An introduction to the curation of taste in preparation for the season of touch.

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.

As I grow up, getting dressed is becoming less and less about the clothes and more and more about other things. The constant rotation of my favorite coffee cup. The trinkets spit around my house from recent travels. The movies and music that my brain is craving to experience when it’s supposed to be working. The clothes come naturally when I feel the most grounded in my independent taste, outside of fashion.

For this weeks light bites, intimacy is on the menu. I’ve found myself most inspired by the unseen parts of the everyday. Things that though sometimes overlooked, are the very components that go on to build taste in the first place.

Light Bites of the week

Intergalactic Janet by Ley Soul

I discovered this song by chance after "Sugar! Honey! Love!” by Kali Uchis had ended and the algorithm served it to me immediately after. It’s futuristic, legato-yet-pulsing style inspired this outfit:

The cascading flowers in the dress, when slightly covered, resemble the appearance of tentacles. I amplified this by adding a 3D layer of texture on top with strings on the side to allude to the idea the tentacles are coming to life. Nonetheless, this intergalactic character is still as chic and legato as the song suggests. Complete with a flower broach slapped on top- a final attempt to blend in with the human race. God bless the trend cycle.

Underwear

I recently had a birthday and with it, the shocking realization that I’m still harboring ripped polyester Victoria’s Secret underwear from my youth. Suddenly, my intimates felt childish. So while in Paris, I promptly walked into a French lingerie store.

Rows and rows of thin black wired hangers with lace, silk, and any other delicate fabric you can think of draped across themselves. I was in a sea of pink, lilac, baby blue, black and white. I’ve indulged in the occasional matching set before, but it had never occurred to me that some people wake up in the morning and open their closet doors to a highly curated and optimally organized assembly of underwear.

Could I be that type of person? Should I shell out the rest of my budget, right here, and now for the not-so-cheap thrill of buying my way into believing I wasthat type of person?

The thongs sent me into a blitz of philosophical disarray.

I settled on one cheeky-yet-practical white lace-trim set to add a little va-va-voomto my end-of-summer uniform: a tank top and blue jeans. A literal wave of the white flag — my way of surrendering to the season and giving up on dressing aesthetically during the heat all together.

You can shop my favorite white tank top here.

Cookies and Canned Tuna

Taste was a bit absent for me this week — besides burnt coffee and lavender syrup. I was working a lot. Normally, I set aside at least two hours a day for cooking dinner, slow-simmering jam requests, or baking a cake to shove off on a friend. I instead was met with canned tuna bowls. Three canned tuna bowls actually. I did however squeeze in a little time to bake a batch of salted rosemary cookies which are always excellent and was breakfast for two days in a row. I’ll give you the recipe.

Contrast Silk/ Satin

This past week, silk has been heavy on my mind. Specifically: silk that’s been Frankenstein-stitched together using two color palettes, trimmed with rough contrast texturing, or saturated enough to punch me in the face.

Silk has always had a reputation associated with abundance and when I see it remixed it almost humanizes it in a way. These pieces, spotted while shopping for clients, caught my attention — you can shop them and more silk vintage finds here.

The Peacock Water Clock

Besides shopping for thongs, while in Paris I found myself wandering into many other religious institutions- one of them being The Louvre.

I’ve always had a fascination for Non-Western Art and an appreciation for it’s history. The grandeur of being so old. While exiting the museum I came across this postcard in the gift shop. Though I didn’t understand what it was a drawing of it provoked a curiosity well worth the €2 I paid to take the little picture home. I later learned this was an invention. A depiction of The Peacock Water Clock which you can read more about from actually qualified sources here and here.

The Peacock water clock is one of the unique clocks mentioned in Al-Jazari’s book of Al-Jami ‘ bayn al-‘ilm wa ‘l-‘amal al-nafi ‘ fi sina ‘at al-hiyal (A Compendium on the Theory and Useful Practice of the Mechanical Arts)

Something about the harmony of time and opulence struck me. This piece reminds me that frivolity can sometimes be necessity in the pursuit of evolution. It now sits in a frame on my desk.

Outfits of the week you may have missed

Many outfits slipped through the cracks this week. I was running around, trying to get my life back on track — which meant switching shoes to run to the grocery store, changing tops before baking, realizing the pants were too tight... and so on. This led to an infinite number of slightly different combinations my favorites of which I will leave right here.

Style exercise of the week

Fall to me, is touch. Every season capitalizes on the senses in a new and fresh way.

Summer is sight
Winter is taste
Spring is smell
Fall is touch
Hearing is all four

Fall marks the beginning of holding loved ones a second longer without sweat slipping you apart. Swaddling yourself deep into fabrics you pay for the indulgence of feeling.

This is my interpretation and of course, does not have to match your own. So for your style exercise of the week, as we breach the first week of September and Fall looms,

Think to yourself which senses do you identify most heavily with Fall. Then go to your wardrobe and choose three pieces that you correlate to that sensation.

A sweater in your most favorite-to-feel fabric for the sense of touch
A jacket in the same brown tone as your favorite cardamom bun for taste

Build three separate outfits you have never worn starting with each of those pieces.

Sunday Youtube Video

This week’s video: How to Read a Runway
In preparation for NYFW we tackle how to actually extract inspiration from one of fashion’s most intimidating spaces.

See you next Sunday, and remember, stye is everywhere, don’t miss it!

Intergalactic outfits for aliens and you. Also thongs.