Sunshine Society: Behind the Baton Rouge-Based Brand

It started, as many great Louisiana ideas do, with a party. Every year, Lexie Polito hosted a mother-daughter Champagne and candy canes Christmas gathering and every year she faced the same maddening problem: she could not find stylish, elevated, matching holiday pajamas that looked the way she imagined them. For nearly a decade, she searched, but never found them. Meanwhile, Polito’s friend Alli Sims had pitched her multiple business ideas over the years. One day, Sims shared a new concept: silky pajama sets.

“Once Alli found the fabric, everything clicked,” says Polito. They were in, immediately and completely, launching the company in 2023.

The two had met the way mothers often do — waiting out a children’s dance class, filling an hour with conversation. Over time, casual chats turned into deeper friendship. Polito, the creative black sheep in a family of lawyers in Ruston, spent over 20 years at Baton Rouge-based MAPP, a nationwide general contracting company, climbing from marketing coordinator to vice president of marketing, absorbing the architecture of brands from the inside out. Sims, from a tight-knit Baton Rouge family, worked under celebrated wedding planner Mindy Weiss in Los Angeles before returning to her hometown to run her own event planning business. Between them, they had branding, logistics, sourcing and shared creative restlessness.

“I loved my work, but after years of running my own business, I was ready for a change,” says Sims. “I wanted to work alongside a friend instead of doing everything on my own.”

Daughters and granddaughters of strong, hardworking matriarchs, the duo bootstrapped the entire launch — no outside investors, just their own money and a shared conviction — and divided responsibilities the way good partners do: organically, according to instinct. Sims handled sourcing, logistics and operations. Polito built the brand: working with their graphic designer on the name and logo, sketching prints, developing the visual identity that would eventually make Sunshine Society unmistakable on a retail floor.

“We have so much respect for each other that we can talk through anything and, more importantly, trust each other’s instincts,” says Sims. “Being able to lean on each other’s strengths — especially during the times when we aren’t completely on the same page — is one of our greatest assets.”

At their first Dallas Market, Polito and Sims set up in a temporary booth. It drew an extraordinary response from buyers — particularly children’s boutiques.

“That’s when we realized we might really have something special,” says Polito, who walked the market halls looking for the right sales representation and came back convinced The Klein Group was the fit.

They spent months in conversation, and landed the partnership that helped drive what came next: distribution into more than 300 retailers across the United States, including Bloomingdale’s and now Nordstrom.

“It’s definitely a pinch-me moment,” says Polito of seeing Sunshine Society on Nordstrom’s website.

The product line has expanded well beyond its origins — silky sets for women, girls and mommy-and-me pairings, plus accessories, denim and what the brand calls Sunshine Streetwear — but the signature silky set remains the heart of it all. Refined in fit and detail over time, the original vision stuck: high quality sets with color and unique prints that you put on and don’t want to take off.

Louisiana, both women say, has been less a backdrop than a foundation. Baton Rouge showed up for them first and has never stopped. Local attorneys, CPAs, photographers and their graphic designer — all Louisiana. “Louisiana helped us build Sunshine Society from the ground up,” says Polito.

Neither woman has mastered the art of the predictable workweek, nor do they seem to want to. Polito’s days balance Sunshine Society with family, travel and volunteering — she’s deeply involved at her daughter Arabella’s school. Sims runs on a rhythm of controlled chaos with school drop-off followed by the office, quality time when the kids are home and back to work after putting them to bed.

“It is like having a job and a baby,” says Sims, who  traveled a lot this summer and kept the laptop nearby. “I love that every day is different.”

Polito says being mothers of daughters helps them tap into their customers’ wants and needs, describing their tribe of shoppers less like a demographic and more as a feeling: she’s six years old heading to her first sleepover; she’s the mom who changes into Sunshine Society the minute she walks in the door from work; she’s gathering her family for Christmas morning photos in matching sets. Staying rooted in friendship, positivity and joy has kept the pair — and the brand — true to the mission they had at the start.

“We want getting dressed for bed,” says Polito, “to feel just as fun as getting dressed to go out.”

Q&A

Where did the name Sunshine Society originate?

Polito: “We brainstormed names for weeks … The moment we heard ‘Sunshine Society,’ we both knew that was it. I honestly can’t even remember our backup names anymore.”

How do you divide responsibilities?

Polito: “It happened very naturally. Alli has an incredible ability to teach herself anything and handles sourcing, logistics and operations. I’ve always gravitated toward branding, marketing and designing our collections.”

Sims: “Lexie is a consumer, big time. She knows what people are looking for, stays on top of trends and honestly a lot of times designs something and then we see it hit the market somewhere else. Let’s just say she’s good at being ahead of the curve.”

Has success changed your friendship?

Polito: “I don’t think it’s changed our friendship — it’s strengthened it. We’ve celebrated a lot of wins together, but we’ve also worked through challenges together. That builds a different kind of bond.”

What’s next for Sunshine Society?

Polito: “We have so many exciting ideas. More categories, more collaborations and continuing to grow nationally while staying true to who we are. That’s always the goal.”

Lexie Polito and Alli Sims

Hometowns
Lexie: Ruston
Alli: Baton Rouge

Social Media
@iamsunshinesociety

Website
iamsunshinesociety.com