After watching The Irishman over the weekend, I realized that fictional Jimmy Hoffa, a.k.a. Al Pacino, and I share one thing in common: a deep appreciation for crisp cotton pajamas. Pajamas don’t play a huge role in the movie — certainly not as big as tie clips or dense gold rings — but there’s one scene where they really have a chance to shine. Pacino and Robert De Niro, a.k.a. hitman Frank Sheeran, share a hotel room, and before they get into their twin beds, the two have a heart-to-heart. Both of them are wearing blue cotton pajamas. Minus the gun on the bedside table, it’s really very sweet.
I received my favorite pair of crisp cotton pajamas, J.Crew’s Vintage pajama set, last year as a Hanukkah gift. They were perfect: a vaguely medicinal shade of periwinkle blue (J.Crew calls it “hydrangea”) with smart navy piping and an elegantly rounded collar. I wore them the night I received them and have since worn them on coolish nights in the fall, in the summer when the air-conditioning was too high, and on weekends year-round when I’m hanging around my apartment. They have a slight air of formality to them — they’re the kind of pajamas I imagine wearing while trying to finish the last half of Swann’s Way or while reading a newspaper in bed. And I find them surprisingly cooling, just as much, if not more so, than my silk pajamas from Lunya (which I do love).
The price tag on a pair of a cotton pajamas can run into the triple digits, but J.Crew’s is fairly reasonable ($98; on sale for $49 today). This Cyber Monday, I’m eyeing an even cheaper pair from the J.Crew Factory Outlet. Generally, I’m not convinced that the quality of J.Crew Factory Outlet is equal to that of the regular store, but after having bought the summer version of the pajamas (shorts and short sleeves) from the outlet, I can say with confidence that the fabric feels the same. The Factory set is on sale for a mere $32 with free shipping — making them cheap enough to buy more than one pair. Or if you want to channel The Irishman, it’s the perfect price to buy matching sets for yourself and a friend.
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