You're the Right Kind of Wrong

How to make bad taste work.

Before we get into it, we’re hosting a KILLER trunkshow tomorrow at Earl IRL with Bell & Bird, and they have the best antique and vintage jewelry I’ve ever seen in my life. Anywhere. We’re welcoming walk-in’s, appointments, browsers, shoppers, gift-buyers, hint-senders, all of it. I will be freaking out all day trying everything on, and I would love to see you and show you my favorite things.

427 N Canon Drive, Ste 209 - Beverly Hills, 90210

Free parking for 2 hours in the garage next door.

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I didn’t know what I was shooting when I started this newsletter today. Sometimes I have a theme, and a how-to, other times I have a mood or a challenge for myself. Today was just kind of free association dressing. The other day I told someone I could spend fifteen minutes on an outfit or fifty five minutes on it and the result would be the same. That I’m so emotional in how I get dressed (not like, sobbing in my closet emotional, I mean I go by feeling rather than look) that I don’t really need to think about it. In fact, it’s better when I don’t think about it too much—that’s when I get in trouble.

Ok, when I say something is ugly, what I mean is that it’s intersting, not obvious, and…a little ugly. I love this skirt, but I also think it’s ugly. It’s matte sequins in a snakeskin pattern and it’s Dries (here’s the jacket version very much on sale, and another skirt with a fun pattern and the same shape, and here’s another with sequins from TWP, or try this from Veronica Beard, or this from J.Crew in a loud floral), and I think it looks perfect with the gray Polo shirt. The Polo is so familiar and so unquestionably good, but is not the obvious choice for a skirt like this, so….it works. The shoes are Khaite and I love them.

Hold that thought while I introduce this new one. There have been so many times (and I’m sure this has happened to you too) where a friend, acquaintance or colleague has said: Laurel I found this bag/skirt/shoe and it is SO YOU! You need it! And then I look at the thing and it’s like…a felt bag made to look like a cuckoo clock or a sequin fedora or jeans with graffiti all over them. And in that moment I feel distinctly let down by my own impulses. How can I feel that I have it so right, and yet communicate things so wrong. Obviously nobody understands your nuances like you do, and I guarantee I’ve done this to every single one of my friends too. It really goes back to nobody thinking about you nearly as much as you think about yourself and how freeing that is, but in the moment, I forget that. Nobody is perfect!

Another great Dries skirt! This one is in two pieces. The inner part is just a sheer plain kind of a-line skirt, and the outer part is the frilly ruffly bit you see. So you COULD wear them separately. The fluffy part is nuts. And then I put it with an Eileen Fisher little shirt jacket in a tight gingham. I felt great. Same Khaite shoes.

I think I have good taste, but I think my good taste comes a lot from embracing and incorporating things that are bad or ugly. But only specific bad and ugly things, I have to have a reaction to them. My bad taste extends to my personality—I can be crass and bawdy, I like a dirty joke, I like to talk about money. I can be loud if I’m feeling good, and that can seem tacky. I have never, ever been one for subtlety, and when I was younger I got my feelings hurt a lot because this person didn’t like me, or someone didn’t invite me. We all want to be liked, and I love attention so my inclination is to want to be adored, but being universally “liked” usually actually means being merely “tolerated.” Which is boring. Unless you’re Dolly Parton in which case you are perfect and everyone loves you. But the point is, not everyone liking you is a good thing, I’ve decided. It means you are singular and bold and have enough flavor that not everyone will find it delicious.

These Madesome pants are IT! We have them in the store, email me! Earl@earlirl.com. They are unquestionably cute, as is the Polo linen shirt, but the shoes are from the new Coco Beach collection and they look like something a scuba diver would wear, except heavy and clompy. I love them so much. They suit the surf vibe because they’re nautical and sporty, and then the Polo linen shirt is, again, so correct and familiar, it makes all of it feel like a real outfit rather than a costume.

But also, what’s not to love about something a little wrong? A hideous jacket, a terrible shoe, something that gives you the creeps and thrills you at the same time. It’s like calling an ex or dipping your french fries in a milkshake. A little shiver of repulsion and delight!

This is a good one. Loud floral print scuba blazer (this one from J.Crew is not similar at all, but it is fantastic) + army paint pants (these are Auralee and they’re sold out but I love these too) + fashion Tevas (courtesy of Jamie Haller, they’re mostly sold out but try these) + a logo belt. This is truly getting dressed in the dark, but you’ll see the reason I think it works below.

At this point, I have basically no vices left. I don’t drink, don’t smoke, vape, or zyn. I go to bed early, I channeled all my addict energy into my work and into working out.

More outfits + my how-to on ugly dressing after the fold.