173: The shape of shopping is bending back internet way
Plus J.Crew x Anna October, Eckhaus Latta introduces sunnies, and Proenza's big sale.
It’s all still feeling a bit “so where did we land?” after Black Friday’s three-week stretch. Since my first batch of buys arrived, I got yet another Esse Studios strapless top, some A.Emery silk pants, a dress from La Collection, and makeup re-ups (two Benefit brow pencils, a shaping wax, Cle Cosmetics CC cream, and a super creamy Givenchy concealer).
What I’m hearing and seeing is, it’s not so much that we stopped buying things after Cyber Week, but after so much online-ity, the pivot into gifting mode was very tactile by comparison. Holiday popups from Comme Si and Gohar World, capsule curations from Palm Heights’ Studio Skate and Beverly’s Shop, store openings from Yohji, Bode, Cos, and—very soon—Still Here; New York has been a fun place to be if you’re in the mood to handle trinkets.
Sure enough, though, the shape of shopping is bending back internet way. SSENSE upped its nearly sitewide sale to 60% off, Outline Brooklyn launched ecomm, and even Gohar World has gone the way of Net-A-Porter. Most importantly, approaching deadlines mean slimmer margins for stumbling upon good and fitting gifts by kismet. It’s buckle-down time, to which I say: “Welcome back.”
What’s new
J. Crew released a winter capsule with Ukrainian designer Anna October, most famous for her dresses—at both ends of the holiday dress spectrum, these do the vixenish-double-neckline thing and the wrapped-coyly-in-cashmere thing with aplomb. A fluffy, feathered strapless top is an equally festive option for pants-wearers.
Even in the near-dead of winter, Paloma Wool’s well of garments that allow for a legal semblance of nudity hasn’t dried up, with strikingly immodest takes on the usually chaste polo and turtleneck (literally called the “Titi turtleneck,” lol) in addition to a marshmallow-y puffer jacket so your actual Titis don’t freeze off and some stirrup leg warmers, an inevitable trend collision.
Jacques’ winter collection feels like the concept of “neutrality” gained self-awareness, with everything from an adept coat and cashmere zip-up to a shapely tank and nylon baseball cap in three simple shades: tan, black, and white. There’s simply no way to brick an outfit with these building blocks unless you’re somehow a bad shoe savant.
The new sunglasses by Eckhaus Latta are $250 a pop, and have the kind of design details that make them feel worth being careful not to sit on—a pale jade acetate, tiny silver screws on a wire frame, a lens with an edge that wavers the tiniest bit under the eye to give the illusion of permanent, glam wistfulness.
Mansur Gavriel’s new arrivals include plenty of totes, bucket bags, and wallets, but most compelling are a pair of heels with v-neck vamps and a shape that truly defies explanation (and has already garnered rave reviews similarly sparse in language) and some square toe ballet flats in a juiced-up emerald.
Missoni heiress Margherita Maccapani rolled out a capsule that looks like what the characters in Mamma Mia! would’ve worn if it had been scored by TLC instead of ABBA, with a laminated silver gown adorned with smudgy butterflies and a layered chain strung across its low-dipping back, a fishnet catsuit with strategic Adam-and-Eve-like intarsia foliage to cover *just* the essentials, and the return of the hooded dress in shiny orange mini form.
A hard-to-navigate (but for the Frenchies reading this) website has revealed Soeur’s PS24 collection, in which a champagne-colored, short-sleeve button-down falls over the shoulders in pleats like a new curtain; the Antigone belt is a cooler-weather take on the louche summer rope, with snarls of tightly-coiled black leather, and the quilted liner vest takes the resurging vintage Burberry vibes to a more low-key conclusion.
Emme Parsons’ R24 collection is up for pre-order, featuring the expected pumps and loafers, but also Emme’s brilliant take on the sheer shoe phenom and the ingenious Bari sandals, woven onto the foot with a single cord of Nappa leather atop a sole made for walking.
Métier's annual release of the Meribel Woven Bag, an edition of ten purses that ignore the compulsion toward Intrecciato in favor of their own, more texture-forward weave, is available in a “women’s” indigo and a “men’s” more tote-like, coffee bean brown, though both iterations are so open to broad contextualization, they’re definite challengers of the Bottega monopoly.
There’s also: Tekla’s new hooded bathrobes range in stripe flavor from cotton candy (almost neutral blue and pink) to sea bass (startling ocean blues and navy); Jamie Haller’s The Knot Heel in Black is as tender and sturdy as her offerings always seem to be; Emily Dawn Long made a cuff bracelet during her Bali travels and, like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, it apparently fits everyone; the best kind of Infantes don’t wail and taste like cardamom or peppercorn, as do a few of the selections in this six-piece set of best-selling chocolates from Casa Bosques; and Frame x Ritz Paris returns with another drop of loungey, airplane-friendly wear emblazoned with the ritzy logo.
What’s on sale
Proenza’s sale is up to 50% off, and there are deadstock wool trousers with a drapey eyelet belt; a hazy, staticky skirt in beaded fringe; a dress woven in grass green and gold thread with a knife-pleat skirt and sailor-worthy knots on its straps; and babouche (you know how we’ve been feeling about babouche) slippers with molded toe prints, and that’s only four items out of what seems like hundreds at first brush.
Take 25% off Molly Goddard’s private sale on AW23 pieces using MGVIP, including the previously mentioned on Magasin gray striped wool blazer, a dreamy pink-and-red gown that recalls this photo of The Chantels, and a sheeny black nylon coat with coquettish gathered panels and a peter pan collar.
CO’s year end sale continues with up to 50% off (more for members) pieces like a long, lamby bouclé wool coat at half price, wrappy crepe tops for under $350, silk capes for less than $450 and pumps with v-neck shirt collars at less than $400.
The Maison Rogue fall sale takes up to 70% off slouchy Reike Nen boots with whispers of a kitten heel, leather origami made into MM6 purses, v-neck Beaufille dresses (under $200!), and more quietly powerful pieces.
At checkout, take 50% off HommeGirls’ stock of slutty frat boy gear, like a white wool tuxedo jacket, the consummate blue button-down, and—at a whopping $32.50—boxers raggedly cut into bikini briefs.
Ratio Et Modus takes up to 60% off its experimental bags, with pieces like a leather “lunch bag” insouciantly spray-painted with the word “TASTE” down to $312 from $650 and the more restrained but just-as-groovy Equum saddle bag under $450 from an original $900.
There’s also: Keep shopping through the tears at LCD’s closing sale, now 40% off the whole site with THANKYOU; Theory’s offering 25% off sitewide with plenty of winter sweaters, skirts, and jackets to pick through; Tory Burch earrings for under $70 and more are an extra 25% off with Shopbop’s winter sale using UNWRAP25; take up to 60% off Y/Project bodysuits and Rohé coats in the continuing Matches winter sale; Goop is slinging Kika Vargas and Agua Bendita for up to 60% off in a sale that also includes the likes of Maria McManus and Ulla Johnson; and the Harvey Nichols up-to-40%-off sale preview is now on—sign up for discounts on Christopher Kane, JW Anderson, The Vampire’s Wife, and more of the highest of the high end.
I may earn some money if you make a purchase through one of the links above. If you liked this post from Magasin, why not share it?
Follow us on Instagram at @magasin.ltd
With contributions from News Editor Em Seely-Katz
Ohhh! These are such unique and fun finds. Thank you