027: Hinoki hot boxing my apartment
Plus MNZ's end-of-season sale, the Uniqlo coat for under $50, and Mirror Palais in stock at SSENSE.
Maybe it’s day eight of quarantine or that my landlord hasn’t turned the heat on while it’s 29º outside (we have the oven on high with the door open), but I’m overwhelmingly moved to eradicate the excess from my apartment and hotbox every room with an all-tips-lit bundle of hinoki incense—suddenly phrases like “moon bath” suspend disbelief and I’m weighed down by the duty of deciding between towel varieties.
Seasons’ precise responsiveness to the dates we’ve assigned them makes me roll my eyes at times, but it is officially winter. And so I’m being equally, predictably responsive to the feelings those seasonal changes bring.
In that regard, I ordered the Sailor Stripe Tekla bath sheets even though I still think raspberry yoghurt-colored Magenta would have been the more correct choice. My heart of hearts wanted the Athena Calderone bath tray but my heart isn’t the one painstakingly avoiding the sight of my credit card statement, so I ordered this Etsy version instead. And after a lot of waffling I went with the Maison Balzac wick trimmer over the Diptyque because I think the black matte finish ultimately reads more elevated.
Domestic goddess? I hate to say it, but…
Other new additions to my winter life include this Babaa sweater (I have arrived at the determination that one can never have too many Babaas), these Hereu T-bar loafers from Vasquiat (ditto Hereu shoes—also, remember that thing I said about Spanish brands for the winter? Love that for this pairing.), and the first wave of panic things I snapped up from the soon-ending SSENSE sale: a Du Ciel thong and an elegantly unadorned denim shirt from Non.
What’s new
The FW21 UNIQLO x JW Anderson collaboration went live and, IDK why exactly, but it feels more JW-y than ever. Earthy British core tones with liberal colorful accents and very, very good knit accessories—it’s countryside shepherd for the weekend with touches of cares-about-Chelsea-vs-Liverpool, and it’s all under $80.
Mirror Palais’ swimwear is so reliably sold out that owning a reasonably priced set is a flex itself. While you can’t find much of it on the brand’s site, the exciting news is that it’s now stocked on SSENSE through an exclusive capsule in MP’s most celebrated prints.
Zara is loping upward via a new category launch: Zara Atelier. Positioned as “the most comprehensive expression of high-end design and exquisite craftmanship [sic] in the company,” per PR. It will release two limited collections per year, beginning with a six-piece, erm, chinoiserie, coat drop in the $500-$1,000 range.
I have no bambino of my own, but if I did, I would undoubtedly wish to dress them in the teensiest Eckhaus Latta things. (Critics who pry as to why babies need designer clothes that will fit them for mere weeks are exactly who this newsletter is not for—this is a place for impulse and emotion to triumph over the tedium of being sensible.) If you’re wondering the same thing you were with The Row’s kid line, no it won’t fit you.
Aside from the luxury bathroom items I’m currently binging on, another category I’m helpless to resist is non-chef-partner-approved kitchen and hosting items that I’ll use once to much fanfare and then never again. Obviously, I love Made In’s $200 Champagne Saber that’s exactly halfway between a knife and a sword and would have been 70% likely to result in a NYE injury if we weren’t all under house arrest for the occasion, yet again.
Recycled materials-centered brand Fillipa K has teamed up with emergent Swedish brand STINARAND on a pretty otherworldly collection that’s more art than fashion (which is just fashion we can’t afford). A hot air balloon-sized puffer coat, laser cut gown, and more submit a haute alternative to the Cafe Forgot variant of upcycled clothing.
There’s also: Fendi x Skims drops collection number two; a bag brand favorite of mine, Petit Kouraj is now available at Nordstrom, many thanks no doubt to Olivia Kim; Wardrobe.NYC and Carhartt WIP collab for an eight-piece release; KkCo introduces UNDERS (Off-White-coded undies with yellow tape waistbands); KEANE and Tyler McGillivary drop a three-piece collab of glass bubble jewelry; and one of my favorite candlemakers, Malte van der Meyden, is newly in stock at Voo Store, with shipment available to the States.
What’s on sale
Mansur Gavriel’s 50% off Winter Sale outdoes its then-generous Black Friday sale with recent best-selling bags like the Pencil (which I have in baby blue) and Candy, plus excellent pared-back shoe styles like a Mary Jane flat and shearling-trim wedge boot, included for hundreds off.
SSENSE’s sale has shot up to 70% off, which is a clear indicator that it’s going to end soon. Some of the most-discounted brands include luxury basics designer Julia Jentzsch, Rus (yay!), Victor Glemaud, Dion Lee, and even some Dries.
The Uniqlo U by Lemaire boxy trench I bought this fall and wouldn’t shut up about for its elegant, streamlined silhouette that looks more Lemaire-priced than Uniqlo-priced is on sale at $50. Down from $130, this is the coat that exasperated Colbo’s Tal Silberstein (“Why does Uniqlo have to be so good? They ruin it for the rest of us.”) and that I recently spotted on Dakota Butler’s Instagram. It’s weirdly still available in most sizes despite U’s tendency to get thoroughly picked over.
Maryam Nassir Zadeh’s seasonal sale is back on and up to 50% off, bringing a suite of MNZ brand shoes down to under $300, tees to under $100, a couple bags to under $70, and of course a ton of other stocked brands like Mari Giudicelli, Santangelo, Sophie Buhai, and Vaquera are included—even just-added styles.
Camper’s Private Sale is also back, and while the site will probably ask you to sign up via email, if you want to browse and shop without the imminent threat of more promo mail, you can just use PRIVSALE21 to get in. There’s a bigger emphasis on sneakers this time around, but you can find at least a hundred boots, slingbacks, loafers, Mary Janes, Oxfords, and slides up to 40% off, too. Camper’s ugliest shoes are its best (like getting Marni for a 10th the price), which makes this sale a perfect standoff between you and your belief in yourself to pull them off.
Ban.do’s site design and marketing suggests a younger demographic than my own, but its product assortment still sometimes hits. Its 50%-off-gifts (which also includes fashion) sale happens to count some of those both-bucket brands like Rachel Antonoff, Lisa Says Gah, House of Sunny, Intentionally Blank, Farm Rio, and Boyish jeans.
The I.AM.GIA sale was highly timely if you caught it before Basel last month (of course, it came at the expense of also catching Covid), but if you missed it/dodged that bullet, it’s back and up to 75% off sitewide. It’s thankfully not all beach-thot pieces (although, yes, those are there), but also low-rise denim, waxed trench coats, and Paloma Wool-esque stretch pants that are surprisingly good quality for the cost.
There’s also: Nordstrom’s SPACE sale has been refreshed and reaches up to 65% off; LN-CC’s “private” sale hits up to 50% off, plus you can take an extra 22% off—you might get your own code on homepage, but if not you can use mine, LN_HOLIDAY22M-WVS2-D7TL-3H; new items added to Reformation’s sale going up to 50% off; ditto at MANGO’s sale, which also goes as far as half off; same goes for & Other Stories’ Winter Sale; Good American is having an online sample sale that reaches up to 80% off; Paris Georgia is giving $100 off purchases of $500 with PGHOLIDAYUS; take 15% off at Buci.NYC through Christmas; and MAKE Beauty classics—cosmetics produced by the brand before it was bought and overhauled by Carrie Barber—are on sale in advance of the new Colors release.
What else
The concise online wine store with a newsletter I look forward to reading (remember when they described Godello as tasting like “spicy Spanish water” Vichy Catalan?), Parcelle Wines, has released its best of 2021 wine list, and it’s jussst making my mouth water. It’s one of those places I don’t mind spending a little more than I usually would (I like to bring a $30-$35 bottle to a dinner party), because it’s not really a gamble: Everything is good. The list’s most tempting include a Friulano from a producer who doesn’t own a cell phone, a “hipster” Barolo, and an on-sale Beaujolais from a former motorcycle repairman.
It might finally be too late to shop a gift guide for actual gifting purposes (btw did you catch Magasin’s from last week?), but that hasn’t stopped MNZ and Skims from releasing theirs. More motivating to me, though, is Bergdorf’s inquiry to Emily Bode, Christopher John Rogers, and Waris Alulahlia as to what’s on their wishlists—these are the kind of things I’m more likely to shop for myself at any rate.
Zara made a whole 42 minute movie starring theeeee John C. Reilly and Hailey Benton Gates—“O Night Divine” by Luca Gaudagnino—and can you believe I actually watched it? It would have been a pretty inoffensive Wes Anderson derivative if not for the fact that everyone is wearing what appears to be Zara’s TikTok haul collections. The green velvet dress with the bafflingly placed horizontal seam they threw over Hailey will haunt me till at least Christmas.