The sleepwear collection created from, and for, dreams

Years ago, determination was a recurring imagination that manner decorator Brenda Equihua couldn’t shake. In the dream, determination was ever a flood. Sometimes, she was the 1 being swept away; different times, she was looking from supra arsenic friends and household were caught successful floodwater. No substance what she did, the swirling h2o suffocated her and everything she knew.

The dreams perplexed and somewhat frightened Equihua, who couldn’t fig retired what they mightiness mean. Until her ma appeared. Equihua’s ma passed distant successful 2013 but she appears successful her dreams, often with a message. This time, she was floating atop the floodwater, eyes closed and peaceful contempt the chaos.

“I felt similar she was telling me, surrender,” Equihua says. “Don’t effort to halt it. Even if you’re scared, you can’t halt it. Let beingness flood you and beryllium astatine bid with that.”

The floods, she realized, represented her overwhelming tendency to power the uncontrollable aspects of her life. By listening to her ma and letting go, she could amended grip her life. She past thought, “What mightiness hap if I listened to my dreams much and fto them usher me?” Since seeing her mom, the floodwaters person stopped successful Equihua’s dreams. But that hasn’t stopped her dreams from influencing her beingness and work.

“I wasn’t reasoning I privation to plan pajamas. I was reasoning astir creating dreams.”

Equihua founded her namesake manner statement successful 2015. Her marque roseate to prominence acknowledgment to her innovative cobija jackets, which utilized culturally-loved San Marcos blankets arsenic material. The effect was a comforting yet bold intersection of Mexican heritage, nostalgia and streetwear. Her enactment has been worn by the likes of Bad Bunny, Kehlani and Rauw Alejandro, among a slew of different stars.

Often astatine the crossroads of representation and artistry, Equihua’s story-rich designs commencement with a vision. Past designs person travel to her abruptly and vividly, from car rides to conversations, usually resulting successful her moving to execute this circumstantial imaginativeness for hours connected end. The Santa Barbara autochthonal says that implicit the brand’s 10 years, she’s gotten amended astatine “embracing her crazy.”

“My mom’s lessons to maine increasing up impacted my enactment and however I dainty the world,” Equihua says. “Because present these visions, these ideas, I larn to spot that they came to maine due to the fact that they’re for maine and it’s my occupation to beryllium the translator of this thing.”

I conscionable Equihua adjacent to a waterfall, successful the lush patio abstraction of Jackson Market and Deli, a house-turned-shop nestled successful the Culver City neighborhood. Equihua’s thoughts moved arsenic fluidly arsenic the watercourse beside us, from the waterlogged memories of her past to the buzzing excitement for wherever her dreams are starring her next.

She had conscionable finished teaching creation to teenagers astatine Culver Park High School, a pursuit she’s picked up alongside her plan work. Youth informs her astir evocative and idiosyncratic designs. Her puerility is an endless golden excavation to gully from and physique upon, and successful her work, she tries to reconnect radical to childlike joy.

Zariya wears Dreamware by Equihua Amethyst Crystal slumber cami bias formal and Rebeca Equihua hoop earrings. Katherine wears Dreamware by Equihua Malachite Crystal pajama shorts set, vintage necklace, and her ain earrings and bangles.

Armor wears Dreamware by Equihua Red Garnet Crystal pajama set.

“Something that feels truly important to maine successful my designs is that radical consciousness person to themselves,” Equihua says. “So overmuch of feeling person to ourselves, I think, is an enactment of remembering, which for maine is childhood. When we’re kids, we conscionable spot ourselves. You would marque a drafting erstwhile you were a kid and beryllium like, ‘I’m an astonishing artist.’ I privation to reconnect radical to that trust.”

Equihua’s spot successful herself is what led her from a assistance astatine Parsons School of Design to an in-house decorator for luxury womenswear brands to leaping headfirst into her ain label. It’s what led her, laying successful furniture and dreaming of her perfect pajamas, to plan a brace for herself.

Once upon a time, Equihua scoffed astatine the thought of designing pajamas. She, too, had fallen nether the spell of believing that they were plain and shapeless. Her disillusionment began erstwhile she was caller retired of college, interviewing for a pajama company.

“All the pajamas were truthful horribly ugly,” she says. “I started thinking, ‘I don’t privation to plan pajamas if they’re similar this.’ But present that I person my ain marque and I tin bash immoderate I want, I’m like, ‘I could plan the benignant of pajamas that I privation to spot successful the world.’”

Equihua is reimagining the frumpy representation of the big pajama, afterthought fabric shirts and aged worn-in lover’s shorts that would ne'er spot the airy of day. She wants to make a satellite with her designs wherever pajamas person a purpose, bringing calm and absorption to the wearer arsenic they indulge successful the astir important portion of their time — sleep. In sensuality and successful comfort, Equihua creates pajamas from and for dreams.

“I’ve started to deliberation a batch astir however the satellite is truthful focused connected productivity. We’re focused connected the waking world. It’s each astir the greeting routine. But we don’t truly speech astir the wind-down,” Equihua says. “I was inspired to make from that moment: Clearing our energy, clearing our caput and a definite level of appreciation for life. Tomorrow’s a caller day, wherever you tin imagination thing new.”

During dreams, Equihua’s connections signifier and she sees things similar ne'er before. She has hundreds of diary entries of her dreams, which she returns to and references often. In originative work, dreams are her muses and her lens done which to spot her visions much clearly.

“This subconscious comes to beingness due to the fact that it’s not constrained,” Equihua says. “A batch of worldly we propulsion to the backmost of our brain. We don’t privation to deliberation astir it. We’re suppressing a batch of things. In the imagination world, we don’t get to bash that. We’re nary longer successful charge.”

On the surface, sleepwear seems similar a hard crook from wherever Equihua arsenic a marque has carved its space. But look closer, and you’ll announcement that Equihua’s enactment has ever had a taxable of comfort.

The greeting of the photograph sprout for her caller sleepwear line, Dreamware, Equihua was successful her apartment, surrounded by colorful organized chaos. Papers and fabrics lined tables arsenic she and her sister inspected a brace of wholly handmade wings they had devised from tubes, feathers and adjacent car parts.

They were tackling however to debar costume-like enarthrosis straps erstwhile her sister remembered a car magnet she had successful the backmost of her truck. The wings were born, attached to a wide elastic waistband Equihua had from a erstwhile project.

Equihua’s inspiration for the wings were erstwhile again rooted successful childhood, drafting upon the feminine acheronian phantasy illustrations of creator Amy Brown, queen of early-2000s fairies.

“Even though a batch of the enactment is from my memories, I’m besides reasoning astir crafting our aboriginal memories. Because erstwhile we dream, we’re trying to make a aboriginal representation too,” Equihua says.

In the eating room, constitution creator Gabrielle Alvarez delighted successful thoughtfully placed pops of colour and galactic shimmer.

Crystals, successful spirituality, assistance their idiosyncratic to nonstop energy. What if pajamas tin bash the same? What if we could slumber much purposefully and usage manner to nonstop the code of our sleep?

“Could we bash it a small much alien? I privation them to look retired of this world,” Equihua directed her.

We met each different again successful the lush trees of Griffith Park, wandering disconnected the trails and into beds of fallen leaves and twisted branches. The Equihua unit was casual to spot arsenic massive, colored wings peeked done the trees.

Dreamware by Equihua is made up of 3 silhouettes, a cami bias dress, a abbreviated sleeved pajama acceptable and a agelong sleeved pajama set, inspired by amethyst, malachite, and reddish garnet crystals and with 3 unsocial prints for each crystal, which Equihua thinks of arsenic 3 abstracted personalities.

Crystals, successful spirituality, assistance their idiosyncratic to nonstop energy. In Dreamware, Equihua asks: What if pajamas tin bash the same? What if we could slumber much purposefully and usage manner to nonstop the code of our sleep?

There successful the forest, the models seemed astatine location arsenic fairies successful pajama gowns with swirling prints and pops of light. Their wings, successful shades of lavender, greenish and red, represented definite crystals and traits: amethyst arsenic 1 of calm and purity, malachite arsenic 1 of extortion and roseate garnet for healing and love.

“I wasn’t reasoning I privation to plan pajamas,” Equihua said of the line. “I was reasoning astir creating dreams.”

As she watched the models lounge, leap and twirl their pajamas successful the daylight, Equihua mused that she had the feeling of being successful a dream.