Most fashion, even from luxury brands, is built to be crowd-pleasing. Every fashion company wants to maximize sales and exposure, and blockbuster designs are non-confrontational and easy-to wear. (Example: The iconic Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress.) So it’s very inspiring when you find a designer that is more interested in clothes as a concept than as a vehicle […]
Weekend
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The Sweater From Outer Space
It’s no secret that a cashmere sweater and cigarette jeans are the weekend uniform for fall. Is the combo chic? Perhaps. Easy? Definitely. Pragmatic? Of course. But it’s also… incredibly boring. Since moving to New York, I’ve accumulated more than a dozen crewneck sweaters, but I dreaded wearing them. A sweater and jeans feels like a sartorial Groundhog Day […]
The Truth About Online Shopping
I don’t shop a lot online. I tend to make purchases the old fashioned way — in person, with a dressing room and instant gratification. Of course, online shopping has its perks, with convenience being king. But more often than not, I usually skip online shopping in lieu of actually trying everything on personally. Now I remember […]
Justifying a Winter Cape
If you’re skeptical about the recent resurgence of capes, I hear you. I also had misgivings. “Capes are for wizards and delicate women who don’t worry about the cold — their chauffeurs keep them ensconced in a Towncar bubble,” I thought. The whole look seemed too posh, too impractical. That didn’t stop me from trying […]
In Defense of the Brown Sweater
My mom recently gave me a copy of Women in Clothes, a book of essays, Q&As and oral histories focused on our relationship to our wardrobes. Based on my reading thus far, the book’s cadence and tone is self-important and intellectually stilted. That’s not necessarily bad — writing about clothes connotes a certain amount of pretension, after all. (Ahem.) […]
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The Button-Up Conundrum
When I’m not in the office, the last thing I want to wear is a button-up. If clothing correlated to the comics, a button-up would be Dilbert, the dutiful paper-pusher. But like most New Yorkers, I have a closet the size of a mousetrap — and if you want to avoid a shopping addiction, remixing weekend and work clothes […]
Non-Basic Basics: Oversized & High-Waisted
It’s no secret that I’m not a huge fan of the recent craze for “basics.” Don’t get me wrong: I believe in the primary tenants of basics-dom. Yes, one should have a perfect white T-shirt, black turtleneck and pair of jeans. But basics are, by their nature, boring. A plain sweater with jeans? Snoozeville. I […]
The Fringe Jacket Ascends
My mom bought this fringe jacket from an equestrian supply store in Davie, Florida in the late 1970s. In 2001, she offered the jacket to me as a gift. I took one look at the out-of-date fringe — and politely declined. Thirteen years later, fringe has orbited back into fashion’s solar system. I called my […]
Pleather Pants are Waterproof…Probably
Of all the weather conditions to which New Yorkers are subjected, nothing is as anti-fashion as a good, old fashioned downpour. This year’s autumn has been particularly soggy, with rain sprinkled across workdays and weekends alike. Under normal circumstances, I wear the unofficial NYC storm uniform: green Hunter boots and a trench coat. The combo may be […]
Can I Pull This Off? The Tutu Edition
When I was a girl, I was not immune to the charms of a tutu. Mine was pink (obviously), and it came with an attached bodysuit. But as soon as I physically outgrew the tutu, I moved onto the next trend — bike shorts — and never looked back. Nowadays, the tutu has two connotations: childhood costumes and Carrie […]