For Restless Sleepers—the label Francesca Ruffini discreetly launched a few seasons ago—has now become one of the most sought-after appointments during Milan Fashion Week. Editors adore both looking through racks of her exquisitely printed silk pajamas and the warm welcome they always receive in her lavishly decorated flat (which is all dark velvets and exotic potted palms bathed in dim light) in which her her husband Remo, her sons, and her beloved, slim-as-a-whippet Weimaraner, Ulisse—the star of her Instagram account—roam freely.
“I love to dance,” explained Ruffini when asked about the collection’s inspiration. “Movement is freedom—but can also be chaos,” she mused. Ruffini’s chaos seems actually quite orderly, at least to this reviewer’s eye; yet you can feel a complex personality peeking out from layers of well-bred, polite demeanor. If you look closely at her pajamas’ printed motifs, you’ll find tigers, panthers, snakes, dragons, and jellyfish—not your average purring pets stretching on couches. There’s a touch of feral, velvety darkness underneath the silky smoothness of her elongated pajama shirts. This season, they were morphed into fluid, asymmetric short tunics with ample kimono sleeves tucked into pants, or paired with dramatic capes and fringed piano shawls (to be thrown around the shoulders with a seductive gesture).
Ruffini is at her most happy when delving into archives to find the images that will make her imagination tick. This season, she found a minuscule Indian miniature that she used as inspiration for charming printed motifs gracing long shirtdresses in liquid satin silk, or languid pajamas delicately veiled by flimsy lace capes. Yet for all her fastidiousness and sophistication, Ruffini can also find inspiration in more domestic settings; this season, one of her favorite carpets from Moldova found its floral folk patterns transformed into a robe manteau so charmingly sensual, it looked fit for the secret rendezvous of a Russian czarina.
