we discovered that ‘Eberjey’ meant “allencompassing joy,” which we felt perfectly encapsulated the essence of the brand we envisioned.” They had a great name, but little else. They knew nothing about the fashion industry, had no connections and had no capital save for $10,000 each from their personal savings. “We were navigating manufacturing, margins, branding, you name it – everything, all of it, on instinct. And the challenges really came in waves,” Rovito said. They were only 23, but they knew, at least, that they had complementary skillsets: Mejia was the visionary, Rovito the businesswoman. “It’s one of the truest examples from my life of when I say ‘ignorance is bliss,’” Rovito reflected. “We were naive.” Mejia added. “But it didn’t set us back.” Slowly but surely, Mejia and Rovito built the brand. They reinvested their modest profits, traveled to every trade show they could and hired a New York P.R. firm to do Eberjey “desksides” with editors at fashion magazines. By the early 2000s, Eberjey products were on the rack at Anthropologie, itself a growing brand that gave them the ability to sell to even bigger retailers such as Saks and Nordstrom. More opportunities came knocking when, around 2005, another brand pulled out and they were able to secure a full-page ad in Vogue. Things were going well until Eberjey ran into some of the challenges that any young business runs into. They overdiversified into different product lines: swimwear, maternity, baby clothes. Growth plateaued. “You can’t be everything to everyone, and being better at some things is probably going to get you further than trying to be okay at a lot of things. That was a hard lesson for all of us to learn,” Rovito said. But another transformative epiphany came when Mejia went to a show in Paris and found samples of a silky-soft modal – a type of fabric made from beech-tree pulp. She brought a few yards back to the Eberjey sample room. “I was making camisoles and boyshorts with it, because that made sense,” Mejia recalled. “But I had made a pajama in cotton in beautiful men’s shirting material. They were hanging next to each other, and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, what if I cut that pajama in that fabric? That would make the perfect modern pajama.” “I remember when she showed me that sample and we both were just standing there in the design room going, ‘My god,’” Rovito recalled. The pajamas were an instant hit that became Eberjey’s defining product. Mejia and Rovito seized on their appeal and refocused the business. They started releasing pajamas in every permutation: short pajamas, cropped pajamas, tank-top pajamas, kids’ pajamas. They made men’s pajamas. They even, at one point, collaborated with another brand to make pajamas for dogs. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is it’s all about focus,” Mejia said. “That’s how you scale.” The brand continued to grow throughout the 2010s, in part because it resonated intrinsically with some of the social media-fueled trends – wellness, self-care, sustainability – that other brands were trying to chase. Two significant accolades landed in 2020: Eberjey was named Brand of the Year by an influential industry trade show and was awarded the Designer of the Year Award by Salon International de la Lingerie. And then, Covid hit. The worldwide shock FALL 2025 Ransom Everglades LOG 9 Ali Mejia ’90 (second from left) celebrating early Eberjey success.
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