136: EXT. COPENHAGEN - DAY

Plus Saks Potts runway exclusives, Skims' end-of-summer sale, and Prada and Miu Miu's latest.

Today’s is another airport send, written en route to Copenhagen for CPHFW.

I’m in the Delta lounge begrudgingly eating green beans and lemon bars to account for the $50 entry fee despite having just signed up for the airline’s Amex. Whoever among you encouraged me to do so…I just want to talk. Em, meanwhile, is online shopping for their mom from Buenos Aires—preaching the gospel of the Babaa sale and Lemaire pants and Lauren Manoogian on SSENSE. (In case you’ve ever needed an establishing shot to better situate yourself inside Magasin, this is at it as it gets.)

It’s just as well that this is a light week for fashion shopping news, and even lighter for sales. I’m a nudnik for the fact that “sale season” is evergreen, which is true 93% of the time, but we do seem to be in one of those rare dips when there’s no new or extraordinary markdown event to report—the Nordstrom Anniversary sale just wrapped, the brand-direct private sales have ended; what’s left (not to be diminished), are the growing SSENSE discounts and all that’s outlined below.

The market is always moving like some sick, gorgeous game of hacky sack, but I am grateful for a facsimile of a break while we plummet further into fashion month(s). Onward, ho!

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What’s new

• The incongruence of the reckoning gray skies and cold rain with Saks Potts’ SS24 show was not intentional (hard not to empathize away from the clothes and onto a Wim Hof’ed model), but the effect was more on par with summer’s dark ulterior side that we’ve come to appreciate than it would have been under more cheery conditions. Not to say the clothes gave anything to commiserate over: Banana-cream striped poplin flapped in the wind, cinched into waist belts; big-brother polos found their match in bikini bottoms; and mismatched whites vibrated against juicy-bright heels—a selection of advance-season runway exclusives that you can now find on site.

• The just-landed Miu Miu and Prada FW23 collections read like an elementary schooler and the Mercedes mom dropping her off, and in this scenario I’m both of them. On the one hand, we have un-self conscious sheers piled excessively, snuggly hoodies, and Polly Pocket dresses, and on the other, there’s the Daisy Buchanan slip skirt, a large suede jacket that Lydia Tár would wear when calling herself “father,” and of course that skirt of wilting origami orchids…the kind that kill you quietly.

• I’d be at risk for putting out unsatisfactory teasers by sharing the news that Gemsun has collaborated with another Magasin favorite, Schostal, were it not for the high likelihood that at least a few of you’ll be traversing through Rome this summer. At the famed shirting and pajama (and boxers-as-shorts) establishment, where fashion types are practically indebted to make a stop, you’ll now find a selection of Gemsun’s flagship crocheted bags made of recycled bikini fabric in an array of popping colors. Say hi to store sweetie Shirley while you’re there, or shop the bags online.

• Mark my words when I say Germany is among the next three stops on the haphazard newsletter world tour, not least of which to visit with Du Ciel, a Dusseldorf-born lingerie brand that’s findomned me into paying hundreds for a piece of beaded floss for my crack. They’re out with a new capsule—Méduse—no less emperor’s clothes-y with its sheer panels and stitched with hand-drawing-like contrast stripes of black or white.

• Ganni “Butterflies” is a collection that expounds upon the brand’s logo in ways both on-the-nose—a pillowy, recycled leather purse with a vaguely wing-shaped body and a shoulder-friendly, high-arcing top handle—and more subtly referential: The foiled sheen on a pair of light blue jeans and deep, sternum-framing neckline of a navy taffeta gown reference a butterfly’s anatomy and texture as if part of an entomological study. 

• The universe’s latest game of designer collab Mad Libs presents us with Pendleton x Maison Margiela, a country mouse/city mouse duet exemplified in the dichotomy of a wool cardigan—plaid, of course—with visible, thread-trailing stitches and a built-in fringey capelet, and a compact, rhinestone-smattered crossbody purse in a thoughtful, faded lilac. The two camps unite in the most fanservice-y piece of the drop: slouchy, suede tabi cowboy boots. 

• Sophie Buhai’s F/W 23 collection transcends the brand’s designation as a purveyor of jewelry and skews toward “trinket.” To hang around your neck: a hammered silver box (“for your crystals”) or a magnifying glass (“to inspect a leaf”). To inevitably lose track of: a single, sterling silver toothpick in its own tiny case. The more straightforward jewelry trades cheekiness for tenderness, e.g. these lapis earrings that hang from lobes like claymation teardrops. 

• Christopher John Rogers has its fingers in many a pot these days, from its recent delivery of kaleidoscopically colored pieces to Bergdorf Goodman like a shaggy tweed sheath dress and trousers printed in halftones that look straight out of a vintage comic book to a rainbow gradient polka dot sarong in collaboration with Palm Heights Hotel—the best possible manifestation of resort gift shop merch.

• Paula Canovas Del Vas’ latest drop on SSENSE delves into the “return to nature” beseeched in many a NYT op-ed, with the caveat of a sense of humor. Devilish dual points defy the tabi hegemony on the toes of crinkly silver boots and furry, ballet-style paws, and spiky handbags like huge, plush brambles are accessories for a future in which we realize we never left nature to begin with, it’s just gotten a whole lot weirder.

• The ephemeral state of something tied with a bow, simultaneously childlike and erotic—Christmas morning unwrapping, disrobing after a party—is captured in Chopova Lowena’s FW 23 collection on SSENSE, which features bows both printed, as on the sleeves of a cartoonish graphic hoodie and down the legs of knee-length bloomers, and physical, gothically lacing up both sides of a petal-collared blouse and infiltrating the weave of a chunky mohair cardigan and matching beanie.

• Paolina Russo for Dover Street Market is what the hot girls of Hyrule wear when they have to slay some Boboklins at 10 and be at the club by 11:30—esoteric, rune-like patterns, confounding shapes (a poncho/top is literally named after the infamous Möbius strip), athleisure undertones that somehow make sense in the collection’s fantasy logic, and a few DSM-exclusive pieces with prints that look like the work of a glitched-out Gamecube.

• It’s always fun when a new collection could be the estate sale of a movie character—COS’ pre-fall 23 arrivals would have belonged to a Hitchcockian ingénue. Blouses with huge bows at the neck evoke the timeless “napkin in the collar while you supper at a banquet table directly opposite your withholding husband whose lobster bisque you may or may not have poisoned” look, while black sheath dresses give nothing away but the small of your back…

• There’s also: The Deiji Studios fantasy extends from the cobblestone streets of some ephemeral summer getaway to the precise coordinates where you spend 30% of your lifetime—its linen bedding is the oneiric anchor to your elsewhere-ness; despite how unbothered one might be about Saint Laurent’s handbag action, its Icare tote (looks like a diaper bag to me) was testament enough to the success its newest—Le 5 á 7 Mini—will likely see; a couple quick nostalgic news bites from Gap…first, the LoveShackFancy collab, and second, the introduction of the ‘90s Straight jean…not hating this direction TBH, seems to be finally reaching the Gap archives us ‘90s bbs seem to remember; a freshly shaven Florence Pugh champions Tiffany’s expanded Lock collection of posh padlocks for your wrists, ears, and necks; Maison Rogue collaborates with Jiu Jie Decor on a host of pillows upcycled from jeans that, twisted into knots, are Cronenberg-chic, and Parmantile Shop on slabs of veiny marble fashioned into ashtrays and bookends; Lack of Guidance x Dekmantel is the plug for smartly designed, football-inspired gear at a friendlier price point than the brand that rhymes with Tartine Prose (and, inexplicably, RIP Maradona-themed wine?); Dr. Martens x Japanese punk standby Wacko Maria offers two colorways of hairy, leopard-print oxfords; also tiptoeing into just the slightest touch of a punk aesthetic is Alexander McQueen with its statement sunglasses adorned with blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em studs; under the auspices of Aisling Camps, Isabella Rosellini and her daughter sweet-talked some sheep into lending their wool to slinky dresses, shaggy vests, and chunky beanies; and Sleeper’s F/W 23 is as feathered as ever, with the addition of some cribbed-from-Miyake pleats and understated shearling slippers.

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What’s on sale

Skims End of Summer Sale

• The TikTok to Skims End of Summer Sale pipeline is a force that could power a small country if harnessed electrically, but since the powers that be don’t share this environmentalist vision, the sale is simply a sinkhole of almost scarily flattering lounge dresses priced at $60, sheer lace slips for less than $50, a sheeny nylon catsuit that makes that “Skims staunched my bullet wound” tale seem genuinely plausible, mountains of swimwear and lingerie, and…this?

• Italist is a good example of the perma-sale of the internet era, but even it has its bouts of exceptional deal moments. Right now, the top trending brands and collabs from its Last Call Sale, up to 80% off, are Jacques Marie Mage, Chrome Hearts, Rick Owens x Dr. Martens, and Moncler Grenoble. The stalwarts—Louboutin, Gucci, Prada, Fendi—remain unmatched best-sellers on the site, especially at those favorable discounts.

• With EARTH, you can access the Pangaia archive sale of up to 40% off a sizable stock of chromatic basics in utilitarian materials—slides and sweatshirts are fashioned out of toweling, sweet little tote bags are hewn in jersey, and pique shirt dresses like your dad’s golf polo that used to come down to your knees number among the archival deals.

• A Christopher Esber faux-panty-slip cowl skirt, a smocked little joy of a Sandy Liang dress, insanely disco four-inch platform slides from Simon Miller, and more such understated, easy-to-wear pieces are up to 60% off in the Maison Rogue summer sale.

• In the Rosetta Getty summer warehouse sale, take up to 80% off a boatload of dresses: ruched and strapless, with matching scarf caps, with twisty and deep-cut necks, little satin slips that would make Carrie Bradshaw do her classic move of spending all her cab fare on a clothing item and having to walk the 40 blocks back to her weirdly located “Upper East Side” apartment…Shirts and bottoms abound, too, but dresses are the stars of this sale.

• There’s also: Another sign that fall shopping is already underway (aside from the fact that I can’t shut up about it) is that my eye’s now trained to homeware, too, as with Brooklinen’s Last Call sale, which just added a bunch of percale sheets, linen duvet covers, weighted throw blankets, and only-for-the-delivery-guy wearables; and take up to 60% off sweet shetland cardigans and hardy, striped rugby shirts in Rowing Blazers’ archive sale.

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With contributions from News Editor Em Seely-Katz