Toe cleavage becomes us
Letter of Rec #067 with thoughts on creative work, the return of capri jeans, great young brands to know and the shoe(s) of the season
I have been thinking a lot about creative work — about the kind of people who do creative work and the processes they develop around it. For a while I’ve been thinking that I’m craving a break, not because of burn out or a lack of energy or even because I’m dead on ideas but because I’m curious to see what else is here: what new expressions of creativity want to reveal themselves. More long form, more food pairings, physical production? You can know with your gut that something else wants to get out of you, but it’s hard to know what when you’re in a tunnel of routine.
Which makes me wonder, too, about the expectations we set as creatives who write online. For the most part, people who are lucky enough to do creative work full-time seem to work in sprints, you know?
You write the book, you record the album, you finish the painting, then you release it out into the world and you rest. Maybe you rest. Hopefully you don’t get caught on the wheel of checking for feedback — from too much experience and probably not enough discipline, this is usually what kills the magic of big ideas.
But when you create for the internet, whether here or anywhere else, there’s no expectation that you’ll take a break. That you’ll stop after a season of consistent output, rest for a month/recharge if you have to and return when you feel ready. Why not?
I love Rick Rubin’s philosophy on creativity and was reminded last week of one thing he says, which gave me a feeling of calm (usually how I know something is capital-T-True): you can’t create for other people. And that’s what we do, whether we’re conscious of it or not, when we keep going even though something says to slow down. The thing is, that work is never as good, because on a soul level, it has to be for you.
For a lot of us, creative work is precisely how our souls move, how our inner worlds make progress to reflect our exterior lives. Not really sure where this leaves me just yet but it’s a reminder for both of us, in case you need it too.
Onwards to the fashion:
(…No, seriously, I have been wearing these 👆🏻 pants with everything 👇🏻)
And of course…
Toe cleavage becomes us
I can sense the halo of Phoebe Philo’s effect growing wider and brighter but it’s different this time. It feels quieter, more subtle, a little homegrown. I think that’s the era of establishment we’re in: where everything good feels like an intimate, creative project. This happened with blogs and didn’t end well but maybe we’ve shifted into an era that looks and feels similar (see: Substack) because it was never what the blogs made that was off. It was more like the mindset for many of us — the end goal of becoming something more professional.
Maybe slow, steady, and a little messy is the new buttoned-up, fast, and loud.
As far as Philo and the world she’s inventing around her clothes and the drops and how they’re presented: I like it and what it reflects — a sort of mind-your-own-business and make what you love approach to creating new fashion.
There were 3 pairs of shoes from her most recent launch that caught my attention because of how low their throats were.
Can you even call the top of a shoe a throat when it’s more like a bra one size too small?
My point is that this is one of Phoebe’s superpowers: all this time, glove silhouettes have become so pervasive it has almost seemed like the shape of the ballet flat was changed forever. But leave it to her to remind us real fast that we know nothing for certain.
I smell a big revival on the imminent horizon from Repetto and their Cendrillon flat. Ditto that for Louboutin’s classic pump (and peep toe), and in the mean time here’s one noteworthy decision Danielle Goldberg made when she put Kaia Gerber in this look from Alaia:
Toe cleavage becomes us!
A good option at market right now comes from none other than Saint Laurent with these.
Great young brands to know
Here are five that have recently lifted the dull veil from over my eyes.
A.M.G. Ukrainian brand that makes really nice crochet pieces. They offered me a dress (the one with the knit boob cups from the limbo dressing post) and a jacket. Other hits: this skirt, this dress, maybe this jacket.
Caro Luna. Spanish brand, bathing suits and some surprising dresses. I think I can swing this one rn, no? But my eye’s really on this suit and the matching pareo.
Lucie Claudia. Not clothes, glassware. From a one-woman show based in the Czech Republic. I am hooting and howling and wild about these glass flowers!!!
Bibliotheque Nationale. Ukrainian brand with playsuits and summer suits, lingerie skirts, beach skirts and t-shirts with feather cap sleeves. The shorts are simple, the blouses are fun. The prices are right.
Not at all new, but new to me is Frankie’s Bikinis, and I would like to call your attention specifically to this dress, this skirt and this tank.
And then actually, here’s an addendum care of Charlie Rosen (who helps me with the market work for this newsletter, and shoots all the pictures not taken with a selfie timer): Brooke Callahan, who makes the ideal low rise straight-but-wide leg pant and these darling matching tops or dresses. The colors are great.
I’m partial towards the yellow that looks more like chartreuse and the pool blue (to pair, prob, with brown). There are also these glass necklaces; she is my fav. of the loot.
Guess what? I have another addendum, this one is a small brand by the French stylist for Elle France, Chloe Dugast. Her brand is called Antivol and I’m pretty sure these are the best leather jackets at market right now.
Perf 2 is my #1, with Perf 1 and Perf 3 fighting for second place.
There’s a range beyond leather jackets too. Enjoy!
…And make that 7 young brands to know.
Capri jeans are back
Should have seen this one coming the moment I laid eyes on the pedal pushers at Sandy Liang and Phillip Lim last September, then for the anterior, again in Feb.