Tom Àdam is all about loungewear. It’s also a bona fide European brand imbued with a mélange of influences — a mixture of the elegance and style of Paris and Berlin and elements from elsewhere, including the wabi-sabi philosophy of Japan and the aesthetics of American cinematic auteur Wes Anderson.
The brand creates pajamas and underwear for the contemporary consumer, someone who cares about quality and how garments are created. Founded in 2015, Tom Àdam encourages its customers to wear pajamas wherever they may go, with a touch of French savoir-vivre thrown in for good measure.
An All-day Affair
It may sound like an affectation to some, but wearing pajamas as a lifestyle choice is something that the brand takes very seriously. As the brand makes clear on its website, for it, pajamas and their adjoining cultures should extend beyond bedroom walls, suffusing the various strata of society “across spheres of art, architecture, design, food, culture, music and whatever else we find ourselves into at any given time while wearing pajamas.” Comfort in every area of life is the aim of Tom Àdam.
The mastermind behind the brand is designer Tom Adam Vitolins, and though he’s based in Berlin, he’s actually a Latvian with a background in graphic design. One look at the brand’s homepage or Instagram, and you can quickly see that it’s a family affair, with members acting as models — including his charming canine friend, Benjamin.
Sustainable Creations
Japan and Japanese philosophy play a large role in the brand’s ethos. In an interview with The Greatest Magazine, Vitolins reminisces about a family trip to Japan, where he found himself blown away by Japanese aesthetics and attention to detail: “I walked into an eight-story men’s fashion department store and felt like a little kid in Disneyland, but there was nothing that would align with my taste when it comes to underwear.”
Naturally, a desire to create luxury underwear and loungewear was born out of this experience. But Vitolins is also a firm believer in, and prominent promoter of, sustainable fashion. Tom Àdam pajamas, handcrafted in Latvia by local women with over 50 years of experience, are made from Tencel lyocell, a sustainable fabric manufactured using FSC-certified eucalyptus trees.
Sustainability extends to the brand’s buttons, which are fashioned from corozo nuts in Germany, and batch sizes, which remain small to minimize waste. Topping off Tom Àdam’s eco-friendly efforts is its practice of working with countries that prioritize renewable energy and fair working conditions.
The Japan Connection
It comes as no real surprise, then, that Tom Àdam has partnered with Monocle magazine for a pair of pajama sets in beige and blue. Available from the Tom Àdam online store and the Monocle shop in Shibuya’s Tomigaya district, these pajamas are perfect for those seeking style, luxury and some European sophistication in their lifestyle.
Though there is an emphasis on European elegance in his brand’s loungewear, Vitolins possesses a great respect for Japanese attitudes regarding beauty, even discussing wabi-sabi in his interview with The Greatest Magazine. According to Vitolins, wabi-sabi represents “a mindset centered on imperfection, impermanence and incompleteness.” For Vitolins, beauty lies in this imperfection: “If you’re true to yourself, your beauty will show through.”
Shop for your next loungewear set on Tom Adam’s official website.
