209: CTRL+Z

Plus our way into the Dries news, a Bergdorf sale, and new affordable brand Rue Sophie.

The B-side to my little-things-that-make-flying-more-comfortable story is the tale of “I’m home now, how do I feel human again?” I’m back in New York after about a month away across three cities. I drank freely, ate well, and didn’t have access to my usual countermeasures that help stave away the bleh feeling of bon vivance.

Before I landed I’d already booked myself a facial—Paris holds some accolades in this category between its cult Biologique Recherche services and lymphatic drainage (I love the studio I stumbled into this trip, Le Fresh Club)—but New York is king when it comes to devices and visible results. I’ve touted Raquel Medina-Cleghorn previously, her signature facial is nuts and you will walk out another person. But also up there is Joanna Czech Studio, where, to illustrate the point, they use microcurrent gloves to sculpt your jaw and cheekbones.

My lymphatic rehab extends to my body, which I’m putting in the hands of Shadi Presha. After a good drainage massage, I see an improvement in bloating, but also in my face and skin itself, since everything is so interconnected. I’m going to classes at Fort Pilates and Flow Pilates in Clinton Hill (both fine) and keep threatening to join Equinox in Dumbo (sponsor me! I will shill so well for you! please!!). Until then, I’ll keep going to $15-a-month Blink.

If I were an Equinox ambassador, I would simply steam there, but since I’m not (awaiting your email, @ Equinox), I went to the new and not-yet-overrun World Spa in south Brooklyn where I took in a variety of saunas, salt rooms, pools, and cryotherapies just in case anything would help me out in some imperceptible way (it did).

During this recovery period, on top of my usual skincare routine, I am extra diligent with my red-light Omnilux mask and even reintroduce my NuFace (it’s a hassle, but it undeniably works). Dehydration is the number-one thing making me feel like I aged 10 years in the span of days, so while I’m throwing back electrolytes in the form of GoHydrate packets and coconut water, I’m also flooding my skin with moisture from sheet masks—I’ll use any without butylene glycol as a top ingredient (this is a me thing, but it always breaks me out), and was so happy I still had a set of these Joanna Vargas ones waiting for me when I got home. I’ll use an ice roller when I remember it’s sitting in the freezer and tend to my nails with “the good nail file” I keep at home.

I re-up on dates and nuts from Sahadi’s, fill the fridge with cuts from Meat Hook, get as many different-colored farmer’s market veggies as one can hope for in March, and eat virtuously for as long as I can before life pulls me back in the swirl of suboptimal decisions. The best thing I do, though, is go to bed really early and not set an alarm, giving my body the full nine hours it craves.

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With News Editor

em seely-katz

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What’s new

Vautrait

• LVMH hosted a cute cocktail hour for its prize-winning candidates in Paris, where everyone stood around drinking champagne and having what the Brits call “picky bites” amid booths where the designers showed their collections. With a trunkshow, Moda Operandi is effectively offering the digital version of that, adding the ability to pre-order pieces from a group one of the world’s leading luxury conglomerates has deemed “next up.” Personal favorites, Marie Adam-Leenaerdt and Niccolò Pasqualetti, are joined by Agbobly, Elena Velez, and Vautrait—and I’m most compelled to order this leather-scarved coat by the latter.

• Though we’ve yet to see the pants that redefine “high rise” as “up to the underboob” or the floor-length capes knit in jumbo yarn, Net-A-Porter is now offering a tamer selection from Loewe’s SS24 runway—think chartreuse v-neck sweaters that give the illusion of being layered over gingham shirts, styled with jersey miniskirts that cascade asymmetrically, plus the post-it note dress that traversed red carpets and inspired many an “I’m sorry. I can’t. Don’t hate me.” meme this season. 

• Brand to know: More of a rebrand than a new brand, really, but Rue Sophie’s newfound sense of direction—let’s call it downstream The Row with flourishes of Toteme and Studio Nicholson—is in the interests of this newsletter. Making the best possible quality product across such a reasonable price points, parchment-crisp, 100% cotton outerwear and pant sets, drapey Lyocell blends, and delicate ribbed-knit tanks start at $88 and top out at $298 (yes, even for the coats!).

• After so much teasing on Instagram, seeing Nicklas Skovgaard’s SS24 on SSENSE feels like a welcome form of déjà vu, with the dresses, as always, reflecting Skovgaard’s retro-cinematic sensibilities, sheer black slips trimmed in thick swaths of silver tinsel alongside cozy gray jersey gathered into flapper-esque long-sleeve mini dresses. A few tops and bottoms are included, too, like a very dark-sided milk maid’s blouse and skirt set, and hark: the bemusing reintroduction of spats to the sartorial space!

• By Malene Birger’s SS24 is a simple collection that begs to be styled, offering little hacks like a leather cuff with gold hardware designed specifically to cinch the waist of a dress like the breezy, racerback Lovelo maxi, and encouraging triple duty with oxford shirts and patterned trousers that duly serve as pajamas, cover-ups for the selection of swimsuits on offer, or quotidian clothes in a modular wardrobe.   

• I’ve identified my shoe of the summer: It’s Neous’ Pherka in cream from the just-launched SS24 lineup. At close to $800, the strappy kitten heel is about 30% higher than I’d want to spend without first hemming and hawing for a few weeks, so I’d say the first-day-of-spring timing gives me adequate mental runway to close a deal with these sandals by the time it hits the 70ºs with any regularity. Well played, Neous!

• In an unpublished missive from last year’s chats with Leandra Medine, she muses that in photos “You look back at yourself in Attersee you never regret what you wore.” This steadfastness holds with Attersee’s SS24 volume one, featuring sculpted wool vests in the split-hem silhouette that’s gotten a lot of traction this season, a cape dress cut and cinched from a single panel of satin, and a pale cream mini caftan with a deep v-neck and bell sleeves.

• Reformation just re-launched its swimwear section with dozens of options that borrow stylings from streetwear: a white one piece is outlined in thick red stripes like a classic ringer tee, cornflower blue bikini bottoms are trimmed in mini lace like pointelle loungewear, and a bikini top employs the same double-neckline construction as Ref’s linen Ayda top we called out last season.

• If someone wanted to give me an Alaia Teckel, I would accept without a millisecond of hesitation. But at the same time, I tend to take issue with the idea of the It bag. The state of designer bag-dom has long perplexed me, and I can’t unsee it as a form of marketing for the brand that happens to be very, very expensive to the consumer. Personally I feel most comfortable with an amazingly made purse that doesn’t immediately communicate to onlookers my need for brand proximity. This is all a sort of shady way to say that Savette is one of those craft-driven bag brands making silhouettes that look great as both objects and outfit completers—exemplified in its SS24 offerings—and which doesn’t feel the need to kid-with-a-crayon scrawl a logo over everything.

• Unlike what Savette has done for bags, I’ve yet to see a brand successfully enter the women’s watch wave at the mid-tier level. Fine jewelry brand Kinn, though, was very smart to curate an edit of vintage Cartier, Gucci, and Seiko timepieces that start at as low as $210 rather that compete in one of the most unforgiving luxury brand-led categories. The watches are thoughtfully curated, beautifully shot, and completely complementary of Kinn’s own 14k gold house line.

• Nereja, the ethical fur brainchild of ex-Vogue fashion director Sveta Vashenyak, just released drop 14 of its upcycled vintage fur coats and accessories. Prices are all available “upon request,” but even so, the brand provides as delightful a window shopping experience as one can wish for. Though it’s been around since Covid, I spotted two fashion insiders separately touting Nejera as their long-kept styling inspo secret; drop 14 goes heavy on white tights, lady shoes, and suits and ties.

• The first edit in this spring’s Sensoria Market features Judy Turner and Sapir Bachar’s knitwear and jewelry, respectively: Turner’s contributions include pieces as complex as a chaotically crocheted maxi dress and as restrained as a finely knit cap-sleeve t-shirt, alongside dozens more knits that run the gamut from sexy to sensible, while Bachar’s silver jewelry employs stones from onyx to quartz set off in simple shapes to elegant effects.

• Interspersed with and activated by the Joan Jonas collaboration we covered last week, Rachel Comey’s SS24 bursts with summer energy, from a “cupcake” bra top covered in ruffles and reminiscent of the days of Katy Perry’s boob-forward cultural reign to Marni-like woven totes in juicy colorways like grape and tangerine, plus a fresh crop of the brand’s signature jumpsuits in warm weather-friendly materials like cotton poplin.

• Swedish tailoring brand Saman Amel has expanded on its made to measure business with a new men’s City Moc leather shoe. The launch, available in pebbled black deerskin and four variations of gray and brown suede for €600, comes in tandem with the introduction of a custom leather and suede offering, which I can only imagine would be beyond-beyond sublime. Get me into that fitting room as soon as fiscally possible.

• There’s also: The “interaction,” as it’s deemed, between A.P.C. and Natacha Ramsay-Levi (a protégée of Nicolas Ghesquière) is full of androgynous cuts of denim, abstract graphic sweatshirts, and deconstructed outerwear; 16 pieces make up Goop’s G. Label Core Collection, from cigarette pants to puff-sleeve cardigans, all embellished with “Gwyneth’s” selection of Cartier jewels; French shirting brand Bourienne Paris taps Japanese Yléve for a capsule that counts a knife-pleated skirt, Guayabera-like button-down, and ruffle-collared tank; Gil Rodriguez’s new collection veers sporty with plenty of racerbacks and tennis skorts, but competes with more “mature” brands like By Malene Birger by introducing pieces like striped cotton trousers as cover-ups for its myriad swimsuits; A.Emery’s “Transeasonal” ready-to-wear collection is full of sharply tailored wool and satin and rounded out with more relaxed, sandal-heavy footwear; Yorgos Lanthimos lovers can quietly cosplay Bella Baxter with the Poor Things x Selima Optique collaboration, a pair of rectangular sunglasses mirroring the ones Emma Stone sports in the film (made by the brand behind Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s ‘90s specs); and Salomon’s new arrivals include fresh colorways of the XT-6 and everything necessary for a run or a hike, from sports bras to vests you can fill with water.

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What’s on sale

• As a shopping newsletter, our way into the DVN news is to say: If you want to induct a piece of Dries-helmed Dries into your personal archive while the man, the myth, the legend is still steering his namesake label, there is a besetting selection on sale at SSENSE. A laminated dickie-top in oxblood patent leather, a cotton candy-pink mohair-blend clutch, creeping vine-print corduroys, those flattened suede boat shoes. There is something incomprehensible about the layering of references and energies that make a Dries collection, a rarity in a space where brands, at best, give you exactly what you want. Dries has always made you think harder for it, and rewards you with the comfort your soft human body deserves and the originality that make his pieces treasures. In just a few seasons, more of us will be shopping The RealReal for our “Dries-era Dries” fix while another name fills the hot seat, but if you want a head start, the prices are as good as ever: ecru jeans for $49, a colorful ikat sarong for $388, the cow-print trench for under $500, a floral-block shirtdress for $130, white block-heel sandals for $84…I’m currently deciding between this sheer floral dress and textured leopard-print skirt, and whichever is left by the end of the day is coming home with me. It’s so fun to commemorate you, Dries!

• The artifice of designer pricing is laid bare in all the new-season sales happening, first at SSENSE (20% off in app), and now at Bergdorf’s, where you can get 25% off SS24. My eye is on this Still Here suede ‘80s jacket that sold out too fast from the brand’s site last fall (one left in L, whih was a great oversized fit for me, for reference), the viscose Tove skirt I’ve been prancing around in all month but in black, a leather Frame vest-dress hybrid, this excellent and not-ubiquitous everyday bag from Wandler, and if you want to make a great investment, this Jil Sander sculpted leather jacket (pow!).

• At Net- A- Porter, spend $500 for a 20% discount and $750 to save 25% on a selection of pieces like a black linen Deiji Studios set, trippy-patterned Zankov sweaters in merino wool, a chain halter neck gown from Dion Lee in tangerine mesh, and a crocheted Diotima maxi skirt with SPENDTOSAVE.

• Patience pays off, as with the Maimoun sale, where “good MNZ,” Julia Heuer pleats, and heady occasion pieces from Lucille Thievre, Super Yaya, and J.Kim are at their best prices anywhere.

• Use SPRING20 for 20% off sitewide at &Daughter, bringing rugby-striped crewnecks, rich emerald polos, and red cardigans that beg to be buttoned down the back like Anna Karina in Une Femme Est Une Femme, all in 100% lambswool, down to under $400.

• Philly boutique Vestige has a sale section like no other, all at a 30% discount—deliberately craggy silver and pearl earrings are among the jewelry offerings from Isshi, 11.11’s silk trousers are hand-painted with Miró-like abstractions, and better-known brands round out the deep cuts, with Lauren Manoogian’s tweed button stole and $129 B Sides jean shorts covering all seasons.  

• Madewell “insiders” get 25% off everything on the site, including new spring-summer pieces like a huge woven leather tote for under $150, a nautically striped and ribbed half-zip sweater for $83, and stock-up-worthy Supima baby tees for $32 a pop. 

• The Saks Potts online archive sale takes up to 60% off a curation of autumnal holdovers like a leopard-print coat down to $502 from $1,255, cognac-colored leather pants studded with eyelets $370 from $617, and a crisp white button-down with Saks Potts’ signature rosebud on its placket for under $200. 

• Belle the Label’s archive sale is summer-ready, stocked with discounted, diaphanous bikini sets alongside a select few clothing items like a pale silk crepe strapless dress for $189 and a flippy peach mini skirt for $119. 

• Take up to 70% off seven pages of vibrant leather accessories at By Far—strappy green metallic sandals are $117 down from $390, tangerine patent leather top-handle bags are under $300, embossed lilac belts are $121, and a rainbow of other options are on offer.

• The 18 pieces on final sale at Nikki Chasin all have the feeling of something a medieval jester would create if exposed to 21st-century trends and technology: a frilly navy nightgown that could double as a dramatic dress for a night at the opera is $75 down from $298 and a jauntily striped peplum top in 100% cotton runs $95 down from $198, for two examples. 

• The END. mid-season sale takes up to 40% off a catalog of reliable basics like blush Adidas Sambas for $81, khaki Dickies work pants for $55, and a corduroy baseball cap from Carhartt WIP for $31, among dozens more work- and lounge-wear options. 

• Faithfull the Brand is offering 20% off a selection of cute-casual sets, dresses, sweaters, and swimsuits in vibrant colorways like verdant Kelly green or orchid-like magenta in addition to ditsy florals and dependable neutrals. 

• Use MARCH25 to get early access to Vince’s 25% off sitewide sale, extending from new arrivals to already-on-sale items—crop flare pants are down to $155 from $295, icy blue sheer-paneled slip dresses are under $250, and crepe blazers are under $330 with the extra discount. 

• There’s also: Use SAVE25 for 25% off all the jeans, swimwear, and other basics at Good American, sitewide; SALE25 will also get you 25% off in the Cinq à Sept Friends & Family Sale, on everything from bubblegum-pink pleated minidresses to silk turtlenecks; take 20% off a selection of home goods at Batten Home, featuring brands like lighting moguls Flos and Louis Poulsen plus tons of minimalist, Scandi-coated furniture purveyors; and Material Kitchen’s annual birthday sale takes up to 44% off sitewide and offers gifts corresponding to money spent including kitchen shears, linen napkins, and glassware sets.

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