012 Protest boots
My favourite genres of magazine questions, no more 'buttery leather,' the Vogue forums and the new fashion girl 'shoulder robing'.
Sienna Miller in Anatomy of a Scandal, still wearing everything I want to wear!
Back in the days of the Vogue forums (rip!) where circa 2003-2006 I was a vociferous poster, my favourite threads were what I’m wearing today and also, slightly problematically, what I’m eating today.
Bizarrely, and also I think crucially, what I’m wearing didn’t include any photos - you had to use your imagination about what your internet friends were wearing! I’m just realising I totally could have lied about what I was actually wearing, which is probably what other people were doing in a kind of lo-fi The Sims kind of way.
Anyway you would write things like:
Denim mini-skirt - light wash
White wide studded belt
Matthew Williamson for Sportsgirl multicoloured floaty top
Balenciaga City bag (this bit is the lie)
Cute flats
Hair in loose ponytail
Lancome juicy tubes in Dreamsicle
By the way, if you did have a Balenciaga city bag in this period - I would have cut off my right arm for one, though I would have needed said arm to hang it in the crook of my elbow just so - you should bring it back out. Because why would you buy the exact same bag again when we are living in the era of designer “reissues?”
As Faran Krentcil writes in The WSJ, “Like Hollywood reboots of existing franchises, fashion doubles offer newness and nostalgia at once, even if the vintage versions can often be found on the resale market for far less.”
Anyway, I lived for this corner of the internet! Every outfit I described was, obviously, me trying to dress like Sienna Miller. I still am! Including everything she wore on Anatomy of a Scandal, our universal reminder of Miller’s innate sense of style.
You would also sometimes describe what you were doing that day and there were also sub-threads for things like ‘airport outfits.’
There are two questions I dream of being asked (other than would you like us to adapt your award winning and critically acclaimed novel into a Netflix series starring Nicole Kidman as a chilly and rich blonde in a high camp prestige series?). They are, what’s in your handbag? and what is your perfect travel outfit?
I can’t get enough of it. Mine would be, amazingly, quite similar to Zadie Smith (!) who gave hers to The Times last week. Only I do not, sadly, only use a non-smart phone, and I am also, sadly, not Zadie Smith.
“Four or five copies of The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books, mostly unread. Three or four books, only one of which I’m reading. A very bright red lipstick. Loose nuts, half a bar of dark chocolate covered in dust, old tissues, a Tampax that somehow is also loose, many shreds of tobacco, an afro pick, a broken lighter, reading glasses, sunglasses, dog bags, a bottle of water with the lid not on properly that will soon leak, my Nokia, many pens without lids, antihistamines.”
If anybody wants my travel outfit outfit though, here it is for my trip to Singapore this week:
Christopher Esber bias cut trousers - elastic waist, elevated but feel like track pants
Organic cotton white T-shirt
Cashmere socks - crucial for in-flight and the best gift to give someone
Oversized boxy Frankie Shop blazer that doesn’t crush
Sneakers - current ones are my favourite new Golden Goose ones which have my children’s initials on them in case I forget!
Light grey knit tied over your shoulders, over the blazer, for when it gets chilly on the flight and also so that you look chic and busy
Why don’t you… use your sweater as a scarf
On the topic of tying a sweater over a blazer in the airport, I am well aware that this has become a fashion girl trope. Kind of like the new ‘shoulder-robing’ of a blazer. This is less annoying though because it’s tied on and less likely to keep slipping off and also you can use your arms.
Here is super chic Lisa Aiken from US Vogue doing it perfectly:
Why do I like it so much? I think it adds a bit of preppy pep but without the Country Club vibe. It adds texture to an outfit. It has that frisson of being a kind of fashion person thing to do. It makes you look sort of crisp and capable. And also, if it actually does get chilly you have a back-up jumper!
A nice thing
Bella Freud has just launched a new podcast called Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud and it’s basically fashion therapy. I just listened to the episode with Rick Owens and it was like a balm for my soul!
He spoke of wearing his signature platform boots as a “protest” and an affront to “good taste”. I was overjoyed by his description of really exquisite leather as “juicy” and “tender” (please, no more “buttery” leather!). I also loved how his wife and muse Michelle Lamy is planning to throw a “rave” for her 80th birthday. Yes! I love people who show that there are other ways to age - i.e. with joy and fun and appetite for life.
Bella Freud also spoke about trying on a beautiful jumper at The Row and “disappearing,” becoming a “random middle aged lady.”
Which is something I think ties in with the idea of living with appetite. People always talk about feeling invisible as they age, and it’s true, that the world still prizes youth. The thing is, if we’re lucky, we all get older. You can’t hold onto your youth as your special thing because it goes. Everybody was young once! Instead you need to have character and know what suits you and what kind of party you want to have. That’s the way to not disappear - and by that I mean, not disappear in your eyes.
Books
It took me a beat to get into Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo, but then it really moved me. The idea that love doesn’t come in just one form and that it can be stretched and still stay somewhat intact is something I always like to be reminded of.
I can’t say much about it as it’s not out until next year and I had an uncorrected proof (blatant brag!) but my friend Jessica Stanley’s Consider Yourself Kissed is so brilliant! I stayed up reading until midnight two nights in a row and I didn’t want to leave the characters and their world behind.
I’m still on my Rachel Cusk jag and re-reading The Outline trilogy - coming back to a book with more living under your belt is something I recommend. I’m reading Outline and of the many things I’ve dog-eared, I liked this line: he often caught himself in the mistaken belief that transformation was the same thing as progress.
I started reading the new Alan Hollinghurst on the plane and it is GLORIOUS. Will report back.
Love,
Annie xx
Me: crinkled and capable