[Trendzilla] Of Sleeping and Beauty

A A A Comments By VICKIE CHANG Thursday, Aug 27 2009

You don’t get to tell me what to wear when I go to bed.

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Nylon what? Satin that?

No thanks. The second I get home, the pants come off, and the big T-shirt and American Apparel track shorts (they were free, okay?) go on. Hair up, contacts out, glasses on.

A quick, informal questionnaire directed at the hetero males in my life on their preferred type of women’s sleepwear resulted in a resounding “nothing,” followed by some form of giggling.

Another answer?

“Wait a sec.”

I wait.

“Chemises! Of any kind. Satin. Cotton. Colored. Patterned. Light. Dark. Chemises and boyshorts.”

After a long pause, I ask, “You know what a chemise is?”

“I had to Google it.”

Someone remind me why it’s important for women to look good when they’re just going to be lying in bed unconscious for the next six to eight hours? (And why guys get away with boxers and an old Hanes shirt?)

Although, admittedly, I’m pretty proud that many guys don’t seem to be into the thong underwear thing any more—boyshorts are apparently the new preference even among males, which is great. Flip through DUDE magazines such as Maxim and you can spot full-backed cotton underwear on the models. Hell. Yeah.

Look around the sleep- and loungewear section of any department store or browse a catalog, and you’ll find tents and muumuus. And then you’ll find . . . lacy scraps of barely anything. There’s no happy medium and, of course, no comfort. Betsey Johnson intimates are cute and affordable, but many of the pieces verge on that weird, ultra-creepy Lolita territory, which, on principle, is totally not okay.

Honeydew sleepwear has always been that perfect compromise between comfort and not looking like a complete slob around the house. Not too much skin, breathable material and, most notably, totally realistic. Honeydew’s new fall line of sleepwear is breezy and covers up just enough. My faves are the playful cotton nighties (around $50) that still somehow retain that (albeit unnecessary) “sexy” factor.

But Honeydew is best-known for its colorful line of lace-trimmed boyshorts and hipster panties available at Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s ($14). Their cute bras ($24-$30) are no-fuss and come without the surplus five inches of padding you get at Victoria’s Secret. But loungewear or intimates, you could wear every one of these pieces to sleep in, and your significant other probably won’t mind, either.

Not that what they think is all that important. But, you know, we can pretend that it is.

Honeydew is available at Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s and HoneydewIntimates.com.

vchang@ocweekly.com

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