Style revelations from the farmers market and more

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.

There have been a lot of purchases this week. From bidding wars over bug-eye-sized Chloé sunglasses on Vinted to trying on nine variations of light wool turtlenecks at & Other Stories. I’m officially at the phase of my wardrobe rebrand where there’s nothing left to do but shop… and it’s actually been remarkably hard.

Partly due to the decline in fabric quality and the simultaneous rise in prices, but also because when you’re so tuned into your personal taste, finding pieces that match it and are reasonably priced becomes rare.

As I start to actually spend money in pursuit of building my dream wardrobe, it’s more important than ever that I keep a strict eye on my style and the items I choose to reflect it.

Light Bites of the week

Sheer knits

Any of my personal styling clients can attest to this, but my absolute favorite type of clothing to add to a wardrobe that’s lacking creative starting points is a piece that has the texture of one season and the shape of another.

For example, a thin knit tank top — a fabric that belongs to the colder seasons, paired with a silhouette more familiar in spring or summer. Not only is this a great way to inject some originality into your wardrobe “basics,” but it also opens up fantastic layering opportunities.

I recently added an incredibly light, almost sheer wool turtleneck to my closet. I paired it with my favorite white lace bra, and when I tilt just right in the light, you can barely see the lace detailing through the wool. It’s subtle, but so good.

I also have my eye on this top from one of my favorite small brands I’ve been recommending for years, Geel.

Perfect for those days when a sweater and a jacket is too much, but just one or the other is too little. Or worse — when a sweater and a jacket feels just right… until you walk into your destination, and your internal temperature breaches 100 degrees. Then you silently sauna in your seat, praying your body temperature will regulate while trying to appear relaxed.

Oversized Sunglasses

I was recently in Portugal over the summer, and as Nina and I were trekking out the door, I grabbed our sunglasses from the catch tray. Thin but round, ’90s reminiscent but not a direct copy, and for some reason, randomly unfulfilling.

You know that moment when you pick up one of your favorite pieces, and whether it’s because your mind has been infiltrated by trends or you’ve just worn it too much — you don’t know for sure. But one thing you do know is: all of a sudden, you don’t want to wear it. That’s exactly what happened to me this summer with my favorite prescription sunglasses.

I didn’t do anything about it right away because if you know me, you know I love to simmer instead of purchase. But as the weeks went on and I kept wishing I had another variation to style with, I figured now is as good a time as ever to invest.

Whenever I’m deciding to purchase something, I always ask myself: “Is this a natural progression of what’s already in my wardrobe and defined style, or is it completely out of left field?” That opens up some internal dialogue and helps me figure out whether something is a trend-driven impulse or a style-enhancing decision.

When I look at my other (very limited) accessories, sure, there are different colors, metals, and overall styles happening. But they all have one thing in common: oversized. Much like the rest of my wardrobe, I’d rather wear two gigantically sized pieces that take up the whole frame than 15 tiny pieces of clothing layered and spider-webbed across each other.

This goes for accessories too and that felt like as much of a green light as I’ll probably ever get. So after a quick back and forth with the seller (and a slightly lower offer), the glasses were mine.

Vulture by Phoebe Greenwood

This is the kind of book you’re foaming at the mouth to finish. Not because it’s good or bad, but because you would literally sell your soul to hear that other people share the same opinions on it as you.

Vulture is set in Gaza in 2010, and our main character, Sara, has to be one of the most profoundly unlikable women I’ve ever had the displeasure of getting to know on paper.

The term “vulture” (also referred to in the book as conflict cowboys) is slang for the foreign correspondents stationed in war zones — the ones who wait around for the entrails of a devastated country to pick over, only to wrap them all up in a solemn narrative, sell it to the press, and watch it get re-dissected, twisted, and dispatched out to the world.

This book was written by an actual foreign journalist who spent time in the Middle East, and it works as both a critique and a conversation starter. It’s a conversation about the corruption of Western media and forces us to ask: What do we all have to gain from war? The people reporting on it, selling it, and consuming it.

For me it was a tough read, because of the main character. But seeing the conversation around the social currency of war written out on paper and mass produced was worth every cent of the $28.99 I paid for the hardcover.

Beans

Food is an excellent source of style inspiration, and one I talk about often on social media. It has its own language, yet can still be translated into fabric. I also use it as a comparison to help people redirect the frustration that often comes from not knowing what to wear.

Getting dressed is something we have to do, despite it being an inherently creative and highly individualistic activity. And because it’s something everyone does, we tend to assume it should come naturally. When it doesn’t, we often turn that frustration inward as if there’s something wrong with us. It’s not unlike cooking or eating in that way.

This weekend, I went to the farmers market during Copenhagen’s very first annual biodiversity festival. After a bit of shopping, we stopped by the stage to hear the farmers panel. We walked up during a very passionate rant from a farmer in a floppy brown bucket hat. He urged the audience as consumers:

“PLEASE start asking for more beans!
If someone came up to my tent and told me, ‘You had these beans last week, can you make me a different type of bean?’ it would be the happiest day of my life!”

What he was really asking for was for consumers to want more for themselves — which, in turn, would make his life’s work more fulfilling, too. He took the conversation around biodiversity and elevated it beyond ecological necessity, speaking instead from a place of passion and personal standard.

His holistic ideology, that wanting more for your own palate co

uld lead to a more fulfilling world for everyone, reminded me a lot of how I think about style.

Naturally, his speech on diversity sent me straight to the bean stand, where I bought a bag of the weirdest beans I’ve ever seen. I have yet to figure out how to cook them.

Burberry

I don’t know what your impression of Burberry was, but for me, what came down the runway the other day at London Fashion Week was not it. My first thought? Gucci. Then Depop. Then my friend Ava and the scarf they knit me last Christmas which was identical in style to one I saw on the runway. It felt like I got smacked in the face with an accumulation of 50 different style references all layered on top of each other until I finally identified what it really was I felt: inspired? Inspired by Burberry. Huh.

Did I like it? Honestly… not really.

But liking something isn’t a prerequisite for being inspired by it. We can appreciate things without wanting them for ourselves. The stacking of textures, the shades of turquoise, and some of the styling choices, though not ones I’d ever personally make, genuinely surprised me. This runway show served as a reminder that you can remix your identity at any time. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re selling out. Sometimes, it just means you’re finding your way back to yourself or understanding who you are for the very first time.

Tights

Tights, for me, have always been a weapon for warmth in the winter. Just secretly elongated socks that no one could really see beyond the ankle. Nothing more.

When colored tights became one of the top trends in Spring 2024, I wasn’t interested. And then again in winter, when the trend carried on, I still felt nothing. But for some reason, I woke up two days ago and simply could not fathom going another second without a pair of pastel tights in my wardrobe. It felt as necessary as air.

This sudden urge may have something to do with my dream shoe purchase, a little powdery, pastel-ish blue pair that instantly livens up even the dullest outfit. But I’ve been struggling to pair them with some of my skirts. The fleshy tan of my bare legs against the cool blue of the shoes and whatever color the skirt happened to be just felt… discombobulated. Unintentional. Like something was missing.

It didn’t take long for me to find a pair of tights that would serve the shoes and in the process, I also found a pair of tan tiger-print tights that I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on.

I’m picturing them with my shapely black mini skirt, some sharp little heels to really showcase the leg, and a long brown leather coat. Will the vision actually come to life the way I see it? Who’s to say. Only time — 3–4 business days, pending ground shipping — will tell.

You can shop the zebra tights here.

And the purple tights here.

Outfits of the week you may have missed

Style exercise of the week

One of the things that can keep us stuck in a style rut is how we build our outfits. It usually goes like this:

You pick a pair of pants or a top, then you pick a top or a pair of pants to match. Add a jacket if it’s chilly, and boom — you hit a wall. What now?

When we start an outfit from the same place every day, whether that’s your shoe choice, or a pair of pants or a jacket, we’re setting ourselves up to fall down the same monotonous styling path every single time.

For this week’s style exercise, start your outfit from a place you never have before. This could be choosing a belt as your first piece, then moving on to a jacket and building from there. Maybe start from a makeup look that inspires the rest of your choices, or even a pair of socks.

Start from somewhere new. Then choose your next piece from the opposite end of your body. If you start with makeup, your next choice should be around the feet, and vice versa.

This will get you out of the styling rut where your next choice feels obvious. It’ll also force you to consider styling components you might have been overlooking. Components that can make your outfit feel way more intentional.

That’s all for this Sunday. Do your exercises, buy a bean, and wear a funky outfit. I’ll see you next week!

Buying more beans will fix your fashion