Honeydew Sleepwear
Benny Zafrani, founder and creative director of Honeydew Intimates, flips through Honeydew’s “black book” of prints for the season, which are compiled in a 2-inch-thick binder. There is group of assorted veggies, from tomatoes to sweet peas; a dessert menu of cupcakes, lollipops and ice cream; all 12 astrological signs; and old standbys such as zebra prints and polka dots for good measure. It adds up to a whirling number of more than 100 colors and prints.
“We don’t do anything little,” said Zafrani. Since Honeydew Intimates launched in 2002, it has grown to be sold in more than 1,200 doors across the country, from major department stores to contemporary specialty boutiques. Zafrani approaches his newest division, Honeydew Sleepwear, with equally bursting intensity.
“I couldn’t go into a meeting with two or three garments [of loungewear],” said Zafrani about his first appointment to show the new sleepwear line to Nordstrom. “I had to go in there and say, ’Check it out’ and impress them.”
Honeydew Sleepwear’s comprehensive collection of nightshirts, leggings and flirty camisoles in fun burnout prints did not fail to impress Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, which both wrote orders for the line. Wholesale price points range from $22 for a long-sleeved shirt in cotton/polyester burnout print to $34 for a terrycloth-stripe robe with details such as ruffles on the sleeves in a polka-dot burnout fabric.
The launch of Honeydew Sleepwear was inspired by buyer requests for sleepwear. The company also credits the harmony of a capable staff, including designer Anna Huling, who ran her namesake clothing line for eight years. Zafrani and Huling met through a mutual acquaintance and hit it off. (Zafrani’s wife, also named Annah, even had an Anna Huling blouse in her closet from years ago.) Zafrani and Huling’s collaboration first yielded a contemporary knit line, Frani and Ling, which briefly launched for Fall 2007. Development on Honeydew Sleepwear followed soon after, and the company put Frani and Ling “on the backburner.”
The sleepwear collection has Zafrani in expansion mode. He plans to launch a swimwear division for next year and is considering kids’ sleepwear and underwear as well.
For more information, call The Wells Showroom, in suite B1085 of the California Market Center, at (800) 748-6134.—Rhea Cortado
