Kelly as creative director and John Kelly — to help fine-tune Papinelle’s product assortment and prepare the brand to scale globally.  So when the world went into lockdown last year, and people shifted their spending from workwear and going-out clothes to stylish pyjama sets and elevated sweatsuits, Papinelle was ready to meet the demand.  “From a sales perspective, it’s been quite fortuitous for us,” James, Papinelle’s CEO, told Inside Retail. “Once people try on good pyjamas, they really don’t want to ever go back to what they used to wear.” Global expansion and marketing To capitalise on the sudden interest in sleepwear, James recently sold a majority stake in Papinelle to Australian private equity firm Quadrant Growth Fund for an undisclosed sum. The investment will enable the brand to ramp up its presence in the US and enter new markets, such as China, where it launched on WeChat just last week. James expects the brand to enter the UK and Europe in the coming years. In the short term, her top priority is improving Papinelle’s digital presence in the US.  “Making the experience more localised for the US customer is something that we’ll look into in the near future,” she said. Currently, the brand operates a local e-commerce site in the US, but it ships orders and handles returns out of Australia. Holding stock in the US will enable faster delivery and easier returns, according to James.  “There’s definitely a lot of growth markets out there, and we want to make sure we do them properly,” she said.  Brand collabs Closer to home, James believes there is still a lot of room for Papinelle to grow in Australia and New Zealand.  “We’ve never spent a lot of time on marketing and PR because the growth of the brand has been quite organic,” she said.  Going forward, James plans to work with an external PR agency to get the Papinelle name in front of more people and do more brand collaborations like the ones she has done with New Zealand designer Karen Walker.  “The Karen Walker collaboration was really successful for us, so it would be good to work with other brands to help market and promote the brand,” she said.  She is also in the process of hiring Papinelle’s first of head of digital, who will be responsible for ramping up the brand’s digital marketing, among other tasks. Online growth is her core focus, though she is open to expanding Papinelle’s store network in order to provide services like click-and-collect and in-store returns in strategic locations. “We love the retail experience. It’s a really beautiful way to present the full story, but in order for [stores] to be successful, they need to facilitate the online store,” she said. Papinelle currently has three boutiques in Australia and two in New Zealand. The sleepwear brand is just the latest retail acquisition for Quadrant. In recent years, it has invested in a number of successful retail brands and businesses primarily in the online space, including Adore Beauty, Modibodi, Love to Dream and Grays Online.