(Long) Weekend Edition
(Long) Weekend Edition
#15 arriving early in your inboxes ahead of the holiday weekend
Hi!
Happy 4th of July. I’ve spent the early part of this week taking screenshots of brands’ websites, ads, and influencers on social media. Why? To help convey to our European design team how Americans really lean into a theme when it comes to getting dressed. (We’re in the middle of designing Summer 2025.) I’ve saved tons of images of flag sweaters, gingham dresses, and chinos with embroidered lobsters to send over the pond.
Do you have your outfit picked out? I do. I’m going simple with a textured navy cotton sundress from Everlane. (I have to avoid white. I’m putting the over-under on the number of ketchup stains at four.) I’ll add one of my bandanas around my neck, with red leather ballet shoes from Cos. I, too, am not immune to a theme.
The Europeans might roll their eyes at us - and they do, but the joke’s on them because it’s fun to get dressed up. And what’s the point of fashion, if not to have fun? (Besides its role as a tool for political communication, self-identification and expression, rebellion, artistry, and a trillion-dollar economic engine, obviously.) But the main point, I think, is to have fun (that’s kind of the main point of all of this…but I digress).
Honestly, I’m usually kind of a boring dresser. I’ve been wearing a variation on the “eclectic preppy” theme for decades. (I distinctly remember describing my wardrobe that way to a friend, feeling like I’d finally figured myself out by putting a name to my “style.” I was probably 22, lol.) As I’ve gotten older, it’s veered more into classic prep, with some truly weird curveballs thrown in now and again. I buy different versions of Ithaca striped shirts, Breton striped shirts, navy or plaid or striped blazers, denim, anything olive green, and then I’ll be inexplicably attracted to something like an army jacket (makes sense so far) embellished with a riot of embroidered flowers and sequins and lined with sherpa (a pivot!).
Last month when I was in London I stumbled upon the Sargent and Fashion exhibit at the Tate Britain. My husband and I were on an epic walk along the Thames, and there it was. (It’s open until July 7 so if you happen to be lucky enough to be spending your 4th of July lording victory over the Brits in person, go!) A fashion exhibit featuring one of my favorite artists?! (Manet and Hopper are the other two if you are curious.) I was so thrilled, and it did not disappoint. As I wandered through, staring at Sargent’s major works and studying his less familiar ones, reading about how he dressed his subjects to his exacting and exciting vision, I learned that Sargent not only captured the honesty and beauty of the people he painted, but he helped craft their image. He was not just one of our most talented portraitists, he was also an incredible stylist.
In terms of putting it on your tax return, a fashion stylist is a modern job, officially emerging in the last thirty years or so. (In the 1970s, John T. Molloy wrote a book called Dress for Success, and TIME Magazine called him “America’s first wardrobe engineer.”1) But the word was first used in 1795, and the concept of a visual storyteller is as old as humanity.2
A fashion stylist today is not quite a designer and not quite an editor. A stylist is an image-maker. Look at The Row, which just dropped its Spring 2025 lookbook and sent the fashion internet into a frenzy. Brian Malloy (I assume no relation to John T.!?) styled the looks, and people have been talking more about him than the brand’s designers, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen (yes, of former Full House fame). Because in many ways, it’s not about the clothes, it’s about what the clothes convey. Which I believe is aspirational boredom, a term coined by Leandra Medine Cohen, one of my favorite fashion writers.
On boredom, she writes:
It’s the well from which creativity springs, a corner stone of refining your imagination. If I had to guess, this is why there’s a longing for boredom present at all — we want our minds back.
Yes, please! (And what luck! My boring style is back on trend!)
So maybe don’t think too much about your 4th of July fits. Throw on some good ole red, white, or blue, grab a book, and plop yourself in a beach chair, or an Adirondack chair, or a hammock. Doze off, drop your book, wake up, let your mind wander.
Have fun, but also: be bored.
See you next week!
x Lindsay
