Welcome to the first Wish List post of 2016 and super comfy clothes seemed like the best way to kick off this regular feature. Joan Watson is one of the best dressed women on television and season 4 of Elementary has only doubled down on this sentiment balancing her on duty (often patterned) dress wonders with her at home relaxed (okay also on duty) attire. Generally when we do Joan Wish List posts we focus on her eclectic range of dresses and while we do have one of these planned in the not too distant future – there has been so many to covet so far this season – we figured it was about time her pajamas took center stage.
It must cost a fortune to heat the brownstone, but one of my favorite details regarding Joan’s sleeping/kicking it around the house wardrobe is a) she’s always wearing some kind of slippers/bootie socks and b) the trusty comfy cardigan is a vital component.
Working from home allows some leeway when it comes to your clothing choices (you should see what combination of everything knitwear I have on right now) especially when sleep gets interrupted. In last week’s episode “The Burden of Blood” Joan is woken in the middle of the night by Sherlock playing a disturbing piece of evidence over and over. There’s no need for getting dressed due to the hour/location and this means Joan pajama delights.
The matching shorts and top are from Eberjey in “Oyster Grey Textile” and as with a lot of stuff Joan wears (and most characters on TV) it isn’t on the budget end. In fact this reminds me of another brand of sleepwear that cried out to me and that is Three J NYC, which featured on The Mindy Project. Basically I am instantly drawn to super cute pajama sets (see also Mimi-Rose’s J Crew pair on Girls last season).
Returning to the idea and execution of the comfy cardigan and this is a close clothing relative of the wine cardigan. Comfort is key (it is a comfort cardigan after all) and the proximity you keep this item to your bed speaks volumes about its function. There are several in my rotation that perform this role and it can be one you wear out of the house although a true comfy cardigan is one which probably never sees the outside world. A hoodie also works and a lot of this depends on the time of year/how warm your house is. Plus, the longer the better.
The best thing about the one Joan is wearing in the scene above (sadly I don’t have the exact details of where it is from just yet) is she wore it a few episodes ago (in “The Cost of Doing Business”) thrown over a vest top.
Repeat costumes (especially when it is at home attire) ticks all my TV costuming boxes as I love to see a little bit of real world clothing situations thrown in among the expensive designer wear.
Update! So it turns out that Joan has had this red cardigan since season 1! And now I am even more impressed with costume continuity and disappointed in my own observation skills. Thanks to Laura in the comments who sent this link to Joan Watson’s Fashion Blog and a conversation with costume designer Rebecca Hofherr regarding Joan’s “house sweater.”
Update Part 2!
For the second week in a row Joan wore note worthy pajamas and this time instead of grabbing her standard house sweater she instead put on a robe to answer the door to greet Sherlock’s father. There is something slightly less casual about this choice of garment over a well worn cardigan I guess.
The pajamas in question are bolder this week coming from Stella McCartney (and keeping in that high end/splurge bracket even in the sale) and the “Poppy Snoozing” shirt and shorts can be found here. There is even an underwear set if you want to get really matchy matchy.
Stay tuned for more Joan on The Wish List soon!
Tags: costume design, Elementary, Girls, Lucy Liu, pajamas, The Mindy Project, wine cardigan, Wish List
The Coach T-Rex motif first appeared last year at New York Fashion Week for the 2016 Spring/Summer collection and this version of the sweater was suggested here at TV Ate My Wardrobe as the ideal Gina attire.
Coach now produces a variety of T-Rex styles including the knitted original in several colors, the varsity sweatshirt (as seen on Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and a crew sweater with a patch logo. I prefer the latter two and on a particularly rainy and blustery day in New York a couple of weeks ago I maybe popped into a Coach store to say hi to this sweater collection and wondered if I could justify spending that much money on one item (sadly I couldn’t). A sale purchase perhaps. 
As this is my first post back after my honeymoon it is serendipitous that this item showed up so soon after this trip and on the character I thought it was ideal for. I maybe lost my shit at the B99 cold open. Okay I definitely lost my shit.
Other recent purveyors of this style have included Winona Ryder at the recent Coach NYFW show and Michael B. Jordan during Comic-Con.
TV Ate My Wardrobe 
