to some designers in lounge and sleepwear. Sure, getting dressed is fun but so is laying around in silk PJ sets. Find out what they do at home to pass the time, where creativity blooms, and some cozy-feel good meals.
Alexandra Suhner Isenberg, founder and creative director of The Sleep Shirt
What’s your favorite part of your home?
As the founder of a sleepwear brand, you might expect my answer to be the bedroom, but my favourite part of my home is the kitchen. We are lucky to have quite a big kitchen which has been newly renovated. It is the gathering place in our home and reminds me of happy times. My husband and I love to cook and when they aren’t helping us with the cooking, my kids love to spend time at the kitchen table doing craft projects. The kitchen is also where we congregate when we are entertaining.
When do you feel most relaxed and at peace?
My husband’s family have an old house in the forest in the southern part of Sweden and it is where we go to relax. We sleep, spend time outside, go for walks in the forest, and hang out with family or friends. The area is quite remote but it has high speed broadband, which means we can spend weeks at a time there without becoming too disconnected from work.
When you’re working from home do you prefer lingerie, PJ’s or getting dressed?
Getting dressed – but most of my daytime wardrobe is technically sleepwear. Our nightshirts also double as oversize shirts or dresses, so I am usually wearing one of those with a cardigan or a pair of jeans.
What’s your favorite part of the day?
When I finally turn my computer off at the end of the day. That is usually around 9pm, I wish it was earlier.
What’s your favorite recipe to cook?
I love to bake, and I really like to make fancy birthday cakes with lots of layers and coloured icing and fun decorations. The more colours, the better. My second favorite recipe is pasta with chanterelles collected from the forest around the country house.
What is your creative process like?
My creative process is ongoing, I am always being inspired by art, historical fashion, and women who I feel represent my brand. I always look for shapes and fabrics that represent comfort and style – that is what our brand is about and I am a firm believer that you can be wearing something very comfortable but at the same time look put together and chic. I am also highly influenced by data, buyer comments, and customer feedback. When it comes time to design the new collection, I’ll collect the inspiration I have gathered and recent sales reports, look at it with my team, and then start to make decisions.
What type of woman are you designing for?
Our customer is a woman who cares about style and comfort, and she wants good-looking clothing she can wear at home. She also cares about quality and materials, and she expects the best of both. She wears The Sleep Shirt to bed, but also around the house, out for brunch on the weekend, or when she is on holiday somewhere hot. She loves the versatility of the brand, and the fact that she can wear it in front of house guests, to answer the door to room service, or on the beach.
What would you consider to be the ethos of your brand?
The Sleep Shirt is a Canadian brand designing luxury clothing that is comfortable, chic, and ethically produced.
How do you spend your time at home?
Cooking, playing with my kids, entertaining friends or family, and sleeping.
Morgan Curtis, Founder and designer for Morgan Lane
What’s your favorite part of your home?
My favorite part of my home is my baby girl, Lottie’s room. She is 5 months old, my first child. I painted her wall pink with a sleeping moon and stars mural that I surprised my husband with one day when I was pregnant. I love to escape in there and read to her. The best part is seeing her face in her bed in the morning, so happy and excited to see me!
When do you feel most relaxed and at peace?
I feel most relaxed when I am with my family at my parent’s home in the Hamptons. It is so nice having everyone together, cooking big meals and going on beach walks.
When you’re working from home do you prefer lingerie, PJ’s or getting dressed?
I prefer PJs all day everyday no matter if I’m working from home or in the office. I like to style my pajama shirts as silk tops with jeans or high waisted pants to make them daywear.
What’s your favorite part of the day?
My favorite part of the day is the morning when my baby wakes up and wants to cuddle before I go to work.
What’s your favorite recipe to cook?
Since I had the baby, I have to admit my husband has taken over all of the cooking. My favorite thing he makes is his grilled cheese, it melts in your mouth!
What is your creative process like?
I love to draw and paint. I start each collection with a theme, inspired by a trip, a film, a moment, or even just something I am into at the time. Then I illustrate the print for the season. The print dictates our color palette, our trims and embroideries, and the silhouettes. I am known for the details that go into my designs.
What type of woman are you designing for?
The Morgan Lane Customer, our “Lanie girl,” is confident, creative, and loves fashion.
She is a collector of sorts who admires all the little details that go into the Morgan Lane collection. She follows our brand story and enjoys showcasing our different characters and themes introduced each season. She is a world traveler and can easily style our pajamas and beachwear from day to night. She likes to be comfortable and feels passionate about what she wears and also what she gifts to others.
What would you consider to be the ethos of your brand?
Morgan Lane is a female founded brand reinventing how the modern woman interacts with sleepwear, swimwear and lingerie. We are women designing for women; we understand our customer because we are our customer.
Founded by Morgan Curtis at the age of 25, Morgan Lane was built on the premise that comfort and style should go hand-in-hand. Morgan was the first to lean into the idea that timeless pieces could work for any occasion. We firmly believe that shopping for intimates should be fun and empowering from the boardroom, to the beach, to the bed.
How do you spend your time at home?
Since I have been working from home, my family and my sisters moved out to our country house in the Hamptons. I feel so lucky to be able to get out of the city. I have become a stay-at-home mom, a less than mediocre cook, a very short distance runner, a puzzle master, and a total clean freak overnight. I’m not so great at any of these things except taking care of my baby, she is the silver lining in all of this. I think it’s really important to appreciate what you have and what really matters right now.
Kate Zubarieva and Asya Varetsa, Founders of Sleeper
What’s your favorite part of your home?
Asya: My bed.
Кate: Bathroom.
When do you feel most relaxed and at peace?
Asya: When I’m playing ‘animal crossing’ or cuddling with my pomeranian.
Кate: When I’m hugging my boyfriend and our two pomeranians before sleep.
When you’re working from home do you prefer lingerie, PJ’s or getting dressed?
Asya: Sleeper’s silk PJ is my ultimate WFH look.
Kate: Sleeper of the shoulder linen dress is my home office uniform.
What’s your favorite part of the day?
Asya: Early morning.
Kate: Early morning.
What’s your favorite recipe to cook?
Asya: Gordon Ramsey’s scrambled eggs.
Kate: Asya’s recipe of pasta al Limone.
What is your creative process like?
Asya: “We oversee the design process together because our differences complement each other constructively. Kate thrives on art, history, colors, and texture.”
Kate: “Asya’s deeply inspired by modern design, architecture, forms, and shapes. The best solutions appear to be somewhere in the middle of our likes and dislikes.”
What type of woman are you designing for?
Kate and Asya: Sleeper woman is definitely a personality, whose home life is filled with the same sense and joy as her social life. We truly believe that being a personality is remarkable.
What would you consider to be the ethos of your brand?
Kate: It’s extremely important for us to create designs that easily incorporate into wardrobes of our clients. We want the clothes we create to stay with you for the longest time possible and be worn for life’s happiest moments. That’s why we use natural fabrics only and really care about the quality of each seam. We don’t want to be involved in this fast fashion machine where huge corporations produce more clothes in a week than a person can wear through the whole life.
Asya: We want to give our clients the field for creativity and self-expression with our clothes so they could be worn multiple times but still feel excitingly different from just adding some personal touches.
How do you spend your time at home?
Asya: Cooking, playing video games, zoom happy hours with my friends.
Kate: Re-organizing my closet, grooming my Pomeranians, playing the home SPA with myself and reading.
Olivia von Halle, Creator and founder of Olivia von Halle
What’s your favourite part of your home?
I love nothing more than throwing big boozy dinner parties and so our dining room is my favourite space in the house. It’s a glass extension that we’ve filled with plants and fairy lights – I love how it draws the outside in and it feels like a little sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle of London. It’s cozy for long winter evenings but also perfect for balmy summer nights, when you can fling all the doors open and let in the last of the sunlight. I love hosting and like to go to town with the table settings – I turn to Matilda Goad for fun place settings and Susannah Garrod for beautiful hand painted table shades.
When do you feel most relaxed and at peace?
In the bath. I have two young boys so my schedule during their waking hours is determined by them – as soon as they’re in bed I try and steal some time to myself. I’m never more relaxed than when I’m unwinding in the bath with a good book and a G&T. I run it extra hot so I can stay in there an hour or two and light candles and use bath oils to create the most relaxing atmosphere. It’s quite ritualistic and I love how it draws a line under the day and sets you up for the best night’s sleep.
When you’re working from home do you prefer lingerie, PJ’s or getting dressed?
Getting dressed, always! I find when I’m working from home and there’s no prospect of leaving the house for any evening plans that my clothes really help me distinguish work time from me time. I love wearing dresses so usually opt for one of our Issa silk slips layered with a cashmere jumper. For more relaxed days, our Missy tracksuit is my go-to for a super chic take on down dressing. It’s made from a double-faced cashmere knit so it’s as soft on the inside as it is on the outside. These pieces tread the line between lounge and ready-to-wear so they’re a dream to spend the day in but also have a laid back glamour to them that will make you feel like the best version of yourself – and make you look super chic for those all-important video calls too! Once the day is done, I’ll have a nice long soak in the tub before slipping into my favourite pair of panther print pyjamas – then I’m all set for a relaxing evening in.
What’s your favourite part of the day?
I love being outdoors and pre-lockdown spent as much of my free time as possible riding my horse, Herman. Now we’re in lockdown we’re allowed for one walk a day and this has become my favourite part of the day – time spent in nature feels more precious than ever.
What’s your favourite recipe to cook?
I must admit I can’t cook a single thing, but I have been a vegetarian for years and so push my husband, who is a brilliant cook, towards Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty. Everything in it is delicious.
What is your creative process like?
We work within a seasonal time frame but the process within that is very intuitive. We’re not led by trends. It’s altogether more organic and about responding to what we’re feeling passionate about at that moment, about capturing a mood. When starting work on a new season, I draw inspiration from anything and everything. The main requirement is that the starting point or theme feels fresh and exciting – and it has to hit the zeitgeist. Previous collections have begun with a single quote from an Ayn Rand novel, tattered copies of Italian Vogue from the 90s, and the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Right now, we’re looking at Shanghai and its tine as the Pearl of the Orient during the hedonistic days of the 20s.
What type of woman are you designing for?
I don’t design with any one woman in mind. Instead, I try to be guided by my intuition and what I can’t find elsewhere and feel I need. I founded the brand after spotting a gap in the market and more often than not ideas for new products will come after spotting a gap in my own wardrobe. For me, it’s about taking a few key, often forgotten about, styles and elevating them – putting real thought and effort into them to make them the best they can be. I’m really proud that this has become our raison d’être and I believe it’s what gives our product such universal appeal.
What would you consider to be the ethos of your brand?
To redefine downtime.
How do you spend your time at home?
Right now, mostly working! Luckily for us, our product is more in demand now than it has ever been, with March up 628% on last year. Each day is different, and the situation is unfolding so rapidly we’re having to be extremely flexible and have been reassessing our objectives and priorities day by day. When not working, I’ve been loving having more time with my husband and children and trying to embrace a slightly slower pace of life.
A special thanks to Alexandra Suhner Isenberg, Morgan Curtis, Kate Zubarieva, Asya Varetsa, and Olivia von Halle.
