Hours From the Ukrainian Front, Sleeper’s Kyiv Store Opening Feels Like a “Warm Hug”
Despite the risks and roadblocks, the co-founders explain why there was nowhere else they could imagine opening their first store.
Sleeper co-founders Kate Zubarieva and Asya Varetsa know how it sounds: opening their luxury pajama label's first store in Kyiv, Ukraine, four years into the war against Russia, roughly 200 miles from the front lines. "It's not a very good idea in wartime—anybody can say this," Zubarieva tells Marie Claire over Zoom from the Ukrainian capital, sunshine filtering through the windows of the car where she's taking our call. "Anybody can think like this. But not me."
Inside Sleeper's first store in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Sleeper co-founders Kate Zubarieva and Asya Varetsa.
Sleeper is best known for its party pajamas: matching sets trimmed with detachable feather cuffs, often worn by the likes of Selena Gomez, Kendall Jenner, and Kate Moss when they're craving a slumber party twist on going-out clothes. What's often overlooked in references to the insider-approved brand—stocked at more than 30 retailers, including Revolve, Shopbop, and Farfetch, and with placements on shows from Emily in Paris to And Just Like That...—is its Ukrainian heritage.
Sleeper has been headquartered in Kyiv since Zubarieva and Varetsa, former fashion editors themselves, opened the label in 2014. Local artisans spend between six and twelve hours crafting every button-up top and feather-trimmed slipper on the shelves.
So when the duo began considering their first brick-and-mortar presence two years ago, they wanted it to be a tribute to the real community. That is, the local women who are still shopping Sleeper for birthday parties, vacations, and other celebrations that brighten their calendars, war or no war. Zubarieva likens the move to a "Valentine's card" for the city that raised their brand. "This energy, of celebrating life no matter what, is what Sleeper is all about."
“Of course, all the events of the war gave us a reality check,” Varetsa says. “But at the end of the day, if we were ever going to open a store, of course it should be where the product comes from. That was true for us. It would not have been true for us to open our first store anywhere in the world except Kyiv, Ukraine.”
Sleeper's store spotlights its key products—and friends of the brand.
The pair has spent the past several months crafting a space that could only open in their hometown. Located near Kyiv's Golden Gate district, the Sleeper boutique is a "mosaic" of influences that inspired its founders—ones that can't be confused with the interiors of a cookie-cutter boutique in any other European capital. Windows opening to sweet, cornflower blue walls are set with curtains hand-embroidered by a Kyiv artisan. The bright-red floors are a nod to the interiors of a close friend based in Milan. Need a seat between trying on clothes? There's a set of 19th-century, floral chairs from Sweden for making yourself comfortable.
The space is meant to feel like a "warm hug," the founders say.
Even in still portraits of the space, Sleeper's store looks like an Old Hollywood boudoir. It's hard to imagine that conflict is raging close to all those fluffy slippers and matching sets—but the founders will be the first to share what they encountered while trying to operate during the war. A two-month renovation on their store space turned into eight, given that so many men who'd normally work construction are currently deployed to the front. A drone strike hit a lighting supplier for the space. (No one was hurt.) Targeted attacks on Ukraine's power infrastructure led to rolling blackouts throughout the winter, so some of the first shoppers at Sleeper's soft launch were assisted by iPhone flashlights.
Through every possible challenge, Varetsa and Zubarieva have given the space's launch their unwavering attention. Clients living through hard times want to feel beautiful, too. "I think that clients feel it—when you really are focused [on giving] them the best service no matter what," Varetsa says. "It's the reality of [operating in] Ukraine."
There's a purpose for Sleeper's customer base who will never get to experience the store in person. For Varetsa, it means "welcoming customers into their home," even if they're only seeing photos of it online. "Most of our clients come from U.S. and Europe, of course, so they might not be able to visit the store itself. But they can taste it [and] they can understand our universe."
Even the shelving's lace trimming is hand-embroidered by local artisans.
Zubarieva and Varetsa have aspirations for Sleeper that any founder would recognize, regardless of where they're based: expanding to department stores or additional standalone locations in Europe when the time is right; keep growing their shopper base in the United States; maybe find another Selena Gomez or Margot Robbie equivalent to keep wearing their designs. But Sleeper's Kyiv store isn't about hitting sales targets or foot-traffic goals (though the founders say both are doing well, so far).
Above all, Varetsa says, the purpose of the store is to give something back to the community that crafts each matching set—something global customers do not always recognize. “Most of the time, people don’t know that we come from Ukraine,” Varetsa says. “Many customers think we’re based in the U.S. We want to keep that little reminder of just how much talent there is here.”
They're still showing up. And they still want moments to dress for and celebrate, like a grand opening.
