How the coronavirus pandemic made pyjamas the new suit. A millennial brand talks about a wild year and a 400 per cent sales spike
- Working from home and social distancing have caused a bumper year for sales of pyjamas
- Luxury pyjama brand Desmond & Dempsey also credits the trend towards comfort wear for their success
There are two types of people in the world: those who wear old T-shirts to bed, and those who don’t.
Joel Jeffery, 33, and Molly Goddard, 29, the millennial duo behind the London-based luxury brand Desmond & Dempsey, don’t mind if you’re part of the former.
Eventually, Jeffery said, people come around. Some of the investors they first pitched claimed to not wear two-piece pyjamas, forcing the duo to revise their presentation, calling pyjamas “something you wear to the breakfast table.”
Goddard’s old boss also wasn’t a believer. Then, they gave him a pair. “Now he’s on our VIP customer list,” she said.
Desmond & Dempsey, which sells pyjama sets for about US$150, saw sales skyrocket during the pandemic. It sits in a privileged position at the intersection of two multibillion-dollar industries: the US$10 billion self-care industry and high-end sleepwear, or as journalist Brandi Neal wrote for online magazine Bustle, the “fancy pyjamas you usually only see in movies.” This category also encompasses nightgowns, robes, and slippers, and market researcher Technavio expects the market to grow by US$19.5 billion between 2020 and 2024.