They’re Not Pajamas. They’re Sleepwear, and These Texas Brands Are Doing Them Right (2024)

If you’re reading this, chances are, you’re wearing something cozy. As we all well know, the COVID-19 pandemic brought on a shift in fashion. Yoga pants instead of pencil skirts. Bralettes in place of underwire. Three years on, we’ve emerged from our homes, but remote work (and the desire for comfort it instills) remains. But you don’t have to resort to old T-shirts and flannel pajama pants. We’ve found three sleepwear brands that hail from Texas and showcase the diverse personalities of the Lone Star State: one has fringe; another has a bit of Austin weirdness; a third gives voice to the Latina community in the RGV. These options feel good to wear, but they don’t scrimp on style.

1. Far West

Hotel robes are often bulky, white, and terry cloth. That’s not the case in Marfa at El Cosmico, one of many hotels created by Austinite Liz Lambert. Its famous (or infamous, depending on your thoughts about Instagram influencers) robes are made of a thinner cotton and have vibrantly colored serape stripes, like those seen on blankets in the Southwest and in Mexico. The robes grew so popular that Lambert didn’t want hipsters who like to be cozy to have to travel all the way to West Texas to collect souvenirs. The campground hotel’s signature robe can be bought through Far West, an apparel, travel, and home decor company founded by Lambert.

The collection draws inspiration from—and, in the cases of some items, is the result of collaborations with—hotels that Lambert currently owns or has owned in the three decades she’s been at it. “With my team, we designed everything from the weave, the patterns, and the shape of the robes—and something that suited the Texas climate where we were creating hotels,” Lambert said. “We reconsidered the sleeves, the length of the robes, and the material they are made from, and landed on a supersoft cotton textile and a more unisex style inspired by yukatas, Japanese summer kimonos.” The El Cosmico Big Sky Robe ($180) features slightly softer colors than the signature version, with turquoise in place of green. The Hotel Saint Vincent Marbled Silk Robe ($395) comes in three patterns that mimic the psychedelic wallpaper in the hotel and is made of washable silk.

2. JZD

The introduction for the sweat-suit collection on the website for JZD, a Brownsville-based apparel brand, aptly reads, “A sweatsuit is an outfit. No we will not be elaborating.” We will, though: wife duo Jennifer Serrano and Veronica Vasquez launched JZD in 2016 to, as they told Texas Monthly in an email,“empower and remind Latinas that eres una diosa: poderosa y hermosa [you are a goddess: powerful and beautiful]!” Serrano immigrated from Mexico when she was six years old, and Vasquez is a first-generation Mexican American. Their pink “Latina Power” shirt has been spotted on celebrities such as Eva Longoria and Jessica Alba.

“When that T-shirt went viral, we realized that so many in the community felt the same way,” the couple wrote. “At that moment we decided to focus on creating products that made us and our community feel represented and connected to our roots.” Now, on colder nights, you can don the pink Latina Power pullover ($58) and matching pink Latina Power sweatpants ($58). And when you are spending the week on South Padre Island, the seafoam cropped sweatshirt ($62) and seafoam sweat shorts ($58) pair well with the breeze coming off the water.

3. Understated Leather

Jennifer Kassell’s Austin-based brand specializes in outerwear and festival clothing, but she started thinking about designing sleepwear when she was pregnant with her first child in 2018.

“There are many pajamabrands out there thatspecialize in luxury fabric or intricate provocative designs, but I couldn’t think of any that were fun,something to feel cute and playful in at home besides sweats,” Kassell said. She sketched an idea for what she wanted to create and kept it pinned to the wall of her office for more than a year until she teamed up with Brooklyn artist Jen Mussari, who helped design lettering and graphics. By the time Kassell launched the sleepwear collection, which she said is a “blurredline between a traditional pearl-snap and an everyday button-up bed shirt,” Kassell was pregnant with her second child and the world had just gone into lockdown.

A button-down top-and-pants set with “Count Your Lucky Stars” embroidered on the back of the top was timely and sold out quickly. But we like two other pieces for their versatility. This silky full-length robe ($167) with Western-style paneling has “Lucky” embroidered on the back. The chest reads “Lady Luck” in scripted letters. The Rodeo Robe ($243) in tangelo is a bright orange cable-knit with double layers of fringe on the arms and across the back in a V shape.