Company is changing how the beautiful people lounge; A Hopkins-based company founded nine years ago found a niche on the Internet, selling trendy pajamas that have caught on as a fashion statement among the rich and famous.(WEST)

Byline: Gunnar Olson

Special to the Star Tribune

The Sleepyheads pajama company doesn't have a shop on Hollywood's Rodeo Drive or even a fitting room. Its only physical footprint is a warehouse in Hopkins.

It is a website, its only "storefront" constructed of computer code. And yet owner Francoise Shirley has established Sleepyheads.com as fixture where it matters most - in the minds of customers, whose ranks include celebrities such as Tim Robbins and Kate Walsh.

"The website name became a brand itself," says Philippe Andre, a sales manager for Nick & Nora Sleepwear who has been in the pajama industry for a decade. "And not many websites ... have that kind of claim on a product."

Sleepyheads.com saw $2.5 million in sales in 2006, its eighth year in existence, according to Shirley. Andre, who worked with Shirley from the start, says her success comes in large part from marketing savvy - her deftness at getting plugs in national magazines, newspapers and on TV talk shows.

"It's huge, it's huge, it's huge," he says. "Not only promoting her website, but promoting the Sleepyheads brand as well."

Pajamas of the stars

Besides Sleepyheads' flashy website, its primary showroom is Hollywood itself. Its specialty: selling the trendy pajamas worn by actors and actresses on hit shows like "Grey's Anatomy" and "Desperate Housewives."

Shirley said her website wasn't the only one of its kind when she and her husband, John, launched the business out of their Hopkins home in September 1998. But she said she always acted big - for example, carrying the entire line of the popular Nick & Nora Sleepwear, which takes its name from the main characters in a 1950s TV show.

And she acted boldly, sending samples of the pajamas to the appropriate editors of national media outlets, then calling to present herself as a reliable source with good story ideas.

"At the time, people were very receptive to me," Shirley said; the notion of designer pajamas "was new, it was a trend, a craze."

Now she just blinks when asked how many media plugs she's gotten for her company. There's "Entertainment Tonight" and "The View" TV programs, People and In Touch magazines, the Boston Herald and New York Times ...

"About 150," she says.

Shirley - 41 years old, thin, blonde and somehow looking professional in pink pajamas, her "uniform" - is a product of her experience: light on retail, heavy on marketing.

She worked part-time at a clothing store at Ridgedale Center while studying journalism and marketing at the University of Minnesota. She landed a job at Carmichael Lynch, the nationally renowned ad agency of Minneapolis, where she worked on the Harley-Davidson account. But after 10 years, she was "burnt out" on marketing and opened a gift store in downtown Hopkins.

She was out shopping when she first found Nick & Nora pajamas. She bought a pair and, within days, ordered some for her store.

They started selling immediately, even at more than $50 a pair.

With some savings and a loan, she launched Sleepyheads.com, and it did $150,000 in sales during its first quarter.

"After working 24/7 for the next three months, we knew we weren't dabbling anymore," she says.

She sold the gift shop, and her husband quit his job to run the day-to-day operations.

She and her husband try to stretch the company each year with one big adventure, she said. Last year it was the launch of its own line of pajamas, Frankie & Johnny. This year, it will be the start of a catalogue.

It's a style statement

The fashion of wearing loungewear out of the house traces back to Madonna, says Kym Douglas, a fashion correspondent for "The View" and author of "The Black Book of Hollywood Beauty Secrets." Now, Douglas says, the likes of Paris Hilton hit the coffee shops of Malibu in their "calculated casual" outfits - white T-shirts, pajama bottoms and suede boots by Ugg.

"They love getting shot [looking] like that by the paparazzi," Douglas says.

Sleepyheads reaches the celebrities themselves by landing its pajamas in the gift baskets for the nominees and presenters at the Grammy Awards, the Oscars, the Emmy Awards and other celebrity events.

Alana Stewart - model, actress, ex-wife of Rod Stewart - said she likes her four or five pairs of pajamas from Sleepyheads because they're cute and fun.

"Sometimes I just get home at the end of the day and put on my flannel pajamas," she said, noting that she never wore pajamas around the house all that much until she discovered Sleepyheads. Now she gives them to her daughter, model Kimberly Stewart, to lounge in, too. "They're just so comfortable."

SLEEPYHEADS

What: A Hopkins-based retailer that sells sleepwear

Where: At www.sleepyheads.com