There’s a reason hot and sexy often end up in the same sentence and frigid bitches in the literal sense have a tendency to act, well, like frigid bitches in the figurative sense. It’s the same reason goosebumping it up in lingerie is a fate most of us leave to models, who get paid to do things like that. Bringing a sweatpant alternative to your next close encounter of the winter kind is Snoa Lingerie, a local company whose sleep and loungewear aims to offer warmth alongside sex appeal.
Billed as “sexy sleepwear for chilly nights,” the line from Anh Oppenheimer, a documentary filmmaker who realized the need for the line when she found herself donning a negligee and socks, and California College of the Arts fashion design instructor Susan Robinson ranges from long underwear-inspired basics to signature items that includes a bell-sleeved nightie with a plunging neckline, a spaghetti strapped red chemise and a bamboo fleece shrug for covering up exposed arms without going the big, schlumpy dad sweater route (you know you’ve done it). Decidedly on the ladylike end of the demure to sizzling hot spectrum, the line strikes us as more every-night wear than let’s-rekindle-that-old-dead-fire fodder. But that’s fine by us (besides, isn’t it what happens on your average ‘ole night that really counts?).
Pieces are made using double layers of fabric for added warmth, and a focus on eco-friendly materials means fabrics like silk hemp, modal and wool jersey, as well as local production at a facility in San Francisco.
“It seemed the most eco friendly thing to do,” says Oppenheimer of the choice to manufacture close to home. “No ships, no trucks. Also, we could make sure that the facility is a fair one in terms of wages and conditions….I can shake the hand of the woman running the shop, we can take one garment back if there’s a few errant stitches and they’ll fix it up for us quickly. It’s a good feeling.”
To see Snoa in person, you’ll find a few pieces available at Workshop on Union Street, and you can warm up to the full line in the online shop.
Photography courtesy of Jan Hammock for Snoa Lingerie
