Letter of Rec #065: We have to talk about the leather jackets at Massimo Dutti
Plus: thoughts on the recent runways and tactical espresso shots from around the rest of the $$world wide web$$
I’ll launch with the lead, which is really just a short note on how good the leather jackets at Massimo Dutti are right now.
I’m nuts (as in 🥜) about the distressed one that isn’t quite a blazer or an overcoat and love that the sleeve is slightly cropped. Think I’m going to go for it, and might recommend you try the long black one if you’ve been after ~that Toteme look.~
Meanwhile:
I just got a cowboy hat. It hasn’t arrived but something cracked opened when I was looking over last week’s Moschino show, newly under the stewardship of Adrian Appiolaza (his experience ranges work at Chloe under Phoebe Philo, Miu Miu, LV and Jonathan Anderson’s Loewe).
This one cowboy hat look had me tilting my head and squinting my eyes in that way that is like, “I don’t know if I get you but I’m so intrigued and will therefore keep you close.” It’s too soon to tell whether a second coming of Moschino could be on the horizon—
But let me tell you, I would love it. Until that is more clear, the felt Western hat it is.
I’m looking for a good chain belt. Have you seen one anywhere? This from Loewe is close to the vibe but I think I want more shit dangling from it. Do you remember the Saint Laurent one that was out last year? I came across it again recently
And now have this wild urge to recreate the look. You know style is really good when it makes you want to look like you too are full to the brim (of your uterus) with a baby.
I have more to share as far as great spring arrivals (has your shopping itch returned to you too? I am ready to burn winter to the ground and concept a spring persona) but first: are you following the shows?
More swim caps coming in hot from Saint Laurent in Paris (above). Rabanne is really pushing the post-minimalism agenda in a way that to me seems to venerate the style of someone like Blanca Miro —
And Undercover really was as good as the editors are saying. (It was a first-half of Paris hit among those who are there.)
I get why — it was the kind of collection that sort of reorients the way you think about your everyday clothes without your needing to sacrifice or change them, just configure them a little differently.
In the review I read from Nicole Phelps (Vogue.com), the collection from Jun Takahashi was described as the product of the designer’s thinking about everyday life. “What made it so resonant,” she wrote, “And affecting was its relatability; this wasn’t a fashion designer concocting some fantasy woman, with an improbable wardrobe to match, but rather someone with a human-sized (maybe even humble by some standards) life who is happy. Actually, it’s something to aspire to.”
It made me think a bit about the collections the week before from Milan and how much renewed focus there has been on them over the last several seasons. The way I see it, the magic of the fashion in Milan is totally baked into the emphasis it places on personal style — how the clothes are worn as opposed to what the clothes are and the personality they project as opposed to the boxes they check.
Different senses of style don’t seem like they are force-ranked above/below each other, at least not in such apparent terms that there is an unspoken pressure to embrace one way of dress over another and I think that affords one’s relationship to style and fashion a greater freedom.
You can be totally seduced, for example, by Simone Bellotti’s Bally, (below at right), and find yourself just as excited by the opposite end of the spectrum.
This yellow look to the left is from Vivietta. It seems to me that this is the kind of brand that can only really thrive in a city like Milan, which might be a function of the playful Milanese way and this concept — that something could thrive in one environment and falter in another has me wondering how often any of us consider whether we’re spending time in “the right rooms” for our respective spirits vs trying to bend ourselves into the shapes they demand.
But to close the loop on what I was getting at re: Milanese style and the “how” with the clothes as opposed to the “what:” recently I wonder if this condition has anything to do with the precise what of the clothes — and how expensive they have become.
Forget the usual suspects of Brunello Cucinelli and Armani and Loro Piana (actually, don’t, something good is going on over there:)
But the box office shows in Milan of late have included Prada, new Bottega and as of the last two seasons, new Gucci (it really is it), and at this point, these brands are as aspirational as the usual suspects.
Is this why we’ve clung to the fanfare around the clothes? A pseudo-shopping bag styled over a luxury bag at Bottega (Spring 23), a luxury swim-cap interpretated by Prada.
There’s a personal power that emerges when you connect to a show and can find a way to use your own sense of scrappy creativity to play out that connection on your terms.
Onwards to the rest of what’s new, exciting and shoppable:
Leset’s spring arrivals for easy wearing, collaged right above. (I think I’m going to get these pants too)
These mesh flats from Loeffler Randall (below at left) — which feel more like glove shoes with laces than a ballerina. I like that.
Loeffler Randall mesh flats, Tory Burch grommet top, belt, bunny skirt A parade of good Tory in the shape of: this rabbit skirt, this grommet top and this belt.
And as I am taking my leggings era very seriously, here a couple of great skirts to style over them:
Staud’s beaded sardine clutch if you’re after a laugh.
Staud’s sardine clutch, Grenson’s ‘Queenie’ in white And I know I’ve been recommending these sandals from Grenson for like two years at this point, but I maintain that they’re a quality spring pick (and hold their own pretty damn well when held up against variations of The Row’s multiple renderings).
Re: bag, btw, if you’re after something more practical, but still sleek, this mini market tote in blue suede from Metier looks way more practical than the gigantic one I have.
My eye is also on this dress from Rouje (kind of reminds me of this from Simone Rocha, reasonably priced $367 at retail), which I’d most likely style under a field jacket.
Or maybe this $229 light yellow single breast collarless number from Aligne. With the right shoes, it’s a good look.
Or, actually, to bring this way back around to the beginning, one among the bombass leather jackets from Massimo Dutti would do fine.
Suddenly, this shell coat you can wear as a dress with a trench coat styled over it from Toteme (40% off) feels totally right too.
These shorts I told you about last week arrived.
They’re as good as I wanted them to be — and when’s the last time you surfed Yoox?
I have been looking for the right pair of silver sandals with a strap that goes around the ankle and finally settled on these. Seriously contemplating these pants to wear with.
In unrelated news: I made a cool salad earlier this week comprised of fig, feta, lightly roasted raddichio (and lemon — lemon dressed in olive oil and lightly roasted is so nice in a salad), a nut/seed medley w crushed pistachio bits and sesame and an oil-based dressing with basil, cumin, lime and sumac.
Cafe Leandra’s back open for biz.
Until next time…
My best chain belts are vintage - try Imparfaite (they sometimes have the heart ones which feel quite vintage ysl) and vestiaire etc for real vintage ysl!
Love this thank you!! Wondering about Leset, though--I recently bought two pointelle long sleeve ti-shirts because of this newsletter, but honestly I found them extremely underwhelming for how expensive they were. It bummed me out. I'm now drawn to the spring trousers, but worried I'd find the same thing. I guess the question is: is it really worth buying expensive basics? Or is it better to find similar, less expensive basics and put one's funds (assuming most people have "normal" budgets) into more exceptional, special pieces??