Spending New Years Eve At Home This Year? Here Are The Best Party Pyjamas To Wear All Night Long

We're well and truly in the throes of party season. And whether you're heading to some sort of full-blown, New Year's Eve eleganza extravaganza (to borrow from RuPaul's dictionary), or just staying in, this means that party-appropriate outfits are required. For some, this may mean swapping your usual black jumper for something more colourful, while for others it might involve head-to-toe glitter and floor-sweeping gowns. If you really want to know what the coolest gals at the party are wearing now, however, I'll let you into a secret: it's their pyjamas.

While it's true that this is one sartorial wave most of us would be happy to ride, largely thanks to potential comfort levels, it's also a fact that I'm not talking about your fleecy numbers that you wore all through lockdown last year. Instead, this new breed of PJs come in silk, satin, with embellishment and feather trims. They're the cocktail dress for the Instagram age, as evidenced by the wealth of pictures already flooding social media feeds, featuring a range of party pyjamas.

Leading the charge is certainly Sleeper, the New York-based label responsible for making nightdresses so chic that they became the dress of the summer. The satin, feather-trimmed pyjamas have provoked a similar reaction, becoming a going-out staple for the fashion crowd. This success might have something to do with the fact that Katya Zubarieva, Sleeper's founder, designed them with Christmas in mind.

'The idea of launching the Sleeper came up on a Christmas night several years ago,' she says. Adds her colleague Asya Veretsa, 'Every year, like millions of women on planet earth, we face a challenge of what outfit to wear for a festive party or family gathering on a New Year's Eve.' Sleeper has quickly become one of Net-a-Porter's hero brands in its sleepwear category when it comes to pyjamas as partywear; so many styles have sold outthat the buyers have reordered.

Since 2011, designer Olivia von Halle has been creating super-luxe nightwear that was inspired by the lounging pyjamas worn by Coco Chanel and her contemporaries in the 1920s. So lovely are her pyjamas that von Halle says the brand 'really blurs the line between lounge and ready-to-wear.' And she's keen for more people to embrace this approach.

'Initially we had to really educate people that the pyjamas could be worn as ready-to-wear but finally everyone has cottoned on and people love wearing them in so many ways,' von Halle says. 'I think in an age when people are making a concerted effort to buy less but buy well these versatile pieces have really universal appeal - people want to know that what they are buying is going to work for them in more ways than one.'

It's a growing market, too. Bonsoir of London has seen great success with its 'Party Pant Suit', which is 100% silk and also decorated in prints from Liberty's archive. The brand, which has been making silk separates since 1926, says it has seen a 4,680% increase in people searching for the silk PJs.

And it's not all about silk/satin to get the party vibe going - Desmond & Dempsey, the London-based pyjama brand, is a big fan of the heavily printed, cotton party PJ for Christmas 2021 - just check out its festive campaign below. And that's not all – last March and April, D&D saw a 400% increase in sales. The best-selling item? The two-piece pyjama set.

Of course, you don't have to wear them as a two piece. If that feels a bit much, try a pair of silk PJ bottoms with a cashmere knit or puff sleeve blouse. Or, tuck a pyjama shirt into your jeans and just add heels and some red lipstick. If you are going head-to-toe, make sure you choose jazzy accessories that make your outfit look deliberate, and not just like you stumbled out of bed. But just think – when you get home in the early hours, you won't even need to get changed.

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