Sound slumber through soft and simple silhouettes, After Dark is a brand of intricately stitched- classic and comfortable sleepwear. Effortlessly steering away from quirky prints, the brand brings to the forefront elements including soft white cotton, delicate hand embroideries dipped in soft hues, vintage styles, ribbons, lacework and more.
Going to sleep looking graceful is certain to bring forth a ‘feel good’ factor, leading to a gratifying sleep. Carrying a new age clientele, the brand believes in the motto “Old is Gold”.
The seeds of the brand were sown by Prerna Vaswani’s father. Having started his exports business in 1976, to be accompanied by her mother, sleepwear was first pitched by Suresh Vaswani to De Bijenkorf in Amsterdam, who sent out their first shipment under the label After Dark. Thereafter, the family collectively built its strength around sleepwear, pitching to an array of buyers globally, and launching a store in Chennai in the year 1998. Prerna then took over the business, leading to the birth of an e-commerce site in India in 2016.
The brand’s archival designs and patterns make it stand apart; Aradhna Vaswani overlooks design and production, ensuring trends are studied and followed. Adorning deep-rooted values of sustainability, After Dark is a slow fashion brand. This entails using sustainable materials, fair pay to workers, fair price to customers, the consciousness of carbon footprint, inclusivity (sizes, genders etc), value for money, creating long-lasting garments and so on.
Launching its annual collection with 30-40 designs in February each year, fresh designs are added every month. As the year progresses, seasons and festivities are interspersed within ongoing collections. Simultaneously, popular styles from prior collections are replenished.
The brand predominantly works with pure white cotton and pastel cotton cambrics and yarn-dyes. All the fabrics as well as trims used are sourced from and manufactured in India, making After Dark a solely home grown label. The brand works closely with several freelance craftsmen and women from Delhi and in Lucknow utilising techniques such as hand smocking, adda embroidery and Chikankaari within its works, prioritizing work from home partners.
Speaking about the brand, Founder Prerna Vaswani said ‘the vision of the brand first and foremost is to help ladies feel good about themselves- first thing in the morning all the way to the end of the day. This starts with sound sleep and is scalable to all things ‘feel-good’. Gentlemen are our next target and even though the kids rarely need external factors to make them feel good, we’d like to be known as a kids ‘happy wear’ brand as well.’
After Dark strives to redefine customer needs and shopping patterns. All styles released on the website are permanent styles that keep coming back; sometimes as the exact same, other times in a tweaked avatar. This conveys the ideology that once the customer makes the right purchase, it never goes out of fashion, whilst highlighting the versatility and wearability of one piece. Apparel that doesn’t stand the test of time is phased out.
An affordable luxury brand, After Dark carries something for everyone, relying on evolving customer needs to pave the path and future of the brand. After Dark sleepwear is available on their website: www.afterdark.co.in
Invest in cosy, carefree sleep with After Dark’s divine sleepwear.
