Maxey: Lounging With Sophistication
Women who don jeans that hug the bum just so aren’t going to bed wearing dumpy sweat pants and boxy T-shirts. That’s what Julie Zipperer, the designer of Los Angeles–based sleepwear line Maxey, thinks.
“You want to look as great in your pajamas or your lounge pants as you do in your jeans,” said Zipperer, who shipped Maxey’s first deliveries in July. “We take such great pride in what we wear during the day, and we go home and we put on that sweat and we can still look cute.”
Zipperer previously designed for young, happy-printed sleepwear brand Scanty. She founded Maxey in partnership with HLM Apparel LLC, which produces the yoga-lifestyle brand Yogi on the principles of “easier, tasteful” designs for a more womanly customer. “We’ve grown up a bit. We want to leave the cupcake prints to daughters or to their friends and be a little sophisticated,” Zipperer said.
The designer, who is “a jeans and T-shirt gal,” describes and designs Maxey loungewear through the lens of ready-to-wear styling and fabrics.
A scooped-neck, button-down rayon/poly knit shirt with long tails in the front and back is a feminine take on the men’s pajama shirt with the easy mood of a modern Henley. A pair of loose lounge pants in a garment-dyed cotton/poly pointelle knit has the hand feel of sweats but looks like striped trousers. For Spring 2010, cotton chambray dresses and tanks with a denim look can be worn out of the home as well as pajamas. Zipperer likens the interchangeability between innerwear and outerwear the way that women pair high-priced items with fast fashion.
“We all wear a couple-hundred-dollar pair of jeans with an inexpensive T-shirt. We do a lot of mix-matching ourselves. That’s what I try to do here is give you a little basics along with some great fabrications and great trends,” Zipperer said.
Maxey has been sold to stores such as Fred Segal Fun in Santa Monica, Calif.; E Street Denim in Highland Park, Ill.; and Jill Scherer in Roslyn, N.Y.
Wholesale price points range from $20 to $40 for pants, tanks range from $15 to $22 and a two-piece pajama set averages around $38 to $40.
For more information, contact the Kris Mesner Showroom, located in suite 500 of the Lady Liberty Building, or call (213) 623-7890.—Rhea Cortado
