Small styling lifts from Milan

New ways to wear your clothes

September collections hold such a different weight when compared to those that present in February/March. I feel so much more desperate for a lift in the latter, eager to experience the flicker of inspiration again. Inspiration is so important to the creative process, huh? Without it, there’s no motivation. It’s not impossible to generate new ideas from there but it does feel like a slog.

Meanwhile in September, there’s a natural excitement blanketing life. I think even without the new shows, the idea generation machine would be fertile and bright. My processor never really craves too much foreign input in September. The stimulation is kind of just there. So it actually feels a bit like a reprieve that whenever I look at the shows in Milan, it’s always the small lifts — how a scarf is tied or bag is worn or bra is styled —that jump out.

This story — a sort of shortlist of ways to reproduce good styling — has become something of a seasonal tradition, so in that interest, here are the pick-me-ups from 5 of the shows I had most fun playing with over the last couple weeks:

1. Prada’s bandana sweatshirt hood, styled with classic car coat and bucket hat

Soeur suede jacket (but look here how Massimo Dutti strikes again), Pardo crochet striped hat (also like this one, from Sea or less loud but same idea), Hai white skirt (shape here is comparable, also love the simplicity of everything about this), Miu Miu sandals (they’re $438 now); white linen placemat moonlighting as heather grey hood

The way I did it was slightly different, but still followed classic Prada code with:

• the stripes on the hat

• the single breast coat

• the combo of crochet and suede.

Plus: a pleated skirt that falls right above the knee and a sandal for spark with a strap that goes across the ankle as opposed to around it (essential!).

One more jacket alt, this one more blazer

The most chaotic part of the whole thing though is that I used a white linen placemat to make the “hood.” None of my bandanas were starchy enough and I actually think the asymmetry element of folding over a rectangle into a triangle helps add to the deliberate disorder of the combo. I used tableware in one other look —

2. Tods’ bike short/peplum/tunic combo

The thought process that followed seeing this one went: oh, that’s good, I can totally do it with the right bike shorts and long line shirt. Would I put a skirt over the top or try to tie a scarf rectangularly? Shoe has to be wide, but it can be refined. Shape of jacket is perfect, can’t match 1:1. Will prob have to go a bit boxier. Enter:

Christopher Esber sunglasses (but now can’t stop thinking about these), Roseanna grey blazer (vest notwithstanding), High Sport black tunic (here it is in blue), linen runner-as-peplum, Alo Yoga grey knee cap leggings (these from Live The Process are back in stock and are def more pant than legging), Flowze sandals

In hindsight, I do think a pair of more technical bike shorts would have worked better but I went with the grey for the color story. They’re also actually knee cap leggings that I hiked up. (Most actual bike shorts were too short.)

The peplum is the piece of tableware — it’s a runner that I folded in half and then pinned over the black tunic to create the cascade.

Next look is prob my fav —

3. Bottega Veneta’s bodega bags and flowers, with an all khaki look, small gold hoops mandatory

Matthieu Blazy is starting to feel so much like Miuccia Prada to me in that it takes like 3 deep dives into the collections to process them entirely. You have to sip in the complete look, then break down the outfit elements, then the accessory elements, then the accessories of the accessories.

Like what even is that micro-cross hatch weave on the loafers? Is it patent, or just regular supple leather? And the bandana top of that bag! My word.

Cos jacket, Chava flannel (search vintage Hermes shirts and thrill yourself here), High Sport polo, Nackiye pants, Shiloh Heritage shoe boots

I tried to stay pretty loyal to the overall look by styling a plaid shirt under the khaki jacket to mimic the effect of the inner sleeve on the Bottega piece. Went with a yellow polo instead of pink (mostly bc I don’t have one,) and wrapped some flowers in the beaded Cordera bag to capture the spirit of the look‘s weirdness the best way I could.

Loulou Studio bag (with 20% off at checkout), Cordera bag (the beaded one) — two such highlights from Letter #81’s good handbag report

Also went harder lady bag, and chose these cowboy shoe boots (which are going to be a season’s personal hero) to mimic the rugged-but-still-put-togetherness of the shoes in the real look.

Totally missed the pre-Fall lookbook until I was trying to find a detail from this collection on Vogue Runway yesterday but two other looks from there worth considering for approximation:

Would do with denim skirt and jeans instead, prob and if you try searching for vintage Hermes flannel men’s shirts, the slight awkwardness of all the plaid prints that are becoming popular these days will make more sense. They’re so blah that they’re wow, you know? 

Prob attracted to this one bc I can make it happen with my this (see: here) but also thick stripe shirt under thin stripe tie? Ya! Ya! Super ya!

Next one is stupidly easy —