Towel clothes: the look of peak summer
Stay dry, look fly
Thesis: Terrycloth clothes are a new big thing in kitschy fashion trends.
What do you mean by kitschy? Fashion has become much more literally theatrical in the age of social sharing and followings and likes and ~setting the virtual scene~ for your “content” (lookbook photos) (iPhone library outtakes) to be well received.
As part of this, many fashion trends have taken on a kind of cartoony quality where they are almost goofy parodies of themselves because of how extreme they’ve gotten. So color isn’t just bright, it’s neon. Square toes on heels are more like jagged boxes, drapery is like a shark fin
and towels — not the lightweight textiles or warm weather iterations of velour fashioned into clothing — now make for the best summer garments.
Me, personally, I like a straightforward expression of playfulness in clothes. It’s a low stakes way to project a lightheartedness — a nice antidote to the smog of These Days, absolutely, but death, taxes and root canals more generally too. You can wear anything or nothing so if it interests you, why not go silly?
Whose responsible for this trend? La Veste and Gabriel ForSach (big summer in Spain energies) on the young small brand scale — they sell terry dresses and skirts/sarongs, t-shirts and capes respectively.
Two other examples in this vein: Terry Toweling, an Australian brand dedicated to terry and started exclusively with cabana sets evokes an Neapolitan summer spirit and Tombolo collaborated on a capsule collection with Le Sireneuse, a hotel in Positano (off the Amalfi Coast) where terry polos and button downs presented pervasively.
☝🏻 I think I just mean “there are lots of polos and button downs. 👇🏻
From high fashion, I think we can mostly thank Jacquemus (see: here, here/here) for this entree into the Zeitgeist, though Prada’s commercial line has done a good amount of terry for the summer season too (there was a towel mini skirt on the Spring 2020 runway too) — then J.W. Anderson showed a full blue towel look for Spring 2015, and dating back even further, Chanel had a number of terry jackets on the Resort 2012 runway.
Also, actually, Lisa Marie Fernandez, resort wear queen of the castle, has been doing this for ages — since like, 2014.
Okay, I’m bought in, now what should I do as in where should I start? By roadmapping whether you’d actually wear them. If you think that you would, think about how.
My preferred way is by turning them on their heads — like a seaside poncho with fancy silk trousers or with unlikely office shirts but likely shorts.
Worth mentioning is that wearing them the literal way works too (over a bathing suit, or your naked body), and that they’re efficient as hell to the extent that if you sweat, they’ll also wipe you down.
Here are some good passes at terry cloth basics if you’re into it.
Missing from the above is only this polo from Kule, this top from Etsy, this dress (!!) from Johanna Ortiz, and I’m throwing in this cropped cardigan, which seems like a good mate for red shorts or over a dress like maybe this one.
And that concludes this edish. Signing off,
Leandra
More good towel clothes c/o Dasa Vrzic: https://instagram.com/houseofkiwiofficial?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Hi Leandra
I know this post is old but very very much want to know where the yellow Terry cloth jacket is in your selfie! ❤️❤️