002 Who's afraid of Capri pants?
On the ugly to high street/aperol spritz pipeline, lessons from a wardrobe clear-out, literally reading Lean-In and books I've loved lately.
Books
There is no more accurate Venn diagram of books and nice things than Chanel’s Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon. It’s the book club of my dreams where Charlotte Casiraghi chooses the books, all of the women who attend are the smartest, chicest women you can imagine and the books are always perfect. This is how I discovered Annie Ernaux!
The latest summer stack is ideal (Euro) summer reading and I plan to pack at least two for my upcoming trip to Paris.
The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne. This was everything I could hope for in a memoir - juicy, crammed with celebrity tidbits (including Harrison Ford when he was still the hottest carpenter alive) and Dunne’s best friend Carrie Fisher and almost too much oversharing. Speaking of famous encounters, there’s a great little snippet from Dunne’s sister-in-law Joan Didion in this interview about Phoebe Philo, primary source for fashion’s obsession with literature, fangirling over Joan Didion and receiving … absolutely nothing in return. Argh!
The Parade - I’ve been on a Rachel Cusk tear this year (always). Nobody cuts as close to the bone on women and women’s work and art and marriage and identity and motherhood like Cusk. Some don’t like her take on ‘women’s writing’ (this was fascinating) but women’s writing will always be my favourite genre.
Glossy - I am as late to this as Glossier is coming to Australia (read my friend Kate’s take on this here). I tore through this, feeling slightly tight chested as the rise of Glossier was truly the apex of my golden years of working in women’s media. We wrote a lot about girl bosses in this period! Not ironically! I literally read Lean In. But it was well meaning. Would I cover some things differently knowing what I know now? Of course. Still, I realise now this job was my golden days of media. Not exactly Tina Brown in ‘90s New York and town cars. But we were really left alone to create something new and smart and funny and it was so much fun. Obviously this little utopia did not last, and thankfully most of my articles from this time have vanished into the basement of the internet. But I did find a little cache of them on ‘stuff.co.nz’. Cringe, but you know what, bless that earnest girl too.
The Cazalet Chronicles. Someone commented on my Instagram asking which Elizabeth Jane Howard book she should start with and of course I recommended The Cazalet Chronicles. I am so envious of this person who has them all ahead of her. Five books of bliss ahead charting one family throughout great upheavals in the world, lucky duck. If you also have these ahead of you don’t waste a second!
Of course I loved Miranda July’s All-Fours: A Novel.
Also, hot girl books forever
(Image via Kaia Gerber’s Instagram - I’d sign up for her book club too!).
& Nice Things
Why is everybody selling their clothes on Instagram?
(My heart will go on for Celine Dion forever!)
Doesn’t it feel like everybody you know is having a wardrobe clear-out? Whether it’s fire sales of pieces on Instagram stories, curated edits by online pre-loved outlets as the new event television on Sunday evenings or actual physical market stalls, it feels like some kind of universal signal to purge is upon us. I know this because I’ve felt it - I’ve had two of them in recent months. Both were cathartic and also cause for self-reflection.
Why did I have so much stuff to get rid of? Why did I hate it all so much? Why had I bought so many clothes that absolutely did not suit me or the personal style that I thought I had figured out by now? I could blame working in fashion, where you might see, say, one of your colleagues wear board shorts and a blazer in an impossibly cool way to the office and think “yes, I, tired mother of two should also try this!”. I am also susceptible to sample sale fever. This particular condition, common to fashion people, is when all rational thought and important calculations about how you will definitely wear that pair of platform purple shoes in a size too big with at least four things in your wardrobe, are forgotten in a mind-body meltdown.
The thing about a wardrobe clear-out is that it’s both great and terrible. It is terrible to have strangers haggle down once-loved pieces to a price you could barely buy an oat latte for! That said, this is probably better than nobody picking up your things and examining them with disdain - it is better to be talked about than not talked about after-all.
It is of course great to be circular in our own wardrobes, to give clothes the opportunity of another life. One woman’s trash is another’s treasure and it makes sense to sell to people on Instagram who might share your aesthetic. But the frequency of wardrobe clear-outs, especially my own, could also reflect a lack of thoughtful shopping. The caving into our basest desires to buy a dress for one wear with the justification that we can just sell it later, or to mindlessly add something to cart because an influencer was wearing it on their endless (?!) Euro Summer.
Here are some other things I’ve learned from selling my clothes at market stalls (and the internet).
Nothing will make you want to keep something more than seeing someone very chic pick up your tossed over item.
Having a market stall with stylish friends is v dangerous. You will end up shopping each other’s wardrobes. Perhaps do it with less stylish friends??
Don’t be afraid to look at something with fresh eyes, you might see it anew. Give old things a chance, maybe you can wear it differently (ask your stylish friend at the market?)
Take the deal off the table rather than cave.
Someone dismissing your taste doesn’t mean it’s bad!
Take lots of snacks. Bad decisions are always made when hungry.
I’m not saying you should hoard, but things do really come back around. And being too ruthless can make for rash sales. For example, I wish I still had a navy pinstripe blazer that I sold a few years ago because I now have an incredible desire right now to dress like a Wall Street banker in the ‘80s! Sometimes you need to hold rather than sell.
Take your credit cards out of a wallet that you plan to sell (OMG).
If you see something at another stall that you truly love, buy it - a fashion regret can haunt you forever.
Don’t buy things that don’t fit. They’re never going to and will make you feel bad every time you try. That said I will love and admire Celine Dion eternally and thoroughly appreciate her commitment to glamour and wearing shoes she loves, whatever size they are. The rest of us are not Celine Dion!
Fabric is everything. The label on the back is not what makes something a good piece (look for wool, silk, natural fibres)
Hold firm on your price - when selling clothes and in your workplace.
Sometimes fashion miracles happen - like my friend Jess (who also sources designer vintage for her beautiful platform Reciety, so her eye is honed!) who found a perfect Saint Laurent overcoat at Vinnies. It’s important not to feel envious of these and instead trust that one will come your way too if you keep your eyes open and elbows at the ready.
Who’s afraid of capri pants?
In my years of writing about fashion trends nothing fascinates and tickles me more than the pipeline of ‘oh my god, who would wear those!’ to high street versions of now cult fashion item and you simply can’t bump into an aperol spritz without seeing them. Fashion loves this pipeline - think of every ugly chic footwear item to take hold in the past few years. As patron saint of ugly chic, Mrs Prada, once said “Ugly is attractive, ugly is exciting. Maybe because it is newer. The investigation of ugliness is, to me, more interesting than the bourgeois idea of beauty.” She’s right, always. An ugly or ‘off’ element to an outfit takes a look somewhere way more interesting.
So with this in mind, are we ready for capri pants again? They’ve been threatening a comeback for some time - Eva Chen tweeted from the front line of the most recent season - “Friends, I’ve seen CAPRI PANTS in not one, not two, but three lookbooks and counting. Prayers for us all this spring.” Chanel and Jacquemus did them, and recently they were at The Row. Here’s the thing, The Row styling is always so good - here it’s the thin turtlenecks underneath a shirt and a red sweater, tights underneath the trousers! - it can convince us to try things we might have otherwise left behind. I think I need to give them a go? I love the kooky elegance of this look! A bit saucy librarian? My other pin-up for capri pants is is Jackie Onassis Kennedy wearing them in, well, in Capri. But my fear is that, like all of the times I’ve tried to wear a silk scarf around my head in the manner of Jackie Onassis Kennedy on a yacht the effect is, well, that I’m trying to look like Jackie Onassis Kennedy on a yacht.
Speaking of divisive items: Will Emily (and Bella Hadid) bring back the shrug? I kind of hope so? I love this show so much, it’s the ultimate brain fairy floss.
Some links
Why buy a new ’it-bag’ when the original is still around and surely has more insidery cache? The WSJ unpicks it the ‘It-bag’- and its hold on us. Also, those new Chloe wedges are going to be everywhere this summer!
Yes, I too read the Ballerina Farm profile (‘Queen of the Trad Wives’) on The Times and I’ve thought about it all week. Generally, with quite large caveats, my approach to how other women live their lives - and especially how they parent - is to live and let live. Good for her, not for me! Nobody has a shiny life all of the time, everybody has their reasons etc. My main thought after finishing the profile was that Hannah really needs to build that little ballet studio for herself and spend some time doing whatever she wants in it.
Phone a fashion friend
I’ve had to call time on a fashion item I’m meant to love - The Marni Fusbett sandals (and yes, I sold them at a market stall). I know they’re meant to be heroically comfortable but they destroyed my feet! My blisters had blisters. I love them but they didn’t love me. It’s time to move on. So the search for perfect black sandals is go because summer will be here in a flash. I think this pair from Chloe is perfect - the right amount of chunkiness, they really do look comfortable, but they’re elevated with the gold buckle and whipstitch.
Buy them here.
They’ve very exxy and I could instead get the black version of a pair I already own and love to death?
Buy them here.
Or new Birkenstocks (I like them when they don’t look too Birkenstock-y if you know what I mean)?
Buy them here.
Is it too late for Fisherman sandals? I wrote about them last year and didn’t convince myself then…
Buy them here.
Tell me if you have any other recs!
xx Annie