The last year has been a rollercoaster year for all of us. The world as we knew it literally stopped overnight. Our plans became meaningless, our future uncertain and most of us struggled to keep our lives afloat, in a semblance of normality - ourselves, our work, our families and our friendships. Messaging, video-calling, conference-calling, whatever-ing, to keep that human connection alive. Our network going. Our lives intact.
One of the most fascinating changes in our new Working From Home lives (#WFH) was the paring down of our wardrobes. Less quantity, less variety, less accessories - less everything. Our capsule wardrobes became the norm. These changes begged the questions: Did we dress for others? Did we only dress up to go out? Why do we feel that zoom meetings require less formal wear than face to face ones? Does our home environment dictate our outfit?
Where did our office wardrobe and killer heels go? And do we even want them back? No, not really. We’ve moved beyond that. To luxury loungewear – silky, glamourous, eminently comfortable, effortlessly stylish.
The etymology of the word “lounge” is revealing and fiendishly apt. It evokes "recline lazily", allegedly from the Old French and Latin roots of "lengthen," and "long", evolving towards the French s'allonger. When we lounge, we consciously and purposely lengthen our daytime - or our night hours. We prolong to better savour those precious moments - with friends, with family, or with ourselves.
The reality is, loungewear – think silky pyjamas and wide-sashed kimonos– is perfectly suited to this unpredictable lifestyle of ours, where we are alternately prisoners of the pandemic and escapees toward normality. We are reclining and relaxed; yet geared for flight. We are day and we are night; we are curled up indoors, or stretched out in the light. We are poised, yet ready to go - on a whim.
Our thanks go to VOGUE’s Alice Cary, for inspiring us with her Spring Shopping Weekend, where KLEED’s silky Jungle Fever pyjamas ranked third. As Alice Cary neatly concludes “With many of us still #WFH for the foreseeable future, what better way to treat yourself than by investing in a silky set?”
We couldn’t agree more.
