266: My own private Phantom Thread
266: My own private Phantom Thread
Norlha eat your heart out, Leset's LDW sale, and Net's s-o-s.
My alterations and dry cleaner is only a block away from me, and I don’t even need to cross the street to get there. At this point, I’m going basically once a week.
I’m becoming ever more convinced that the process of shopping isn’t finished until you’ve picked up your purchase from the tailor. It’s a habit that’s done so much good for my closet that it represents a third if not half the reason getting dressed seems to fun and fluid lately (see last week’s not-an-essay for the other bits).
The new clothes I’ve gotten since adopting this practice have benefitted greatly—those Row Galas I wear all the time, a reinvented La Collection shirt dress taken up at the hem and sleeves, my Interior poplin boxer pants (RIP), a Bode x Nike sweatshirt I wanted shortened. By not waiting even a second to get these pieces up to spec, I’m setting them up for a lifetime of whenever wearability; rending them reliably grabbable from off the hanger without having to then fuss over matching to the right heel height or belt to make it “work.”
Every trip to the alterations shop sets the stage for getting a future fit off, but my latest was something special. Many of the clothes that have been lingering on shelves since B.T. (before tailoring) times had not been offered this orientation upon their arrival and, by the way they’d been left unworn (but still unsold!) for months…or even years…you could tell.
I brought a larger-than-usual stack (of mostly pants) around the corner and allowed myself to nitpick their fit by a matter of centimeters, because that’s what it takes. Getting everything back a week later had the unexpected effect of making me want to shop less. My Agolde Low-Slung Baggy Corduroys I had fixed quashed my urge for The Row’s Eglitta Cords. A pair of original ‘90s Calvin Klein jeans (high waisted, tapered leg freshly trimmed to just below the ankle) cooled off my nostalgic The RealReal search queries. Auralee dark-wash jeans from an SSENSE sale past, no longer dwarfing me, fulfilled a nascent yearning for Saint Laurent’s comparable and far more expensive version.
It’s true not all my trips to Modernage Cleaners (love you) are about nipping and hemming, a lot of it is handing the same seven shirts (two Comme Si, one Flore Flore, one Sold Out, one A—Company, two Bourrienne Paris) back and forth for dry cleaning. People have DM’ed me asking how I keep all of my shirts so crisp, and am I just dry cleaning everything? Yes. It’s what the pieces are asking for and how I enjoy wearing them (it’s like they’re brand new), which makes the couple bucks every few weeks more than worth it.
Oh, and to the person who said they would never in a million years spend that kind of money on The Row’s “dry clean only” Patti zip-up top—it gets worse. The label actually calls for exclusively hand washing, a directive I’m paranoid enough to abide by. The good thing about being an absolute sucker is that I feel pretty confident this top is going to last me a long, long time and stay in pretty pristine condition. I’m the only one who could fuck it up, and I’m trying hard not to!
With News Editor
What’s new
Having recently discovered Norlha (thanks to Airei’s Drew Curry), I was keen to see that the Tibetan yak-wool cooperative had added a handful of new styles via its AW24 arrivals. Not a “formal” collection inasmuch as it’s predominantly scarves plus a few painstaking pieces of outerwear, but its impact swings out far—handwoven yak khullu and silk blends created by a team of artisans out of Norlha’s atelier on a nomad settlement. For even more magic, you can request that a hand-painted Buddha blessing be stitched onto your knit.
For the occasion of the brand’s 40th anniversary, Marc Jacobs staged a show featuring models in doll-like ensembles, overly wide and pinched at the sides like folded-on paper clothes, walking beneath a giant table and chair set designed by Robert Therrien, looking exactly like the kind you’d find in a classroom or high school cafeteria. The scene was so fantastical there was almost no expectation that the pieces modeled were ever imagined as retail propositions to sell to the general public. A modest selection of highly decorative and exquisitely made cartoonish silhouettes (at once overgrown and shrunken) arriving to Bergdorf’s this week proves otherwise.
COS released its FW24 collection and put another brand’s bag at the center of its campaign. Unless, that is, it’s planning to drop a Margaux dupe in one of the follow-up deliveries (I’m watching closely). It serves mostly as a distraction to some really nice-looking clothes, like the wool-collared car coat, chalk-stripe scarf jacket, and wide-leg merino pants. I would have liked to see a little more love for its own accessory game, as with the new leather Fold bag, a great shape and only $190.
It’s always everything all at once in fashion, so as I’m looking forward to the Tory Burch show next week during NYFW, naturally all of the pieces I went hard for on the last runway have just hit the brand’s new arrivals page (some of it “coming soon”). Of note: the embossed doily-edge skirt I nearly cried over; a practically iridescent calf-hair jacket; croc bodysuit…who knew I’d need one?; a jellyfish dress fit for a birthday girl; and Tory Birks ;)
Khaite’s FW24 collection is like a cult classic horror movie more focused on craft than camp. The ferrous shade of red used in obsessively crisp silk gazar column dresses is precisely bloody, sculpted leather coats are so armor-like it seems only logical they’d stand on their own, cummerbunds re-enter our sartorial lexicons as glorified waistbands on arrow-straight suit pants, and literal hand (ear) cuffs grip on like they’re about to tear the things clean off.
In its two years of existence, Fforme has already cracked the distribution code, now offering a starter 13 pieces via Nordstrom. No doubt its Row-ish pedigree and aesthetic codes gave it a solid springboard, but it’ll be interesting to see which demographics flock to the wrapped jersey mermaid dresses, collarless leather jackets with cinched raglan sleeves, and starchy stand-collar button-downs—all exclusively black or white—now that they’re on a more mainstream menu.
You can tell when a label enters “its” season, and for Maria McManus, that’s autumn—its FW24 collection is self-assured, with cardigans sporting 12 tiny buttons, lovingly laden with under-the-radar details like split cuffs and a link line down the spine; tailored, single pleat trousers in an optimistically warm shade of red (no horror movie blood splatters here); and some more experimental pieces like a blouson dress that looks leathery but is made of 100% biodegradable acetate.
If Savette were a college student, its new Florence collection would be the thesis capping off its four-year degree (the label was created in 2020), and the bags do seem to be capstones of sorts, the brand’s subtle modishness coming across in the retro rounded rectangle of the top-handle bag, the specificity of the “clay” shade available in its smaller iteration, and the minimalist hardware that graces both, plus the squatter crossbody version for hands-free purists.
Unlike many brands that have abandoned ship now that the trend cycle has waned, Emme Parsons’ FW24 still takes flats seriously, boldly pushing past the coquette zone into something more severe and less palatable, in a good way, with pointy-toed slippers boasting deep V décolletés in inky suede and chestnut leather, plus plenty of T-bar heels and easy loafers in FW-friendly metallics and croc prints.
First, the label did its goth collection, essentially remaking to a T its tried-and-true canon in all black fabric; now, Super Yaya is doing the bridal thing in an SSENSE-exclusive capsule—you guessed it, the label’s familiar ruffle-hem capris and shirred midi dresses are now available in all white! To be clear, this is not a negative—Super Yaya knows its designs are winners and has enough of a sense of humor to pull off a slow-burn visual gag.
Your grandparents might have passed down Baccarat or Christofle tableware, but the pieces in Goods by Laura Chautin, now at Moda, are at the vanguard of what will be Zillenial heirlooms—the ceramic plates, jugs, egg cups, and candle holders are illustrated with pastoral motifs, steeped in unpretentious sentimentality, and actually functional (dishwasher safe!), plus nothing runs over $160 apiece.
Like the plot of a screwball rom-com, the buttoned-up (and specializing in button-downs) French atelier Bourrienne Paris X met Ylève, a Japanese label that makes relaxed, insouciant basics, in a whirlwind union that birthed a capsule of 11 beautiful shirts, such as a poplin tank top with a huge, removable ruffle collar and a unisex shacket in 100% wool and sporting classic-feeling brandebourg buttoning.
Save the weird decision to photoshop her nipples away in its promo images (not very brat, for what it’s worth), the new Skims x Charli XCX cotton collection does feel like a smart move by the brand—they cribbed the exposed elastic band look from the likes of HommeGirls, sure, but its $58 lounge pants, cheeky split-neck bralettes, and three-for-$36 boyish hipsters are a much more reasonable way to try out the underwear-as-outerwear look.
There’s also: Apiece Apart introduces its new suiting collection, with broken-up sets in a range of colors (black, navy, cream, and deep plum) and cuts to mix, match, or wear alone; you can now buy Rihanna's Savage x Fenty at Nordstrom, nearly every piece at under $50; Hunza G’s “Coverage” collection sees the label’s flagship crinkly fabric cut into slightly more modest one pieces and bikinis; the summer camp vibes of Tae Park’s Drop 10 manifest in knit camp shirts, flippy mini skirts, logo sweats, and more; Vintner's Daughter launches a limited edition perfume oil with woodsy notes of violet and moss; and Kennedy Magazine and Sebago debut a teensy capsule of a sweatshirt and two totes that honestly look like election merch from a parallel universe.
What’s on sale
I shouldn’t, but I always forget that summer holiday weekends are also seen as pretty legitimate sale tentpoles. That said, LDW has caught a few big, early fish, like Leset. A few favorites among the 60% discounts: a sweeping red dress
wore when we were in Marseille this summer, elastic-waist Tencel pants for $60 (they’re giving Gala), a fab knit coat, a paper thin merino crewneck in an appealing oatmeal, and a white knit vest translucent in a very Laura-bait way.Net-A-Porter has been on sale for a few weeks already, but in honor of the holiday, it’s throwing an extra 20% discount on the fire with EXTRA20. I spy very good Fforme tanks, Aeyde flats, Toteme boots (I have these), and a Magda Butrym coat I’d be very happy to wear.
More on Vince in an upcoming newsletter soon (the short version is: thank god), but for now, I implore you to take advantage of the flash sale that hits up to 75% off. The leathers and shoes are some of the best quality for the price you’ll find, its mesh dresses are hinting at Prada, and so much slinky viscose to float around in.
Glossier’s Sunset Sale takes 25% or more off a handful of essentials—Stretch Balm concealer is $16 down from its usual $22 and the brand’s Supergoop dupe gel sunscreen is $14 from $25—plus some fun things to top off your cart, like a pool blue liquid-to-powder eyeshadow or a summer exclusive, apricot-colored lip balm/gloss/tint hybrid, each at $12 apiece.
The place to buy the gray V-neck sweater that will monopolize your wardrobe this winter is Armarium’s seasonal sale—the label’s version is half off, 100% recycled cashmere, and has all the specs down pat (e.g. the V-neck’s depth is just right), plus idiosyncrasies like sporty hammer shoulders that make it clear it’s special. Plenty more special pieces are half off, too, like a wool off-the-shoulder going out top and a chestnut trench coat with removable sleeves.
Another Tomorrow’s end of summer sale is lean and mostly made up of mix-and-match business casual suits and skirts, but there are a few random pieces like a billowing cocoon anorak in recycled nylon and one of the sharpest-looking pairs of pleated shorts on sale this season, that make this sale worth stopping by.
FR20 gets you an extra 20% off LuisaViaRoma’s sale section, resulting in truly wild pricing on a croc-embossed pair of heeled Toteme loafers—$244, sub-$200 Little Liffner handbags, a dramatic self-belted crop top by Jacquemus for $222, and plenty more random deals, with accessories especially pulling their weight via brands like Aeyde and Savette.
There’s also: Denim in forms ranging from cutoff shorts to high-slit maxi skirts is discounted to under $200 in DL1961’s sale on sale; Lexxola’s last chance sale offers up to 50% off sunglasses in shapes that hit the exact right balance between sporty and retro-romantic; the Tkees end of summer sale is a convenient one-stop shop to load up on sub-$50 sandals for next summer; Camper’s Labor Day sale takes half off its always-quirked-up selection of footwear; and the Salomon Sale begins with up to 30% off some heavy-duty running gear—this one’s for the real heads, not the “sportstyle” fans.
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