051: Not Pr*me D*y
Plus Sunnei's sitewide sale, Eckhaus Latta launches shoes, and the MNZ towel.
Here’s the thing about Prime Day: this is not the place. Last year, before I decided as a rule not to include Amazon links on this platform, I did send out a special edition of the newsletter. It was strained and pushy and even a little dishonest, I’ll finally admit.
Amazon isn’t just amoral and bad for everything it touches, it’s also corny, low-quality, mass-market, and a huuuuuge drag… everything that this space aims not to be on a good day. If for the aesthetics alone—I can’t imagine sitting here recommending a synthetic dress from a “Tik-Tok-viral” brand named Meyeeka or Upopby or RXRXCOCO (all real by the way) or the same direct-to-off-price New Balance and Calvin Klein “sales” billboarded every year—I’m just going to let this thing bleed out anywhere it needs to but here.
What I’m trying to articulate (and maybe not doing such a good job of) is something very obvious that’s been stuck in my head for a while and actually has nothing to do with APD: The coolest brands to wear are the ones your friends have started. My friend Bianca, the first person I interviewed for this newsletter, once told me it’s always better to volunteer at your local community garden rather than anywhere else’s, and I’m starting to see how valuable that outlook is for fashion.
Watering and tending to your people is insanely stylish because love is the coolest thing you can do in a lifetime, but even from a tactile standpoint, drawing on the creations of your limited network is the most absolute way of expressing your totally unique personhood. In an economy of full-look policies and sponsored weddings, who else in this world could wear the outfit you’re wearing, stacked with things your human beings of choice have touched?
The savviest dressers know this intrinsically, and you can see the philosophy play out at various scales through their social media hype-womanism. Liana Satenstein and Sherris. Naomi Elizee and Christopher John Rogers, say.
My friends’ brands and non-brands have crossed this page before. I’m not ashamed that my proximity to them lends a huge sense of admiration for the work they do and an appreciation for the end product. Gemsun. Colbo. Papier Chez Moi. Michelle Del Rio. Haus Label. Mirror Palais. Lesse. Ending Soon. The Break. Either And. Jolie. Eveliina.
I considered getting all up into the sustainability and bottom-up trend cycling factors of shopping your own circles, but I think my anti-Amazon lecture was already a little overzealously moralizing for my tastes. Let’s maybe end agreeing that the best statement fashion can make is in supporting, believing in, just geeking out about the simply gorg things friends make and do.
What’s new
There was a time before Vetements exported the concept of Eastern European youth’s soccer kits as Berhain uniforms for edgelord urbanites that the athletic clothes possessed a serene, sort of global, neutrality. In the decade or so since that Chat Roulette-fueled moment came to pass, the athletic wear has returned to the royalty-free zone. Alongside supply chain-conscious basics brand FM 669, Ana Kras iterates on the aesthetic with a t-shirt featuring a subtle yet unmistakable football gear flourish, apparent in the shirt’s v-neck and contrast piping.
Eckhaus Latta was just warming up when it collaborated with Ugg and Camper, at long last releasing a shoe collection of its own expanding on the language developed with those co-branded campaigns. Knobby heels with puffy straps and boat-like flatforms, nubuck Chelsea boots and hefty mules in zany colors are apt punctuation for the line’s horny, quirked-up clothing.
Rosette NYC, a new brand from Susan Korn (of Susan Alexandra fame) and stylist Doria Santlofer, arrived so quietly it’s almost like the two are trying to keep it under wraps. I’ll take it as a soft launch, albeit one to get to know early, since the Agnes B.-inspired snap cardigans and matching tank and undie sets in girlish ‘90s floral prints are TikTok fodder of the highest degree.
Maryam Nassir Zadeh famously (to me) put a towel on the runway of her latest show, and the Telo Mare is finally available at her online shop. Her name/logo in blocky text is carved in negative along one short end of the azure terrycloth, and it’s a relief I’m sure we’ll soon see in IG posts uploaded from the Mediterranean coastline.
Even when it’s simplistic in its primary colors and occasionally juvenile shapes, Eliou’s jewelry has always had a further-off reference point, which brings the narrative behind its pieces way up. Now, it’s getting into apparel that ‘gets it,’ too, releasing its first ever clothing line that finds ranks among Siedres, Akoia, and Tombolo.
Garrett Leight optical and Daniel Shepard team up on a collection that eschews eyewear in favor of designed coolers, trippy beach towels, and a folding chair. It’s priced in the mortal realm, and while the graphics evoke Lower Haight in 2014, it’s a nice instance of pushing a collab past the most obvious starting point.
Quilted satin ravewear brand Cult Form releases a collection with visual artist Esra Gulmen that’s whimsical in the way you’d find at a contemporary art museum in Austria. Still, it’s highly wearable, especially a black mini dress emblazoned with the words “the SUN” and a pair of built-in-boxer jeans that allude to a just-wrapped boxing match before hitting the street.
Everyone likes to think Zara Home, operated by the 27th richest person alive, is their secret. But while every Airbnb in Spain might have a hunch it’s more popular than you think, this little boutique for affordable housewares is getting harder and harder to keep hush with its tempting collaborations. Launched earlier this month, Vincent Van Duysen’s Zara Home collection isn’t cheap by any respect, but it is inarguably an actual, investment-worthy offering of interior objects. Who knew Zara had the minerals?
There’s also: Lunya launches a cooling pima cotton collection; MCM and Crocs make a shoe so ugly you have to respect it; Balenciaga’s speaker with Bang&Olufsen is for sale at the brand’s couture store in Paris, if you happen to be in the neighborhood; and Raul Lopez’s Luar collabs with Opening Ceremony on two special-edition versions of its cult-classic bag, plus a sweatshirt.
What’s on sale
Summer is for brands who take silly seriously: Marni, Dries, Walter Van Bierendonck, Sunnei. The last is having a 40% off sale—sitewide!—which makes continuing our goofy streak all the way through at least September tantalizing and, hurrah!, cheaper. Come for the head-hugging strapped sunglasses and striped terrycloth slides, stay for the resin spiral earrings and loopdy beach pullovers.
You already know the SSENSE sale is on, but here’s a reminder and/or heads up that the items in your wishlist have likely dropped even further in price this week, with even more items soaking up the 70%-off cap currently seeping across the site. Dutifully, I’ll share that the newest and highest discounts are on Andreadamo (what to wear when you’ve burned through all the Jacquemus), tromp l’oeil Ellis bikinis and RTW, and Anderson Bell pieces we should all be eying for fall.
Eleganza extraordinaire underwear maker Cuccia is generously extending 15% off everything with the code Cuccia15—a small but rare price bending from the small maker whose talents span lace, cotton, and nylon mesh. What I love about the line is that it’s not my-little-secret panties or even sex panties, it’s fashion panties entirely designed to weave into your sheer and low-waistband looks.
Once you have a Shaina Mote piece or two in your rotation, you’ll wonder what you ever did before. The brand’s having a 30% off summer sale that lobs off $100 here and there, and while the linen pieces are a personal favorite, the accessories might be the most overlooked among all the options.
There’s also: Net-A-Porter, already up to 70% off, is extending an extra 15% off sale with EXTRA15; Acne Studios beefed up its sale and SS22 stock now reaches 40% off; Rohe Frames, FKA Les Coyotes de Paris, is fabulously marked down by up to 30%, with basics dropping below €60 (and what a day for the $ to celebrate); Urban Outfitters’ home sale—its homo promo, if you will—goes up to 40% off; Labucq’s new arrivals are 20% off with JULY20; Mansur Gavriel’s summer sale reaches up to 50%; Camper shoes’ sale gets 20% extra off the top with EXTRA20; The Kooples is offering up to 50% off with an additional 30% off with the code JULY4; and if you’re feeling specifically anti-Amazon right now, buy a bunch of books with free shipping for two days only from Bookshop.org, while Prime Days concludes its reign of terror.
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