The Tamesis
When Francesca Ruffini launched “For Restless Sleepers” almost 11 years ago, her proposition of wearing nothing but pajamas elicited polite curiosity but also more than a little confusion. Elegant, loose-fitting home clothes, bold prints, and impeccable fashion sense are strangely out of tune with the current fashion atmosphere. “People thought I was crazy,” she recalls.
Turns out, he’s as crazy as a fox. The concept caught on quickly, and Ruffini has been iterating on her original idea over the years ever since, tweaking the print and expanding the silhouette into shapes that paid homage to loungewear but were far from the original blueprint. This season, however, she decided to rewind. “I wanted to go back to where I started,” she said. “There are so many imitators out there. I wanted to take back my space and redefine my designs.”
Ruffini essentially designed for one audience: herself. She has little patience for anything restrictive. “Corset” and “va-va-voom bodycon” were not in her vocabulary. In summer, she wears pajamas; in summer, she wears pajamas. In the winter, she layers them under a plush coat or a loose-fitting down jacket. “I believe the simpler you dress, the more your true colors shine through,” she declares, summing up her philosophy succinctly.
For fall, she revamped the silhouettes of her jackets and trousers, further simplifying the brand’s simple, sophisticated style. The jacket becomes a flowing, masculine shirt worn with wide-leg pants with tuxedo-style piping. Her signature prints have also become softer: subtler and more restrained, inspired by clavateria Patterns for men’s robes.
Another, more intimate inspiration came from the rediscovery of her grandmother’s nightgowns, which had been lovingly embroidered by nuns with custom monograms and once repurposed as beach slip dresses. Ruffini echoes their nuances: folded sides add fluidity to long, languid tunics, while cupro, a natural fabric prized for its smoothness and shine, recreates the calm sensuality of silk.
In Ruffini’s world, elegance has nothing to do with dress wanderer For the eyes of others. “When you dress like yourself, your thinking is clearer and your character is stronger. You need to believe that you are who you are,” she said. It’s hard to argue with that, especially when the clothes come with such a compelling reason.
