Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/175740
THE NEW LEISURE SUIT Playful they may be, but these pajamas are made for the workplace. BY LYNN YAEGER s rumor has it, the reason that Marc Jacobs' Fall 2013 runways were bursting with looks rarely seen outside an Art Deco boudoir—glistening satin pajamas at his eponymous MJ collection; fur-lined velvet bathrobes at Louis Vuitton—was because the designer, marooned after Hurricane Sandy, found himself languishing in his hotel room, whiling away the hours in his PJs. But if Jacobs spent those strange October days in a state of dishabille, what was the excuse of Marco Zanini at Rochas, whose standout look for Fall was a vast house-coat affair with a baby-blossom pattern that might have warmed Donna Reed, or the full-on black-and-white stripers, worthy of a female Cary (Carrie?) Grant, promulgated by Céline? We are not speaking here, to be clear, of the lingerie looks of yore—the deliciously sexy slip dress; the rather hackneyed underwear-as-outerwear syndrome. No, what we are discussing is the current penchant for floppy pants and baggy buttoned-up tops heretofore hidden under a tightly tied robe, even if you're only opening the door for room service. As it happens, this is the exact outfit artist Julian Schnabel, an early adopter of this trend, has been wearing around town for decades. (Could it be an accident that Schnabel's former wife—the glamorous Olatz—makes her fortune designing high-end night-clothes?) Now Schnabel has been joined by a battalion of younger, skinnier devotees: the actor Jessica Alba, the enviable girl-about-town Giovanna Battaglia, the director Sophia Coppola and even Rihanna, so famous she doesn't need a second name. Their enthusiasm for this new matched set may have something to do, perhaps, with the appeal of off-hand dressing, the desire to seem as if you're not trying too hard. (But of course, it is one of the great ironies of fashion that this affectation takes enormous time and effort). Or it may reflect the fact that so many people are 60 BAL HARBOUR PHOTOS COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES A An early example of pajama dressing, circa 1965.