Styling The Things I'll Never Toss But Never Wear
Either highly sentimental or difficult to style or something I'm "collecting" (hoarding), I attempt to make outfits out of my least wearable pieces, and come out with some of my favorite looks ever.
Before I get into the actual meat & potatoes of this, this post & the resulting photos turned out to be more meaningful to me than I anticipated. For one thing, I put together some of the most fun, and in my opinion, best outfits I ever have. For the other, before I started working on this, I was having a truly awful day/week.
I, you, we, probably everyone in 2024 struggle with anxiety. I have it basically under control, but my Dr and I decided to fuss around with my medications, and the side effects have been uncontrollable anxious spiraling. A doomsday feeling I can’t pin on any single issue, so I can’t fix it. It’s what a blanket of dread, and it gives me waves of self-doubt and shame. I fell into a pit of what the fuck am I doing. Of course it will pass, but at the moment I do not feel horny, rich, or lazy, and the last thing I wanted to do was continue writing about myself, doing this newsletter which is so me, me, me, because this week I haven’t really liked myself very much.
That said, as soon as I put on the silver sequin jumpsuit you’re about to see, I felt something begin to crack in me. Playing dress up, treating myself with kindness in trying to create beauty and using my brain in the most fun way I can (at the end of the day, I love two things besides my family: clothes, and words) I lost the feeling that I had lost my way. Getting dressed should be fun, taking risks should be fun, and today I had so much fun. Thank you for reading and for the comments and emails and DM’s etc I get sometimes. This newsletter is so much fun for me, and it makes me feel endlessly wonderful to see other people enjoying it too. This is a good one.
So here - this week I selected a handful of things I will never, ever let go of, but also basically never ever wear, and attempted to put together outfits I’d actually leave the house in. It was a blast.
SEQUIN CATSUIT
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I love sequins, but seriously, I fucking love sequins. I have a tacky streak a mile wide. Ashish, the master of sequins, is one of my favorite designers, and years ago he did a collaboration with Warehouse, a British fast fashion brand. Naturally, I bought this silver catsuit from the collab.
It is the stupidest thing and doesn’t even fit me - it’s at least two sizes too big in the body, can you see how low the crotch is? My actual crotch is at least three inches higher. I wore it for on Halloween when I was pregnant to be a “mirror ball” but I didn’t leave the house. I’ve never worn it in earnest, never walked out my front door in it, yet I cannot get rid of it. When life throws you a sequin catsuit, you don’t let it go. This was, obviously, the most challenging piece to style in a way that I’d actually wear without irony.
This was tricky! But in the end I honestly really was into this, and I likely would wear it out except for the hell I’d put myself through if, God forbid, I needed to pee. I liked it enough with just the skirt and belt over the catsuit, but I liked it much more when the sequins felt like they were kind of peeking out. The trick with the sweater was to find one that has a very deep V neck, so that you get the hit of shiny there, then symmetrical shiny on the cuffs, then an almost mirror image shiny around the ankles. If the catsuit had a crew neck, this wouldn’t work, and I’d go for a turtleneck sweater probably. But all the places where the sequins show really balance eachother. Then, without the belt I felt it wasn’t enough silver to pull the whole thing together, so I brought in that last element to mimic the rest of the finish and help it feel cohesive. My mom, who is/was a graphic designer and art director once told me that if you’re going to have a statement bit in an image (like glitter, or a bright color) it needs to hit at least three places to feel natural and not forced or unbalanced. I’ve found that very true, and it’s something I usually keep in mind when I’m stuck with an outfit. So here the metallic is on my top third, middle third, and bottom third of my body. (I bolded that bit because if you take away one useful thing from this, I hope it’s that nugget.)
The skirt is just excellent - it’s from Everlane and is called, I shit you not, the “Dream Skirt” and it is just that. It’s very soft, with a lot of stretch and just the right length. If you’re going to have a slim pencil skirt that hits mid calf, it had better have some stretch or else you won’t be able to go up stairs or get in or out of cars. I also loved the high slit up the back so you can see a flash of the silver leggings under the skirt. Finally, the shoes are simply perfect. I’ve never found anything as perfect.
and I were DM’ing about them, and he told me he’d once chatted with the shoe designer for YSL in the 80s, who primarily referenced Charles Jourdan shoes, which makes sense. These feel very Charles Jourdan to me (unfortunately, I can never find vintage CJ in my size), but if Saint Laurent reissued these I’d buy at least one more pair because in my opinion they’re the only heels I’ll ever need.UNBELIEVABLE VINTAGE GIVENCHY COAT
This thing, is insane. When I was in my early 20s (broke) I went into a vintage store in SoHo and they were selling this Givenchy coat, which is made up of hundreds of thousands of leather strips, woven together, and forms this crazy structured kind of robe coat (I believe it’s from the McQueen years) AND its matching pencil skirt in the same material. The jacket was, like $300, and I was so stressed about buying it but I had to have it. I couldn’t afford the skirt and it’s one of my great regrets to this day.
It is so unusual and so beautiful, but also so specific and Southwestern feeling that I never, ever wear it. I tried for years to make it work for me, but ultimately always felt like I was wearing a costume or trying too hard. So!
I think in the past I tried to make a standout item feel less showy by wearing it with extremely neutral or boring things. That styling feels very outdated to me, it reminds me of being in the early 2010’s, when we would wear something like a crazy skirt back to a white tee or a Breton top. Kind of pussyfooting around something spectacular. Now I know the best way to wear it is to not try and play down how weird or nutty the item is, but lean in. The best way I could lean in was matching leather with leather with this beyond belief beautiful Rosetta Getty leather jacket I borrowed for an event for her (which I should honestly stop posting because I dread the day when I have to return it), and a pair of silk slightly slubby trousers from The Row, which! Incidentally! I’ve also never worn because I’m so scared of ruining them. This is their year to shine.
I love the contrast between the shiny soft bomber and the stiff jacket but that they’re both leather. I love how slouchy and mensy this whole thing is. The mannish-ness of it really made it feel very good but still very glamorous. I feel like that 80s Connecticut dad, but also like a hot bitch.
DRIES VAN NOTEN X LACROIX PANTS
Ok, so this was from the Spring 2020 DVN collection, that was in collaboration with Christian Lacroix. It was stunning and magical and one of the most beautiful collections I’ve ever seen anywhere from anyone. I LOVED these pants on the runway, and then Covid hit, and it seems that while much of the collection was produced, probably many stores cancelled their orders (bc Covid) and thus, a lot of the pieces would up on The Real Real, which is where I came by these crazy puffy peplum pants in silk moiré. I wore them to a very special wedding in Houston in 2021, but I haven’t since.
I honestly really like this outfit as is - the navy tee is so good, I probably should have put on a bra, but I didn’t. And Dries is really the king of pants, I can’t find these anywhere, but here are a bunch of great ones on sale. Ok - but to WEAR them…
OK! Oh boy, I LOVE this. The blazer is a very crisp and perfect one from Bottega, the scarf is vintage Mary McFadden, and these shoes are another thing I never wear but will never ever toss. I wore them to my wedding reception and when I bought them I thought they were the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. They’re way too tall for me to actually wear now, but God I loved them so much!
So here, obviously the pants look great with a tee, but they’re so special, I wanted to make them feel special. At first I thought a nubby texture on top would be good to contrast with the shiny fabric of the pants, but then I tried it and it looked wrong. The shinyness of the silk scarf was perfect, and it had that kind of slouchyness that I like in all my clothes. The volume of the top also echoed the volume of the pants, so again, play into the weirdness, don’t try to hide it. I also love how the shirt framed my back. I’ve been doing pilates, so haaaayyy! It’s a giant rectangular scarf and I just tied it around my neck and then around my back. The blazer gave it a boy-ish feel, but then the shoes are so girly. It’s a really satisfying mish mash of textures and styles that I feel so excellent in.
So yes, I will definitely be wearing a few of these things - unlikely that I will ever wear the catsuit, but still. It was really fun to challenge myself to put these together in a way that felt very natural and very me, and in terms of reviving one’s own style or getting out of a rut, I HIGHLY suggest trying this little exercise at home.
I’m running out of space, but thank you for reading, if you DO try this yourself, please send me pictures (DM me! Reply to this email!) - I want to hear how it goes!
x Laurel
Thank you for being so funny and honest and relatable and creative. I hope the meds land right sooner rather than later and that one night you leave the house in that cat suit 😘
Love this post so much, the looks, the words, the stories, the joy and healing that can come from play and passion. Thank you for sharing it with us and I’m totally taking away a lot of ideas as well as hope and grace from it.