376: The hottest brands of shopping's off season
Plus new Uniqlo : C (good), new Prada (better), and the sale that lobs 60% off everything already marked down.
Find a list of only-here discounts up to 25% off in the Magasin Code Index.
Been thinking about what summer means for fashion when, effectively, it’s the closest thing to an “off season” as it gets. Because the Europeans manning the industry’s inboxes take vacations, I guess. It’s poised to be a big fall fashion-week run, with most of the bombastic org chart shifts presenting their debut collections in Milan and Paris. But until then, aside from a murmuring stream of Hamptons/destination activations, luxury marketing is pretty quiet.
I can hear myself think a bit better. About what I want, what feels right. What I’m considering buying—brands I’m filtering the SS25 sales by and tabs I’m opening from the new-in pages with Severance-like intuition.
Olga Basha. 6397. Vintage Halston (is the new vintage Zoran). Phoebe Philo. Sarah Eisman Studio. Aflalo. This is my tightest edit.
I’m wearing and weighing a lot of other brands that are also satellite—H-O-R-S-E, Beaufille, Staud, Alaïa—to my essentials—Khaite, Tory, The Row, J.Crew—but the above each have a quality that make them feel electric right now. They spark something new (I think at times because of their resistance to those traditional luxury marketing tactics that are currently on summer break), and there’s an aura of urgency about them.
This is just my $0.02. Who else would you say meets the moment?
What’s new
I’m in Florence next week and am guilty of looking most forward to the Prada outlet we always make a point to pass on the drive out. A first batch of FW25 does nothing to quell that (not that any of it will be there…so a stop into the boutique may yield some damage as well). It’s really good, guys. This mini nylon-nappa paper bag-waisted tote; a roll-out-of-bed rumpled blazer coat; the signature winged pump reimagined in beat-up leather; a micro-belted pillow bag facing fall ubiquity…
The new Miu Miu is a bit harder to get excited about, but I do like the shape of this too-expensive-for-what-it-is knit vest and these might-very-well-get-them glasses.
First delivery of Clare Waight Keller’s Uniqlo : C arrived this week. The broadcloth button downs are the ideal oversize, and the scoop of the band collar on this sweatshirt is enlightened. But, with the September arrivals being teased down the page, I can already see there’s even more urgent pieces awaiting us in under two months (knitted zip jacket! funnel-neck shirt!). My favorite collection from C yet.
All-American J.Crew finds a fitting francophile partner in Parisian brand Rouje for a late-summer capsule that includes apt floral dresses, pointelle knits, and a square-toe kitten heel—remember when I wore a pair of Rouje shoes to the ground last year (through rain, sand, hikes)?—I’ll be wearing before the season’s end.
Shoe watch! Jamie Haller released the perpetually sold out San Diego flip-flop (my most worn anything of the summer) in dark caramel. Rachel Comey’s sneaker mule is an impressively well-calculated addition to crowded sport shoe space. Gimaguas hops on the Tod’s train with a suede eyelet car shoe. And Tod’s themselves, seeing the whole industry piling into their arena, confidently stays the course, adding a few new shades to the Gommino lineup. Mark my words: If it’s been a boat shoe summer, it’s going to be a driving moccasin fall.
Have you seen this excellent Gala-related pant from Baserange? It’s 100% silk crepe and only $270. I love the little boxer flap (and just ordered a pair).
There’s also: California-to-the-core ERL launches flip-flops (in regular, platform, and neck-snapping heights) with a too-sexy-for-sandals campaign; a transitional collection from Marlie’s Grace that makes embroidered velvet feel summer-y and crochet fall-y; Eckhaus Latta reissues the Snap Bag in three new colors: Bone, Navy, and “Forget”; Araks adds D cup sizes to its Antonia Bralette (feeling seen, heard); now that my J.W. snark is directed at Dior, can I say that I actually like the Loewe landscape collection?; Gabriele Kim (fka Skucas) crocheted 14k gold into a necklace to wonderful effect;
Home releases
I’ve had multiple conversations in the last couple weeks grappling with where to file Zara Home. On the one hand, it produces many of its goods in Portugal in the same factories that handle higher end, even luxury, ceramics, textiles, glassware, etc. The business operates separately from the fashion end, an acknowledgement that gestures at the concession that some of its leather goods, too, are of identical origins and ethical means as widely respected brands. It’s a blurry line. A new Zara Home x Collagerie collaboration—especially the side tables, lamps, cutlery sets—exemplifies the great taste coming out of the “fast” retailer that make the conversations even worth having. And at incredibly tempting prices that may very well be as a result of Zara’s high order volumes rather than anything more nefarious. Whether you can compartmentalize or not will be up to each shopper.
Design Within Reach unrolls three exclusive Moroccan-made styles with Beni Rugs as part of its second collaboration, featuring the wool of Atlas Mountain sheep. The exact coordinates of whimsy and craft; the Hermès of rugs?
What’s on sale
Net-A-Porter enhanced a sizable chunk of its sale with an added 15% off with EXTRA15, counting some watchlisted items of mine: these Valentino jeans (‘90s teen mag DIY-coded), Chloe canvas jeans in French sailor blue, a Toteme work tote, Balenciaga satin bow sling, and even a Jil Sander woven pillow bag for 60% (???) off.
Biggest sale I’ve seen in a while happening over at Maison Rogue. They’ve got 20+ pages of sale items that are currently an additional 60% off (password to access is insider). Impossible not to at least open up a couple dozen tabs: I’ve got a bunch of 6397 pieces in my cart, also looking at Leset Yoko pants, Eterne sweatpants, MNZ gingham sandals…with the extra discount nearly everything is around $100 or less. The Justine Clenquet jewelry is like free at this point.
On now—Le Monde Beryl’s private summer sale, including caned flats, slides, mules, satin wedges and slippers, patent Mary Janes, croc mocs…discount appears to be about 40% off aross the board.
Sitewide sale over at Sapir Bachar takes 20% off everything, now including the gold jewelry—my heart is with these carved coral earrings, though.
The Six Bells, which takes on more terroir now that it’s also a hotel, is hosting a “Barn Sale” on exactly the kind of countryside inn affects—they’d probably call them provisions—you’d find on site. Gingham tablecloths, ruffly accent pillows, rattan jugs.
A giftcard sale over at Saks (from $50 to $500 depending on spend) with GCJULYSF) offers up the Stella McCartney cherry skirt and Polo Ralph Lauren Americana knit as bait.
And at Bergdorf’s, the Designer Sale is in its final reductions, where there’s an extra 25% off—I spy a Diotima skirt for $300-ish, champagne satin Khaite loafers for $294, Studio Nicholson pants under $200. Aplenty!
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