Letter of Rec #060: Great sweaters now

The best part of sale season is after the season

Two addendums for you re: Tuesday’s letter, which arrived by e-mail reply from subscribers after the post shipped. If you missed the boat on Nue Note’s corduroys but love the shape (high waist, slight flare but mostly a straight leg), these corduroys from Issue Twelve might actually be

but one other reader did drop these in with a wear-tested affirmation too. Do with this information whatever you’d like.

Here’s the bedroom chair look this week:

Oliver Peoples sunglasses (current closest equiv from OP here; like these from Khaite x OP too; and Warby Parker’s Harrison makes a good case too), Toteme coat (maybe she is the closest current comp?), Ines Aquino scarf, Smythe sweater (this one also looks p great), Khaite jeans, The Row mocassins

It consists of:

• a pair of 5-year-old Khaite jeans

• a black crew neck sweater from the brand Smythe

• a Toteme coat that might be older than the jeans (see: label):

• and the-now infamous Tyler moccasin booties.

Have I inched even one degree closer to convincing you they’re worth it?

The black cashmere scarf is single ply and pretty narrow, but made from extremely high quality alpaca wool (by a small independent South American designed named Ines Aquino). I recommend it for easy wearing. The bag is from Rue de Verneuil.

Ines Aquino scarf, $100; Rue de Verneuil denim tote, $250 (there’s an Herve Chapelier energy about it, no?)

I’ve actually been wearing this outfit for two weeks. I’d been craving a more straightforward point of view, something quiet but not too refined. A dependable answer for everyday on a holiday break that finds you homebound with kids.

What’s interesting about this kind of look is that even though it’s not exciting, you never regret choosing it. I often say that this is how it feels to wear something from a brand like Attersee too — no matter how “boring” it might seem to slip yourself into so much good taste, you never look back at a picture of yourself and say, “What was I thinking?” It is zero regrets dressing.

Two shots from Attersee’s recent lookbook

But you know, style risk takers — we live for the regrets. It’s the fabric of how we learn to claim the most authentic octaves of our taste.

Sometimes the threshold is high, and sometimes it’s low. These days, I guess mine is low.

The elements (of my bedroom chair look) matter to the extent that regardless of how many pairs of jeans I have tried to turn into The Ones, when there already is one, it is just that. The one.

The search thereafter is futile, you know? Like trying to find a partner, just to see what else is out there!, after you’re already married. (Supposing you’re happily married.)

What compels us to search for what’s better when what we have is good enough? Like in those moments, what is actually missing? Is it just a sense of gratitude?

Khaite F/W 2019, look 16

The fit (of the jeans) is called Daria (I guess the current equiv would be the Danielle?) and the wash is a perfect mid-blue (perfect to me by the standard that it fades into white as opposed to this like, sepia tint, so the jeans retain a true hue of blue, never turning to green).

It’s easier to see the difference when the overall fade varies too; Khaite jeans are at left and Nili Lotan jeans are at right (there is nothing wrong with a fade to green, btw. I personally just don’t find them as easy to match with shades of navy/grey/white)

And I’ve never wanted to get another black coat, which seems to be the true tell of a good staple. The sunglasses actually date back too, to around the same time I got the coat and jeans.

The only variables that have changed over the years are:

1. The bag (and re this one: I’ve been sensing a return of the tote as the Michelin-standard everyday handbag and now I realize why: it must have seeped into my psyche c/o The Row)

   

   Never forget Herve Chapelier. The Row’s Idaho tote in green and beige ($1,290)

2. The style of shoe (used to be a kitten heel, then for a year it was these, but since the ignition of our flare pant era, it’s all about The Soft Shoe).

You can still find a few pair of these on SSENSE in taupe, beige (as pictured) and white (I’m this close)

3. The color of my sweater. Was oatmeal last year, navy the year before, camel before that, but I’m craving nice quality black crew necks these days, which is a good segue to the real point of this post:

An edit of 5 great sweaters (ranging from $146 to $606) that are shoppable now