021: Tal Silberstein is dressing a new New York
Plus the SSENSE sale is back, Uniqlo +Jil Sander, and Balenciaga x Gucci drops.
It's fun and blameless and probably even a bit healthy to geek out on novelty fashion like a Louisa Ballou mini dress or Ancuta Sarca sneaker heels (I say as I start to consider my Miami Art Basel persona). This week was admittedly one for adopting more whimsy than staunch.
The big news, of course, is that the SSENSE sale is (kind of) back. What titillates about the site is that it’s teeming with high-caliber frivolity—spiderwebbed bodysuits, almond croissant bags, button-down shirts with excess sleevage—the kind of fantastical clothing-as-vehicle that threatens to carry this stretch’s silly streak into next week’s shopping recap.
New to me in the last seven days are a pair of eBayed Pleaser heels. The category of vintage clear heels as a whole is very giving, with just-shy-of-tacky (read: perfect) pairs from LEI, Onex, Bebe, and Touch Ups (my favorite genre of vintage brand name—I have a beaded shell clutch from one called Hussy) looking peeled directly off an MNZ reference board. I also received a Miyazake-esque metallic mesh purse by the Italian brand Benedetta Bruzziches that's never, not once encountered the concept of restraint. Like me!
And then I spoke to Tal. This week’s feature, two nights before his store’s opening, reminded me of fewer, better. How does something like that ever get forgotten? Resistance, I hear, builds strength.
What’s new
A new drop of Uniqlo +J, the Japanese mega brand’s intermittent collaboration with Jil Sander (the person, not the brand), was released this week, and as email updates from my cart relish in reminding me, stock is running low. The 22-piece collection marks the end of a larger project between the two entities called “Chapter 2,” which launched in 2020 and follows “Chapter 1” that ran from 2009 through 2011. Given the long gap between releases, it’s safe to assume we may not see another +J lineup until 2030 (!). Down and cashmere coats, lambswool sweaters, and tapered cotton pants at Uniqlo’s blessed prices make it worth getting into now.
Balenciaga x Gucci (or, The Hacker Project, as they’re calling it) is now shoppable. Whether one luxury mega brand riffing on another’s vaguely altered trademark with explicit approval is at all subversive or just merch peddling 101 leveraging anti-capitalist language is really in the eye of the beholder! Skipping past the galaxy braining, I will say I don’t half mind the outcome, but the Canal Street vendors who did it first had a much better sense of humor.
adidas Originals and Wales Bonner reconvene over a third and final release titled “Black Sunlight.” The retrospective athletic pieces—tracksuits, anoraks, a bucket hat—take their cues from Black British intellectuals of the ‘80s, members of the Caribbean diaspora whose postcolonial writings deeply impacted progressive thinking in the UK and beyond. The sun-faded palette and suede aptly decorate the thoughtful collection.
Filippa K is one of those very good pared-back brands alongside Vince and Theory, flirting with minimalism almost to the point of plainness and then expertly firing back with tempting materials and refined finishes (signature good Swedish taste). A humble two-piece collection draws on the brand’s commitment to sustainability, going a step further and “upcycling” a blouse and fall jacket from silk scarves and second-life faux shearling.
There’s also: Everlane’s latest includes duvet-style quilted loungewear-slash-maybe-outside-wear; Tom Ford launches his second coffee table book, Tom Ford 002 (this + TF undies would make a decadent gift); Loewe’s holiday campaign + collection present small leather goods and winter accessories; Maison Margiela REPLICA Fragrances releases “Autumn Vibes” for everyone’s Christian Girl Fall; Amsterdam-based Gauge81 steps into activewear; and sneaker purveyor Extra Butter collabs with Ugg on an, uhm, “art-themed” release, you know, inspired by “art.”
What’s on sale
The biggest news this week is obviously the (sort of) return of the SSENSE sale. It’s a “Private Sale,” which last happened in tandem with the big public sale that only comes once a year, and it can be accessed by those who’ve previously signed up with email—log in to view the deals. The discounts reach up to 50% off, and big names plus Magasin faves are widely included. Justine Clenquet jewelry is extra affordable, with many pieces under $100, Gil Rodriguez crops and dresses are under $60, silk undies from Du Ciel and SoftandWet are nearly half off, Tekla sleep/lounge apparel is marked down, as is Sherris, a Cafe Forgot-stocked favorite of Mayan Toledano and Liana Satenstein, the logo-clipped Jacquemus cardigan of the season is under $180, and a dozen Puppets & Puppets items are hundreds of dollars off.
It’s kind of an unnecessary line to draw, but I sometimes think of Rus as the Tekla of knitwear (or maybe Tekla is the Rus of linen). The highly intentional, carefully dyed and crafted brand with an offbeat Nordic presence (Rus) is hosting a rare archive sale on past season pieces, up to 40% off—you can get early access here and it includes the excellent Ranpu balaclava. If it’s actually Tekla you’re after, SSENSE has them on sale, too.
There’s also: Girlfriend Collective’s holiday collection landed and is already on sale for 30% off; Hill House Home are hosting their annual sale with discounts ranging from “Nap Dress” to 50% off; Luisaviaroma upped its sitewide sale on full-priced items to 35% with MID35; and Reebok’s Cyber Week preview sale is on with 35-50% off.
Tal Silberstein's vision is finally coming to life
On the eve of his store Colbo’s opening, Tal opens up about the brands that belong in its origin story.
Tal Silberstein, whose Lower East Side store Colbo co-founded by Ryan Dougherty and Daniel Reitten opens today, is the right man for the job. His painstaking efforts to hear and communicate designers’ intentions and untempered enthusiasm for great clothing is doing justice to Orchard Street’s tradition of dressing discerning New Yorkers. Here, he walks us through the brands he’s most excited to share with the neighborhood.
A can’t miss event: Colbo’s soft launch, tonight at 6pm ET, 51 Orchard St.
T: I'm here in the basement now, which is good because I'm seeing all the clothes in front of me. I'll start with Hed Mayner. I have these pleated denim pants, their fit is ridiculous. It's the best denim I've ever worn in my life. I actually have three of these: I have a white one, I have two blues. These pieces are very oversized, very interesting silhouettes of regular items, which is kind of Hed’s approach to fashion. I used to work for Hed, so obviously that's a big part of my inspiration for a lot of this stuff.
L: Do you still have a relationship with Hed? T: Very much. And we're the only ones to carry him in New York, and one of the first stores in America to carry Hed Mayner. L: You turned me on to him, I’ve been dying to try on his pieces. T: It's nice to be able to turn people on to him and offer that product that you can't really see elsewhere. It's also a product at a contemporary designer price point, and a person who would buy a pair of denim pants for $500, $600 would not buy it on SSENSE, they would buy because they put it on and are like, “Holy shit, this is very good.” You know?
T: I guess I should talk about the Colbo in-house stuff, which is for me a very special place. It's stuff that I designed a long time ago and they're finally coming to life. It's been an exploration of different designs that I've worked on for a while, experimentations with different fabrics, for example, there's the button-down shirt that you have in linen. I adjusted it a little bit and made it from this very unique fabric that I've never used in my life. It's tencel made out of bamboo. It’s very soft, drapey, almost suedey-feeling material in a way? It comes in three earthy tones, which is very much what I'm trying to do, obviously. They're all old deadstock, sun-dyed, US-made materials—all the Colbo stuff is.
T: Another thing is those big pants that have the Judo kind of bands that you tie, which I also kind of experimented with and made in this thick wool, playing between sweatpants and dress pants in a way, creating a really, really nice shape and feel to them. You can wear them to literally a wedding, or you can just sit in them at home. That’s something that I like about clothes generally, is the overall potential use of them.
T: Another brand is L’Equip. It's this very cool couple from Los Angeles that I met while working for Hed Mayner cause they were both stocked at Lorenzo, I went to their studio and had a beautiful day in conversation. They also work in a very unique way—it’s ad hoc, it's not seasonal at all. They use a lot of products that they find and create their silhouettes with different applications and different materials, adjusting as they go, which is something that I'm very interested in. They do a series of repurposed vintage shirts, they turn them inside out and print on them—they do a lot of playing with poems printed on stuff.
T: But specifically, these pants, the Fords. They have a really good fit they're using. I think they use rayon fabric. It's just very thoughtfully made, the lining and the way they put the tags on everything is very special, and the rope that they tie around the waist, they really think about for every piece. We're the only ones in New York that sell them. That's a part of the agenda for a lot of these guys that we’re carrying. I don't want to use the word exclusivity, but there’s something to the fact that we're the only ones that have them here.
T: The brand I’m most curious about right now is this new brand from New York called Archie. It's a friend of mine, his name is Mark. He makes really fucking beautiful, wearable clothes that are just very on-point and very high quality, and it’s run by one very cool guy. We’re the first ones in New York to sell it, as well. He has these quarter-zip sweaters that are made out of this crazy material. It's like a polyester-wool blend. But it's very soft and silky and very drapey. It comes in three colors, which I'm obsessed with. One’s this crazy eggplant purple. I probably won't wear it, but it's very cool.
T: There’s also this big overcoat that comes in two amazing, beautiful colors. One is this brown wool and the other is olive with this thick, black quilted lining. L: It's kind of giving me ASMR hearing you talk about clothes like this. It's so relaxing. T: It's actually nice for me too, because I'm dealing with all this fucking shit right now. Just like operations, stress. Pieces of old, reclaimed wood from a guy in Crown Heights and Connecticut. So it's really comforting for me to even look through the clothes I'm thinking about now. I didn't really have the time to do that. L: Like, oh this is why I’m doing all of this.