015: Breaking my silence on fashion month
015: Breaking my silence on fashion month
Plus new Uniqlo by Lemaire, The Row for under $90, and Demna gets Yandy-ed.
Ok, subject line is extremely dramatic (that’s what a career in digital media will get you—maybe next week’s will be about a Trader Joe’s cauliflower rice recall), but fashion month is coming to a close, and it’s not an oversight that I’ve hardly mentioned it here thus far.
NYFW reliably lights a match within me that it manages to snuff out within the first day, maybe two, each season. The latest was no different. Barring two shows I saw—Maryam Nassir Zadeh with it’s telepathic knowledge of my dressing habits and a total rejection of compartmentalizing one’s life, and Puppets and Puppets whose vaudevillian lens promised eerie, elegant surrealist party futures befitting these supposed “roaring twenties”—the week was punctuated by an ellipses delivered with vanish effect. As the fashion lump rolled beneath the surface over to Europe, the all-substance-no-style trend mostly continued (I’ll save my impassioned soliloquy for Loewe for another day).
It’s not just that the industry’s propositions feel overall lacking, there’s also the practical matter that virtually none of the clothing being shown is shoppable yet. This newsletter is a space for immediacy—“see now, buy now,” but something less sticky-fingered. The present stodginess over at Vogue Runway, though, is a worthy catalyst to take stock of what’s cultivating desire (making our inner Lisas “Gah!”) now.
Some of those things…
New Blumarine. Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses. Isa Boulder’s untold exclusive collections across the web. Dilara Findikoglu swim string tings. Vintage Lanvin and Mary Quant lace catsuits. Old Cavalli. Mirror Palais suits. Exorbitantly priced The Row (especially this dress).
And all of the things that come after this page break, week after week ;)
What’s new
Memes like to say we don’t deserve dogs, but really we don’t deserve Uniqlo U. Christophe Lemaire’s crinkly brain goes to work on everyday pieces that are the best versions of themselves, executed in materials that don’t disappoint when held against the tough measure of his namesake label. The Uniqlo line’s latest has just arrived and I highly recommend shopping from both the men’s and women’s sections, which are, like many collections these days, divided arbitrarily. I’m picking up this clean-lined trench, a puffy shirt, and some exquisitely pared back pants.
Uniqlo’s generous and effective collaborations with choice designers are a tough act to match, but Target has been ramping up on this front anyway. Tapping broad appeal creators that can speak to its sensible and/or pattern-loving customer base, Target’s Fall Designer Collection features Victor Glemaud, Sandy Liang, Nili Lotan, and Rachel Comey. Overall, the hundred-something pieces feel watered down beyond recognition, but a few kind of good’uns slipped through, as if by mistake. A $40 striped Glemaud sweater, a $50 floral Sandy fleece, a $60 tie-dye-esque Comey quilt coat, and a $40 Lotan cable-knit quarter-zip. Imagine paying those prices for anything at the designers’ respective flagships.
I scoffed at Prada’s suggestion that funky-uncle knitted long johns could court closets this season, but now that the line has landed at Bergdorf’s (and the public is meditating on a convincing spring bid from Prada and Simons), I’m divorcing the pieces from their proposed aprés-ski orgy origins and can appreciate the levity they’ll absolutely bring amid another depressive covid winter.
Praying, the Tumblr-inspired text-on-apparel brand whose apron dress I highlighted last send, has landed at MNZ shop. It’s enticing to see how stores represent brands that fall outside their typical buys, and MNZ’s signature high-contrast film shots further patinate the enigmatic brand that already amounts to more than the sum of its parts.
In low-brow news we love, Demna’s Kim K Met Gala creation has been reimagined by Yandy as a slutty Halloween costume, news to which I promptly thought, “wait, obviously.” It’s kind of hot, and I want to get it?
Siedres is named after an imaginary Mediterranean village, and the clothes the brand makes seem to turn wearers into the physical elements of the place rather than its inhabitants. Colorful mosaic street tiles, coastal sunsets, pastel ice cream ads in shop windows. Its spring season, picked up by Moda Operandi for pre-order, gets a bit more substantial and serious than before-seen elastane separates, but no less celebratory.
There’s this vodka brand I go on and on about: Air Vodka. It takes carbon particles out of the air and converts them into ethanol, which either is or is somehow then converted into vodka. It’s the first carbon negative spirit and it tastes great. It’s also wildly under-consumed and under-recognized, considering how valuable it is to, I don’t know, the continuity of human life. I feel the same way about Pangaia, a fashion brand that’s working its ass off creating fabrics using alternative fibers that reduce monoculture farming and reliance on sources with high environmental risks. I’ve written about the brand several times before and it never really gets any clicks, but I’m determined to go on about it anyway. This time, it’s come out with a recycled cashmere collection that’s really, truly worth a click.
Ugg is rethinking what constitutes waste in its production cycle by rerouting manufacturing byproduct into a collection of closed loop slippers, boots, and clogs called “Icon-Impact.” The F/W lineup features reclaimed wool, renewable sugarcane foam, and recycled plastic from water bottles, cohesively expressed in reassuring cotton candy hues.
Lisbon-based brand Aune, who’s been put through the shit with Fashion Nova knockoffs, has been picked up by Selfridges. The original is always better than the fake, but in this case the difference is astronomical. Its clothes are for hot people at fun parties—support good ideas here if that sounds like you.
The Row’s kids’ line is neither cheaper nor will it fit you, to answer both your questions. It is, however, an adorable way to grapple with your financial inferiority to toddlers.
Plus: Warby Parker has collaborated with The Paris Review because smart people wear glasses; Everlane launched an under-$200 Italian leather Chelsea boot; Glossier’s monochromatic eyeshadow trio is here, but a Gen Z account I follow on IG said it was irrelevant because she just uses lipstick on her eyes (same!); Kylie Jenner launches Kylie Baby and people think her latest pregnancy is a marketing move; Beyoncé-loved shoe brand Chelsea Paris lands at Neiman Marcus; Rodarte made Tom Petty-themed sweats because…?; Ronnie Fieg designed Clarks shoes that are now naturally only on StockX; Woolrich taps Daniëlle Cathari to revive a 40-year-dormant line called “The Woolrich Woman”; Melissa and Lazy Oaf make another jelly clog; more collabs with high-end hotels, this time it’s Frame and the Ritz Paris; two sporty types collide—New Balance and Bala made dip-dyed bangles and a workout bar; and Sophia Richie x Rolla’s is back with a new fall collection, and what can we say? Good jeans.
What’s on sale
In my group chats and from what I’m gleaning online, the conversation has shifted to makeup. I’m guessing I don’t draw a full-beat crowd since it’s not something I cover much, but interest in natural-looking and feeling concealer, foundation, and tinted moisturizer appears to be at a sharp incline, so you might be feeling it too. Sephora is offering 30% off Sephora Collection items with SCSALE, but if clean is non-negotiable, Credo is the safest place to be, given its strict policy against the inclusion of over 2,700 potentially harmful ingredients. Skincare, supplements, and pigment palettes are marked down in its Last Call section, and there’s a special deal running on Exa’s primer and foundation bundle.
These days, we’re spoiled with exceptional ecommerce web design and UX. Net-a-Porter, Nordstrom, SSENSE, Browns—they all do a phenomenal job at organizing and demonstrating product at its most flattering, which is why we love to shop them so much. But there are just as many sites that are brittle and counterintuitive. I, like so many others, avoid them in favor of a more fluid shopping experience. But that’s precisely why they tend to offer the best deals. YOOX, with its small product images on gallery views and limited sorting/filtering options, is harboring discounts we’d eat right up anywhere else. With The Row jeans for $88, a Just Cavalli dress for $97, and Martine Rose sandals for $100, it’s feeling like the communal dressing room at Loehmann’s.
Saks is another one of these sites, to an extent. The messy divorce between Saks and Saks.com has been spilling into the clearance section for some time now, but its current Friends & Family sale means new arrivals are marked down by 25% (beauty by 15%), too.
Are we sick of swimwear sales yet? Don’t be: Summer is over but our escape-the-cold trips are sooner than we think. Tropic of C, Candice Swanepoel’s thought-out line, is up to 50% off. Some of my hottest, most flattering suits come from here, and maybe it’s the underwire, but they feel more “grown up” than a lot of what else is out there.
The uptown cousin to the SC103 links bag is the LoQ Gabi. It’s a constructive delight, a feast for the eyes, and conveniently on sale right now. LoQ’s end-of-season sale extends an extra 20% off sale shoes and bags, which brings the Gabi down to $307, compared to its original $480.
Certainly a fluke, and with even more certainty, this won’t last long: a Chopova Lowena skirt is 65% off… at Nordstrom Rack.
There’s also: Vince is doing 25% off sitewide with INVITE25, which includes the sale section; Rebecca Mapes’ sitewide sale includes jewelry, glass objects, and other pretty, giftable things; take 20% off everything at LCD shop all weekend with SALESALE20; and Matchesfashion is doing a tiered 30-ish% off sale that starts at $300.
What else
One of the more interesting looks from the Met Gala tipped us off to a well-matched partnership. Ella Emhoff is the new face of adidas x Stella McCartney Earth Explorer, a reasonably priced collection that’s apparently friendly with the red carpet and Clandestino alike.
Every time a new Issued by Bottega comes out, a real human being WhatsApps me a link. And unlike my stretched-thin inboxes, it’s too personal an invite to ignore. The latest, Issue 03, features artwork by Nan Goldin, Raheem Sterling, and more. Here’s my personal invitation to you to flip through its neon-clad pages.
Net-a-Porter’s The Vanguard Class of 2021, which was introduced via a press preview this spring, has finally hit the site and features some of the brightest talent found anywhere today. Rennaissance Rennaissance, Lukhanyo Mdingi, Khiry Fine, Sindiso Khumalo, Interior, and Connor Ives are key names you’ll be hearing a lot of soon.
Gucci Osteria Beverly Hills, aside from being one of the bitchier destinations for a 2 p.m. bottle of Vermentino, can now be held in even higher regard in the court of public option, having earned its first Michelin star.
Telfar TV, announced at a press conference during NYFW, is now a reality that you can find online or through your digital TV provider. It’s still in the process of acquiring UGC to stream before formally going live (for now, you can watch the logo spin alongside a QR code calling for submissions), but it won’t be long until the HSN and QVC demons of days past reincarnate to sell us duffle bags.