230: I refuse to be a sale season apologist

Uncovering the me-ness within the SSENSE and MyTheresa sales.

For all the sleuthing kudos sale shopping nets us among our peers (“Only $20, can you believe?”), the practice is marred with distain from a long view of the fashion industry. It conjures up images of Black Friday big box store rushers clawing over each other for HDTVs. It’s earmarked as the stage in the retail cycle just before so-called designer wares wind up as textile waste in unmanageable landfills. I’ve even heard one fashion insider type say that discounts make a piece less desirable, linking the inner value of an item directly to its outer valuation—talk about saying the quiet, fashion apparatus-fed line out loud!

But I was brought up by Loehmann’s, thrift shopping, and my mother. I love a deal! Between the SSENSE sale hard launch, MyTheresa’s stackable discounts, and btw Nordstrom’s Half-Yearly is almost here, it’s definitely sale season. And I firmly believe it’s possible to navigate it with agency in the face of manipulative forces. Namely: by throwing out the words “might as well” entirely. The trick is to buy pieces I feel already connected to, with the added delight of defeating the spend-every-last-cent demon.

They say to buy things that’ll last and that you’ll hold onto for a lifetime. That can mean investment shopping for time-agnostic tailoring or quiet luxury knits or leather bags with high resale value and their own subreddits. It can also mean shopping within a tribe. For me it’s been MNZ, the quintessential New York woman of my era. It’s Steff Yotka wearing Chopova Lowena like it’s her uniform. It’s Nicole DeMarco in Kiko Kostadinov. Liana Satenstein in something vintage and low-rise and guaranteed to look tacky on anyone else. And then there’s the discovery factor, the opportunity to expand on your perceived self slowly and intentionally, adding new-to-you brands that possess a yin quality to your established yang (and to not fear the return if a hunch fails to deliver!). Things don’t have to be a little weird, but it helps. The point is to make every purchase count.

Blackbird Spyplane

’s Jonah wrote a meditation on consumption in his newsletter this week and, never mind that NYMag’s Dinner Party called it “the worst thing I’ve ever read,” as someone who works intimately in the shopping space fighting against the flattening of all clotheshorsing as compulsive, superficial, thoughtless…I appreciated the vulnerability and outward recalibration. It’s a line of reflection I’m keeping in mind as prices for SS24 start to glow red in widening retail arenas; a reminder that, even if it’s on sale, the commandments of rational buying need still apply. I will not be a sale victim this season!

With that in mind, I’ve pulled out the things from those sales mentioned above that live up to my high standards and that I find worthy of purchase. Buy them if your body aches towards them! Move on if it doesn’t.

MARIE ADAM-LEENAERDT Brown Houndstooth Maxi Dress, $1,112 $1,700 (I fell in love with Adam-Leenaerdt after a few truly original collections shown at PFW, this gingham dress—fitted at the back, caftan-like in the front—is such a brave, elegant design) / KHAITE Brown Nalani Sweater, $1,562 $2,200 (tried and cried, unfortunately worth its alarming price) / KHAITE Black Medium Amelia Tote, $1,752 $2,400; ALIGHIERI Gold 'The Horizon Calling' Ring, $354 $545 / NICCOLO PASQUALETTI Off-White Gile Blouse, $384 $860 (my new tribe, or at least aspirationally, I resonate so deeply with NP’s shows) / AARON ESH Black Offset Blazer, $676 $980; SUPER YAYA Pink & Red Beatrice Tank Top, $1,086 $1,375 + SUPER YAYA Red & Pink Basket-Woven Maxi Skirt, $1,089 $1,650 (would be criminal to break up this insane set, if any venture capitalist wants to fund it for me?)

J.KIM Black & Green Paneled Maxi Dress, $351 $450 (my Uzbek queen really nailed this otherworldly spring dress) / ISSEY MIYAKE Brown Twisted Tank Top, $428 $630 (Issey’s runway shows are really effective at moving me further into the brand’s universe—the “washing machine” collection, as I’m thinking of it as, was lighter than air, more delicate and wistful than clothing under the $1k mark tends to be capable of) / YUME YUME White Puffy Maxi Dress, $1,062 $1,435 (a bunch of SSENSE bridal that just launched is on sale and what’s more precious than that?) / CORALI Silver Kombu Necklace, $410 $640 (suppressing the part of me that wants to gatekeep Corali…) / LEMAIRE Black Square 80 Heeled Sandals, $671 $895 / JW ANDERSON Taupe Paneled Sweater, $447 $710

BODE Black Cranes Shirt, $496 $680 (what I love about Bode is that, despite outside projections claiming the ascent and subsequent “outness” of the brand—the oversaturation of Bode boys to be blamed—it’ll carry on creating the exquisite work it was known for well before it became the “in” thing) / SANTANGELO Silver High On Hope Alta Necklace, $273 $390 (only one left) / RÓHE Gray Spread Collar Polo, $312 $410 / PROENZA SCHOULER Beige Tee Toe Ring Heeled Sandals, $620 $795 / NEOUS Black Corvus Saddle Bag, $697 $995 (Neous makes things so exact in their rightness, they can’t be satiated by close approximations) / NICKLAS SKOVGAARD Black Dress#613 Midi Dress, $591 $985

JOSEPH Charah belted cotton twill raincoat, $417 $1,045 / JACQUEMUS Les Slingbacks Cubisto Basses leather pumps, $576 $810 (tried these at the store and continue thinking of them months later…) / TORY BURCH Wool-blend sweater, $532 $760 / JIL SANDER Mini croc-embossed leather crossbody bag, $1,293 $2,310 (like my own, but an admittedly more interesting palette) / FFORME Zoe leather jacket, $3,440 $4,915 (I have never seen anything quite like this jacket—I’m rapt)

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