Letter of Rec #085: The highs and lows of outfit documentation

Plus a vintage brooch shop on Etsy, a striped crochet winter hat, brown suede walking shoes and printed fleece half zip

There’s something nice (and valuable) about the time capsule element of fashion and style, of looking back to indulge in the “What was I thinking?” that is so often implicit in style reflections. It’s a marker in its own right of a moment in time you may have forgotten until the visual jogged your memory. You remember what made you feel cool, and how different it is to what makes you feel cool now. Maybe that tempers the lid on one’s judgment, reveals a sort of toilet paper roll vs. individual square, I-can’t-see-the-whole-picture quality.

But one thing we don’t talk about much (or at least that designers don’t consider much) is how overexposure to ourselves might impact how we want to dress.

Maybe minimalism has stayed around for as long as it has because there’s a hidden condition at play when we are constructing our respective images. Maybe this is what the brands and the market have been responding to all these years, why there is no shortage of charcoal grey crew knit, and yet so few oddball, printed t-shirts with errant rhinestones at market. Because eventually, after too much exposure to the oddball tee, it makes you feel a bit like a clown. But would it do that if I didn’t photograph it?

The tee in question

The overall theory might only apply for those among us who post pictures of ourselves online or even just those who take a good amount of self portraits/are prone towards more self-reflection but there is something to be said about how much access we have to former expressions of ourselves. They are always available because of the trails we leave behind online, so does this, in some way, affect what we’re attracted to: wearing, thinking, saying, etc?

As far as style goes, I am finding myself drawn to the simplest templates (brown/black/white combos, plain pants and a shirt, a coat that overwhelms the whole) to decorate with details (a brooch, striped crochet hat, satin ballet heels, silver button down shirt) that might appear pretty wild (see: the striped knit hat)…

Khaite sunglasses, Amina Muaddi ballet heels, Pardo Hats knit beanie (we missed the boat on this one, but hopefully it comes back), By Malene Birger ‘Dalimas’ coat (it’s back!), Co white sock boots (can vouch for these, they’re great)

Cos blanket skirt (might prefer the ivory?), Hereu brown suede boots, Frame silver shirt, Proenza Schouler satin sock boots (have not tried these on in the flesh, but they seem pretty ideal, and come in under $800), Polo Ralph Lauren fleece half zip

…but which actually serve as the thing that makes prior season staples come back alive.

Example of a “coat that overwhelms the whole” from Tuesday’s letter, styled with Le Monde Beryl sneakers and this Dries van Noten scarf necklace

Which is the other thing: so much of the style rhetoric in popular culture right now is about building bulletproof renderings of the wardrobe-platonic-ideal, with capsule items you can return to forever and onwards. It sounds like a good idea but only if you realize that you do reach a culmination point, a ceiling, the end of needing anything new.

It doesn’t take the underlying, basic human inclination to want and to strive towards away but