When’s the last time you shocked your wardrobe?

Mar 10

A little anarchy towards the fall palette

Welcome to the Sunday newsletter.

An every seven days curation of touch sight taste and sound in relation to fashion and beyond. An accountability marker to maintain the never-ending curation of style, and to stay in contact with the senses through fabulous things.

All colors go

`All colors go`

I found the most delectable, kiwi-colored wool gloves yesterday to add to my winter wardrobe. Even though the unique color caught my eye on this otherwise incredibly ordinary pair of gloves, I found myself instinctively adding the brown alternative to my cart out of fear that the green wouldn’t “go” with anything. Thankfully, I came to my senses before I hit purchase.

Every time someone swaps something they love for something more “practical,” an angel loses its wings.

Ultimately, if something caught your attention enough for you to spend money to own it, that’s all the confirmation you need that it will slide into your wardrobe with ease. It might take a bit of practice and some time set aside to work it in, but if something caught your attention in a sea of products and ads, I think it’s worth investigating—even if the addition takes a little effort to blend.

The reason I was on the site in the first place was because I happened to find it harboring the rain hat of my dreams—

Stay tuned to see if it will keep me dry enough in the rain or if I end up having to fold and get the “fisherman’s hat 10,000” which feels a bit excessive but might be necessary.

`Aunt Candy hates Tabis`

I was sitting criss-cross on the floor of my sister’s living room in a circle with her loved ones while she unwrapped her presents on her thirtieth birthday. In the midst of the hour-long unwrapping ceremony, my aunt Candace (lovingly referred to as Aunt Candy by me, my mother, and any other cousins who want to annoy her) leaned over to me and, in a hushed tone I can only describe as exhausted and panicked, said, “You know… I was looking at your shoes… and I tried… but I just can’t. I’m sorry, I just can’t.”

I actually almost pissed my pants laughing.

The emotion that these stupid little shoes evoked from my aunt was so severe that, in a moment of intimate silence, she literally could not go another second without telling me my shoes were ugly. And the comment went on for about two minutes. It was two minutes of her whispering to me, “I’m sorry, I tried, I really tried—” and me, in between attempted controlled laughs, saying, “It’s okay, it’s going to be okay, that’s fine.”
“No, like really, I can’t, I’m sorry, you don’t understand, I CAN’T.”
“IT’S FINE.”

It was like there was an invisible gun at her head, with a gunman saying, “Compliment her or I’ll shoot.”

When the giggles subsided, I honestly couldn’t help but smile. The shoes did the very thing I can only hope any fashion spectacle would—they made someone feel something. Getting dressed isn’t about making everyone think you’re pretty, or making everyone think you’re thin. It’s about sharing who you are without having to speak. And if you do that right, people will react. They might not always react positively, just like people won’t always react to you positively. The antithesis of personal style is general approval—so scare someone, or make someone confused, and you’ll know you got the job done.

`Graphic printed coats`

One of the first pieces of clothing I ever saw that halted my brain in its tracks and made me realize clothes were more than just T-shirts and leggings was a FW18 Baum und Pferdgarten purple graphic-printed puffer. I was eighteen and had just gotten my first styling gig in New York—a job I was wildly unprepared for, but ended up changing the course of my life. It was at a small boutique on the Upper East Side with a styling service upstairs, where I was stationed. On my first day, as I was being given a tour, I saw a vintage French metal mannequin donning the oddest piece of clothing I had ever seen.

I don’t know exactly why this piece had such an effect on me. Possibly because it looked like something both from the future and something my grandma owned, which confused me. Or maybe because I had never seen realistic photo prints on clothing before. Prints, sure—graphics, patterns—but never a real-life photograph slapped onto something you could wear. It was a mixing of mediums I had truly never experienced. I looked down at the little table in front of me, and not only was the photograph printed onto a jacket, but also on a puffer scarf and maxi skirt.

There’s a mental block I think a lot of people experience when they’re exposed to clothes born on a runway instead of a rack—an immediate dismissal in the pursuit of practicality. We think those clothes belong to one world, and the clothes we’re familiar with belong to ours. At least that’s what I thought. I didn’t see expensive clothes as clothes at all, and had mostly written them off as something I just wouldn’t understand. But with exposure, time, and my job—like anything else that feels foreign but is simply underrepresented—these obnoxious clothes began to feel natural. Organic, even.

It turns out this clothing brand is based in Copenhagen, and just the other week I saw a girl walking down the docks wearing the exact jacket that once stunned me—and led me down a path that ended with me standing right there, five feet behind her, in Denmark.

In New York, I saw two more graphic jackets, and that was enough to sell me. For my winter coat, I’ll be prioritizing something similar—perhaps even the very jacket that started it all.

`Shock the wardrobe`

Sometimes, when my wardrobe feels flat or I haven’t gotten dressed in a while, I like to “shock it” back to life. I do this by making as many loud, aggressive, colorful, or confusing combinations as possible—to shake up my brain and get me out of my box.

There’s a quiet art to fixing an outfit. Building is easy and can be taught, but bringing a wardrobe or an outfit back to life is a challenge, and sometimes the best thing you can do for your styling muscles. For example, an outfit that started here—

With the original intent being an outfit to support the fashion craving of my purple plaid undershirt and tight pairing, was promptly re-decorated to this-

A much more digestible and just plain comfortable look. This exercise inspired me to try out some new color combinations with pieces appropriate for fall.

`What even are Fall colors?`

I started with the idea of mixing as many colors as possible in one look and see if it can still be fall appropriate using classic fall textures-

Wool, suede, denim, and cashmere are all present here, and yet it could be defined as an outfit for spring, but at the end of the day, I’m wearing it. And it’s fall. So why the hell not keep going?

This is when I diverted from color for a minute and got excited to just bring this one outfit idea I had to life-

You can shop the button down shirt here.

A column maxi skirt and oversized button down paring will never be a bad idea.

The next color on my list to build an outfit off of was red. Which is honestly just a cop out and basically impossible to make a red outfit that doesn’t feel like fall-

Up next was blue, but the outfit felt too blue and too fall so in a little act of rebellion I stuck my lapel with a springy yellow and green pin from Ireland-

And lastly I thought to try a little green and orange together. I was not expecting it to work at all and yet-

`Style Exercise of the Week`

For this week’s style exercise, get ready to shock. If you haven’t gotten dressed in a while or your wardrobe has just been feeling “meh” lately, book thirty minutes in your calendar for this quick style session.

I want you to build an outfit with at least 5 layers of clothing, and three external accessories. The only extra advice I’m going to give you is layer “thin to skin” which is what I tell all of my clients.

When layering, you always want to make sure the thinnest and tightest layers are closest to the skin, and as you add pieces on top of each other they strengthen in thickness and looseness as you layer out. This is how we ensure fabrics lay flat against the body.

The point of this exercise isn’t to build brilliant looks, although that is a very welcome side affect, but it’s to give you an opportunity to find new combinations between barriers of clothing that you otherwise would have never thought to pair.

So open a window or turn on the A.C., snag a bottle of water and get to layering! And don’t forget,

Style is everywhere—don’t miss it!

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