The pajamas: story of a piece that has reinvented itself for the curfew

Since in 2016 Maria Grazia Chiuri has been appointed artistic director of Dior, the silhouettes of the French fashion house have been those of strong women, armed to face our time: the bar jacket for a lunch in town, the tulle petticoat fora worldly dinner, the loose pants for working life.But last November, 2020 forced, the designer imagined a capsule collection called "Dior Chez me".On the menu: luxurious Silk pajamas with canvas canvas of Jouy to be magnificent at home, taps for laziness without complex, sweaters to wear by the fireside.

Au même moment, la griffe Paul & Joe, plutôt habituée aux dance-floors qu'au combo télé + canap', faisait de même, en créant une capsule sleepwear.Ditto at Zara, which has been offering its interior clothing line since October.Just like Balzac Paris with its 100 % eco -responsible models.After the Dress Slip to go dancing or the birkenstock worn in town, here is the two-in-one pajamas trend, as comfortable as it is formal, ideal for watching a series as to attend a zoom meeting."Because we spend more and more time with us and our weeks mix with our weekends, we dressed more for ease than by creativity.Behind the telework screen, we are witnessing an explosion of limits between the professional world and the private sphere.Result: we can no longer break the link with the interior and end up considering pajamas as a day clothing.Let us add to this that statutory clothes lose their importance, the loungewear asserts itself as a decent alternative which reintroduces a form of elegance, lost with the first confinement, "explains Frédéric Godart, fashion sociologist and associate professor of organizational behavior atINSEAD.

"It is almost easier to be elegant at home than outside"

After the "athleist" years, the madness of the sneakers and the praise of a luxury streetwear embodied by the duo supreme/off-white, at the turn of the 2020s, the cosywear time sounded.For Natalie Kingham, Director of Matchesfashion site fashion.com, it's even glaring.“In France, since March 2020, the request for the Loungewear has exploded by 400 %.As the mules, slippers and other indoor shoes compete with sneakers, ”underlines the expert.According to the start-up Ifdaq, specializing in data and artificial intelligence, the lingerie sector has achieved rare performance in 2020, supported by brands like Intimissimi, Erès or Etam that are a hit.An insolent success, against the current of ready-to-wear which,.Would the fashion industry need the lingerie sector to survive?Already at the end of August, the journalist of the "New York Times" Irina Aleksander, in the article "Forever sweatshirt", decrypted the phenomenon: "The most important question is whether the fashion for tomorrow will be that at all comfort.Some designers prepare their next collections by thinking about it.Joseph Altuzarra, who draws a fashion opposite to Homewear, has already added soft and fluid materials to his spring-summer 2021 collection.Not necessarily loungewear, he explains.But after months spent at home, will people want something other than comfort above all?»We invite you to enter any shop to experience.Caracos, kimono vests and pajama blouses easily mix with a more formal wardrobe.See you soon finding them in the street ...

Of course, the dandy myth in pajamas is not new.You just have to think of the writer Truman Capote, who had made him his work uniform.Or to Gabrielle Chanel, who had transformed it into a garment for the beach.For the record, the career of this night set began in the 17th century, when the English residing in India undertook to adapt the very elegant Kurta ("Pay-Jama" in Hindustani) to make it a kind of fluid costume thatAllows you to drag at home.According to Alexandra Jubu, founder of the tendency office of the same name, "this dress has always existed in fashion.He was the king proclaimed cocktails in the 1960s and, later, was the manifesto of terrible children, whose Marc Jacobs, who often came to greet at the end of his parades dressed in this way.On the catwalks, he regularly tried a breakthrough, but without really imposing himself.So much so that brands treated him anecdotally.But the situation has changed: we now buy interior pajamas as we would choose a suit.It is the favorite piece that appeals to all genres and suitable for all styles ”.

No more image of carelessness, old and ugly clothing that we hide: pajamas is assigned the space of artistic freedom that it deserves.Social networks are also there for many, pajamas having become the privileged field of staging of the Ootd ("Outfit of the Day" - Look of the day).Jeanne Deroo, who created, in 2019, the brand of pajamas for the whole Holi Holi family, also notes that her most extravagant models are those who are popular, like that with a leopard pattern."And not only for women!Men also allow themselves purchases that they might never have made before, ”she laughs.Deprived of social life, the French seem to have at heart to remain elegant at home.We favor cotton poplin p.Le Moult, on s'autorise des modèles excentriques signés Olivia von Halle, ceux à plumes de Sleeper, le pop coloré de Desmond & Dempsey, ou teintés d'exotisme de Thelma & Leah, jusqu'à faire matcher sa tenue avec ses draps."Today, it is almost easier to be elegant at home than outside," concludes Frédéric Godart.In the 20th century, the injunction was to prepare to go out.Now we refocus, we treat our looks for us and not for the expectations of others.And to the columnist of France Culture Géraldine Mosna-Savoye to theorize: "Pajamas reveals a very important question, perhaps the most important that is: that of the relationship that we maintain with oneself.And if this reappropriation of elegance was nothing more than a desire to regain control over an existence that escapes us?To meditate.