How To Spend The Day Working In Suitjamas

What could be better than sleeping in a pair of pyjamas designed to look like a suit? Wearing a pair of pyjamas that look like a suit during an entire working day. This is what happened when I spent a whole day clad in Legendary Suitjamas.

Viewers of How I Met Your Mother will already be familiar with Suitjamas, the oft-preferred bedtime wear of the show’s resident womaniser Barney Stinson. Barney favoured the Suitjamas because they improved the odds of getting lucky (a point proven when he abandoned them for a nightshirt and was then rejected by a potential conquest). A group of local entrepreneurs licensed the concept from the show, and now manufactures a range of Suitjama designs.

Sadly I have no-one sharing my bed right now, so I can’t comment on whether wearing Legendary Suitjamas leads to more under-the-doona action. So instead I decided to test another aspect of the Suitjamas: would they pass muster as a regular suit? The team kindly sent me a review pair, and the pseudo-silk action was on.

The Suitjamas bundle is surprisingly comprehensive: you get the pants, the jacket (complete with two fully-functioning pockets), a button-up shirt, and even a tie. I normally don’t wear a tie anywhere, but for the sake of testing, I decided to do so. Memo to self: when you haven’t worn a tie for a few years, polyester can be a challenging fabric to deal with.

Given that I was testing on a rainy winter’s day, I had to forego my original plan to wear black slippers, and just throw on regular business shoes. But that detail aside, I was dressed in a manner equally suitable for the bedroom or the workplace. Perhaps. The test of that would be whether people noticed.

Suitjamas In Action

“Nice suit, mate,” some tool sitting outside a cafe on Macquarie Street proclaims at around 930 in the morning. I can take this in my stride, however, since this is the only comment from a stranger I scored in the entire day. Overwhelmingly, people simply didn’t notice. Even when I went to a suburban bottle shop at the end of the day, my attire couldn’t even attract a raised eyebrow.

When you’re wearing it, there’s only one word that springs to mind: shiny. I feel like I should be hosting a game show. Apparently this is a straightforward look to pull off in the Sydney CBD.

There was no discernable reaction when I boarded my train to the city. However, I travel to work very early, and virtually everyone else on the train was wearing a high-visibility jacket. In that context, I was just a dude in a different glossy fabric.

After a stint in the largely-empty Lifehacker offices, I then headed to a press conference. Quite a few of my journalistic colleagues noticed; some even came up and stroked the fabric. But it didn’t attract massive attention. Whether this is because it looked relatively normal or because everyone I know expects me to dress weirdly anyway is an open question. One journalist told me (in all seriousness) that it was good to see someone wearing a suit for a change.

Are there downsides? Well, yes. Because I wasn’t wearing a belt, I found myself checking quite often to make sure the elasticised pants hadn’t slipped. When actually sleeping in them, I found myself discarding the jacket: while it kept me warm, the button was too uncomfortable if (like me) you sleep on your side. And I didn’t like wearing the tie, but that’s not the fault of the Suitjamas.

Workplace dress codes aren’t what they once were. If I worked in an investment bank, my attire might have attracted comment. As a journalist, I was arguably overdressed, even in pyjamas.

Verdict? I don’t think I’ll be regularly wearing the Suitjamas to work, but the jacket may well be rolled out in an emergency. And if anyone wants to rip them off me in bed, I’m open to offers.

Legendary Suitjamas


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