Founder’s Letter Pre Fall 2022

Here at The Sleep Shirt, we follow most fashion industry conventions, which is why this season is called Pre Fall. It’s somewhat accurate (it is the season before Fall), but a better name would be high summer, and that is what this collection is: a new drop in late Spring that’s full of pieces designed to be worn in the summer months – and beyond.

This season is always designed with summer in mind, and the result, like most brands’ and designers’ Pre Fall collections, is a beautiful range of linens and lightweight pieces that will carry you through the year’s warmest months, and transition you into Fall.

Before I begin on the styles and fabrics of the collection, I want to start talking about size. Size has been top of mind here at The Sleep Shirt since 2016 when we launched our classic nightshirts and nightie in plus size. Ever since then, we’ve been working to expand the number of pieces available in sizes XL and larger. If you’re interested in checking on our progress, we have a blog post where we regularly update and document the styles and number of SKUs we offer in plus sizes.

On that note, this season sees one of our most exciting plus size launches yet: our Long Slip Dress is now available up to a 4X (or XXXXL). This slip launched in December 2020 and was immediately a hit. There is no shortage of silky bias-cut slip dresses out there, but there was definitely a shortage of linen bias-cut slip dresses, and ours was very well received. We’d been producing them in a variety of linens and Tencel twills for a few seasons, and then last year, we decided to expand the size range. After doing fittings on a range of bodies sized XL to XXXXL, we finalized the patterns and the slip dresses are now available to buy online in our classic linens (white, sand, and black), a black Tencel twill, and a new turquoise linen.

If you’ve been shopping with us for awhile, you’ll know that turquoise is not a colour we use often (if ever). This season, though, we wanted something bright and bold, and the turquoise – available in 100% linen – that we fell in love with is definitely the star shade of the season. Another fabric I think you’ll want to take note of is the White Beach Stripe. From afar, it looks like normal white cotton shirting, but up close, you can see and feel a delicate tone-on-tone, woven stripe. And we love the weight: it’s a medium weight shirting that is crisp and fairly opaque.

We typically design clothing to be worn to bed, but if there’s one other place you should be going while wearing this season’s pieces, it’s the beach. Our new Belted Kaftan and the Rope Dress (available in short and long lengths) are the perfect vacation items – you can wear from breakfast at the hotel, down to the beach, and even out for dinner. Of course, if you aren’t going to the beach, then these pieces will still be perfect for lounging around at home. At the end of the day (pardon the pun…), that’s what we’re all about: great-looking clothing you can wear to bed.