Letter of Rec #070: When's it worth trying a trend?
Plus three great young brands, a very chic incense burner, $80 dried strawberries and grey and corn off the cob.
One housekeeping note before the good things:
I realized at the end of last week that the most important look never made it into capri pants.
Important because it was the most satisfying one to come up with — featuring two belts, an arm scarf and a bag that is so lopsided in shape, it can barely sit on a flat surface. So this is technically item no.1: Belts, an arm scarf, a lopsided bag and the most controversial pant length of the season.
Recent good things
Staud and Keds launched a collaboration on Friday of the classic lace up sneakers. In this collab, they’re rendered in navy or camel suede. There are two canvas styles too — one is multi color and the other is white with a green stripe across the top of the rubber part of the shoe. A good way to save yourself the urge towards these! I’d go for the navy suede. Love that the sole is black.
Herbs for Relaxation. The brand was dropped into one of the channels on Geneva by a friend of the designer (hi Esther!). How great is this fringe blazer?
My Mum Made It. Seems like a pretty well-known brand given the size of its Instagram following, and I guess I’m after pretty girly silhouettes these days bc I’m pretty into the ruffle hem tank dress (there is a, dare I call it, Yohji vibe about it). Could be a good foil to your field jacket.
Then here’s this Greek brand called Milkwhite. What do you think, can I wear this to my brother’s wedding in June? If all continues going to plan, I’ll be 33 weeks pregnant by then.
Other highlights include this skirt, this shell bra, this dress and for the capri curious among us: these.
Speaking of being capri-curious, if you are this but not quite sold, I might suggest a pair of pants like these from Doen, which hit about an inch below calf and look put together (as in, could wear to an office job), with a mini dress styled over.
I recommend an actual nightgown (specifically from the U.K.-based If Only If) for the non-office-attending.
Or this dress as a top if you’re going full capri.
Cinnamon Projects’ incense and burner.
While I certainly have my own sense of taste — a particular eye for what I like, whether one can objectively call this taste good or bad is up for debate. Abie, on the other hand, though he dresses like a monster to the extent that he wears platform sneakers everyday with technical fabric zip and fly pants, has exceptionally, unanimously good taste when it comes to identifying beautiful objects, like this incense burner he got for us last week. My one critique is that the incense burns too quickly, but it smells so good. Like luxury wellness. A good mother’s day gift for a very specific kind of mother.
Recently received (gift from brand) these white pants from Loulou Studio, too. They have an elastic waist but fit perfectly straight leg. The material is light and they don’t wrinkle (bc: viscose/linen blend) like straight linen does. They’re ideal for pregnancy, or simply as a good pair of no-pressure summer pants.
Am still interested in the return of the bubble hem (see: Nicholas Ghesquiere’s Louis Vuitton as primary champion, with recent contenders Maria McManus and Tory Burch from New York and Simone Bellotti at Bally from Milan as most recent still-aspirational-but-def-more-attainable conduits). I landed on this one from Majorelle and have been wearing it most prominently like this —
With a structured jacket and shoes. The vibe is Tory Burch spring 24 (the shoes actually are Tory Burch spring 24) and speaking of: The show heard ‘round the web last Sept has landed on ecomm. New Tory highlights include:
The last item for this category is the brand called TWP, from the founder of Haute Hippie. Am mostly intrigued by it on account of the silk button down shirts, which have more broadly been catching my eye lately. They’re a bitch to wear — clingy in the winter, sweaty in the summer, prone to wrinkles that never quite look deliberate all year round. Still, they feel like the right graduation from the doldrum of poplin shirts. This one in partic reminds me of this from The Row and I just keep wondering to myself: Is the era of Equipment returning to us? I can feel the oil stains settling in from now.
Trying trends: when’s it worth it?
To the above point, which is kind a note on the evolution of what is considered stylish and how our taste changes over time (in the silk shirt example, from only wanting poplin to becoming curious about silk, to moving on from poplin, to actually wearing silk), and based on the response to last week’s capri post (which indicates pretty divisive opinions on the trend), I have been thinking a great deal about trends and when they are worth trying vs when to sit them out.
No doubt the greatest explosion we will face this summer will be thanks to the jelly glove-style flats that appeared on The Row’s Spring 2024 runway.
Already have such brands as Ancient Greek Sandals created an updated take on the trend. (Like AGS, La Veste has had their own iteration on this shoe for seasons already, and Mango is on this train too; perhaps you remember these from Loewe, from last spring? Worth mentioning is the function factor: all the above brands have strong roots in the culture surrounding the European seaside, where the beaches are rockier and therefore maintain a greater urgency for protective, waterproof footwear.)
Within a cityscape, is it worth trying?
A few factors that are worth considering no matter the trend in question: how universally accommodating is the trend? I mean this from a physical-form perspective. Whereas many will say capris, for example, are specifically tailored for a longer, or slimmer, or younger body shape; a shoe trend is more democratic.
Then there is also the question of price — how much will it cost to participate in the trend?
The ones that go most viral (fashion sneakers, field jackets, Birkenstocks, flip flops, long-line gym-style shorts; even the storm that was quiet luxury served as an expensive pseudonym for Eileen Fisher) can often trace their way back to a silhouette that is more affordable, which lowers the stakes of taking the risk.
And then the final thing is a question of longevity: will the trend survive my closet for longer than ~4 seasons. (4 seasons = 2 years.) Some people (like me) get a genuine thrill from observing, questioning, interpreting, and trying to method act a trend into their wardrobes — to see if there is cohesion, what the fuss is really about — what sort of psychic matter underlies the genesis of the trend, if the trend could become a mainstay of one’s style. The most hopeful parts of myself, I think, are drawn towards the overarching possibility that within newfangled interest in a trend, what a person is doing, really, is reflecting a desire for change or growth in their own lives.
With jellies in particular (and as I mentioned), they serve the utilitarian function of being water shoes, can be bought into at a reasonable price point, have rarely been in the zeitgeist in a meaningful way (no doubt though, they are a graduation from mesh glove flat mania, and a cousin to the PVC trend), and to me, that makes them worth the consideration.
But I can appreciate and recognize that trying a trend just to see if it can be for you is neither feasible nor interesting for many people.
So the bottom line is: Sit it out if you’re trying too hard to make sense of it, give in if you’re intrigued/the contents of your existing wardrobe feel like they are being given an opportunity to earn new life and/or they actually serve a functional purpose that other things in your closet can’t quite nail.
Where the hand-towel-as-shawl falls on this scale, I’m not sure.
But at least it’s free to try?
A few ingestibles:
On the food front, I’ve been experimenting with odd pairings. It’s ambitious salad season again!
The big hit salad of the season (defined by the number of tenants who live with me expressing desire to continue consuming it) has been Iittle gems with
pistachio
toasted fennel seeds
cooked corn, peeled off the cob
avocado
cherry tomatoes (sugar bombs are my favorite)
and sometimes pitted green olives
other times hearts of palm
occasionally a boiled beet
The dressing contains:
lemon juice
olive oil
chili flakes
But if I’m lazy, I just use Brightland’s champagne vinegar and Flamingo Estate olive oil. (Apparently these dried strawberries are out of this world. They’re also $80.)
Other recent surprise-and-delights include:
Labne smeared on a seed cracker, with roasted eggplant on top. This was one way to create a little pre-dinner thrill on Passover.
Also served a medley of boiled beets and roasted sweet potato in a dressing of mustard, oil, salt and chili flakes that night. What made all the difference though was topping it off with pumpkin, fennel, caraway and sesame seeds.
Call it the main event at a coffee-table girl dinner, or simply a grounding side dish for normal people. It’s worth trying either way.
Then have you ever tried Hampton Grocer’s granola? This flavor —
Hot honey truffle — is great with labne too. I think the heat melts into the fat of the yogurt and that does something so cool in your mouth.
Also stopped by Happier Grocery on Canal Street last week (they’re calling it New York’s Erewhon. We’ll see). On tap was award winning white rice!
I am a sucker, and have to try it, if only to tell my guests they’re eating “multiple-time gold-medal-winning rice,” so I got a jar and will report back. What I can tell you in the mean time:
The rainbow milks are a good alt to an afternoon latte if you usually have one because you want something sweet but can do without the caffeine. They’re also fun to look at/taste good in a bowl of cereal. My favorite of the flavors is a tie between the pink milk (don’t mix with cereal, too sweet) and the grey milk (sesame-yo-licious; great with granola).
This marks the end of today’s edition. I’m glad we ended somewhere near the cereal aisle.
God speed until next week,
Leandra
I realize Leandra that you have a gift of putting 3 of my passions together in an effortless way. Fashion, food and words. You do it so beautifully and compellingly!
And I am sitting out the capri pant and jelly shoe trend as I have been both of those places and done them and it is a no go for me at my age. But I just love seeing how you put it all together with so much joy!
I'm excited about the jelly shoes, the white pants are a go to try... and I did find a somewhat capri length almost exactly the same as the Lula Pant that is perfect for working, it wears on me as it does the model (I noted it wears a bit shorter on you).
The milk looks delish... and you should try adding clover sprouts on salads and wraps, the flavor explodes in my mouth, you might enjoy them.
Love this newsletter, the images are a beautiful spring/summer calming blend. Thank you for your work. ❤️