March Hot Thoughts
The anti-sweats Meghan Markle and I love, a wistful Hermes report, and the glory of dumb reads.
I’ve been feeling so impatient about spring, refusing to wear my heavy coats anymore at the expensive of my body temperature. Practicality be damned! All one needs this time of year is a chunky fleece or a sweater/light jacket combo. It’s also the first time I’ve been home for an entire month without traveling at all in over a year. As much as I love to go new places, there’s something comforting about an empty weekend day where all I manage to do is wash a few dishes, organize my closet and listen to podcasts. I wish you the peace of an obligationless day as well.
Ahead you’ll find a little round up of small bits and bobs I’ve been collecting to share with you this month. I’ve done these sporadically over the last year, but I’m debating a more fastidious approach in which I’ll have a few small recommendations and thoughts for you to enjoy at your leisure at the end of every month. From the aspirational to the everyday, there’s lots to gnaw on, so I hope you enjoy!
P.S. A fun housekeeping note: next Saturday April 5, I’ll be hosting a closet sale in Bed Stuy with a gaggle of my industry friends. I’m busy cleaning out my closet and going through all the spring and summer things I’ve had stored away, deciding what I’ll part with for good. Please join — and come say hi! Anyways…onwards!
1. The Best Dirty Martini I’ve Ever Had
If last year I was a negroni girl, this year is feeling like my martini year. The best I had was made for me by my friend Adam using this extra bright, briny and delicious Olive juice that he found on Amazon instead of traditional brine. While I love ordering a fancy martini out on the town (especially if it comes with bar snacks and a little sidecar on ice a la Bemelmans’), the rich salty, olive-y flavor is unmatched, as if its straight off the tree from Italy or Sonoma.
2. The Hermes Bag On My Watchlist
In the midst of a crazy-busy few weeks of appointments, I popped by the Hermes offices to see the Fall/Winter ‘25 collection up close. More than bags, I’m usually pretty swept up by the brand’s leather and suede outerwear, which I think tends to fly under the radar. But, this new purse silhouette, the Besace Attelée hasn’t left my mind! It’s functional with an adjustable crossbody/shoulder strap, and I like that it’s a clean silhouette with minimal hardware — my kind of quiet luxury baby! Now we wait for the price tag… I’d say RIP my bank account, but I’m a Capricorn and let’s be honest, I’m just going to pine from afar.
3. The Gap Pants Meghan Markle And I Agree On
There was lots of banter this month over Meghan Markle’s move to ShopMy (welcome sis!), but my only hot take is that her selection was a bit of a snooze. A carefully curated grouping of Montecito clothes (neutral, soft, inoffensive) that could really use a little punch of Marni or Dries or at least a little bit of color to mix things up. Still, there was one thing we can agree on: Gap’s Cashsoft sweater pants. In fact, at this exact moment I’m wearing mine - they’re the ideal Sunday pant, lazy but definitively not sweats. I like the drawstring version (on sale for $55) but since the sizes left are limited, go with Meghan’s pick, the Shaker Stitch version (on sale for $40), with a soft rib.
4. A Hack For Shopping High Fashion’s Musical Chairs
Whether you keep up with all the moving and shaking at Kering or not, prepare for things to look a little different on the runways in the year ahead. Some changes, like Jonathan Anderson to Dior and Matthieu Blázy to Chanel, I’m excited to see, though I am still waiting for Martine Rose or Grace Wales Bonner to get a crack at something big. I wrote a piece for Harper’s Bazaar about how creative director superfans navigate all the job-swapping.
One fun shopping hack I pulled from it is that The Real Real is continuing to step up its search function reacting to shoppers looking for specific eras at a brand. TRR’s Head of Fashion and Strategic Partnerships Nicole Sciacca told me: “[Creative directors] are becoming their own celebrity and search term.” I already had a Phoebe Philo search saved, but I’ll be building out an entire roster now.
5. High, Medium, And Low Brow Reads
My book club has been leaning pretty hard into female sci-fi writers over the last year and I’m really captivated by the way that even the older books explore so many modern issues through unique world building. So far we’ve read Kindred, The Wall, I Who Have Never Known Men, and next Left Hand of Darkness. Exploring the ideas of womanhood, identity, loneliness, etc. etc.
But, like dessert to a healthy dinner of thoughtful consumption, I crave the feeling of speeding through something not so serious. So something like Onyx Storm scratches an itch to be transported somewhere silly for five days. A good dessert book should be one you’re slightly embarrassed to be caught reading IMO.
I used to be strict about reading one book at a time and finishing it completely, but having suffered through a few I couldn’t finish before my Libby loan came due, I’m trying to go a bit easier on myself. I abandoned Rejection, and I’m mid-way through both Homeseeking and When Women Ran Fifth Avenue (though I plan to finish both).
If you have any reading recommendations, my goal is to hit 18 books this year and I’m always looking for new ideas.
6. More Pants! And More Springy Stuff
Substack queen
hosted a dinner with Madewell and this is the look I wore — the Ruffled top ($98), The Dean jeans ($148), and Maycie sandals ($118). I think my style leans sporty and I tend to be picky about the more romantic, girly pieces I pick up, but I like the idea of styling a flouncy top with pieces that contrast its femininity. I’ve been feeling like I’m in a bit of a top rut anyway, it feels like I swap between button-downs and tees with nothing else to offer. So I’m spending the next few months experimenting with some styles that push a little bit out of what I’d usually go for.7. Vintage That Makes My Heart Flutter
Last weekend I hopped on my bike to the Domino Sugar Factory and waded through the chaos that was the Manhattan Vintage Fair. For anyone looking for a bargain, it was the wrong event, everything is expensive, but trying to squeeze by the hundreds of other shoppers I stumbled upon two vintage booths that got my pulse up.
Cabinet 49: A seller of lots of antique opera and theatre costumes. I feel like normally describing an outfit as feeling costume-y is something I’d dread. It’s a faux paus to feel like the clothes are wearing you and not the other way around, but I couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the incredible colors and textures. Like maybe I can pull off a tunic and bloomers.
The Falls: The incredible founders are based in Kingston and source and upcycle the most beautiful vintage pieces, adding custom beadwork and embroidery and rescuing delicate pieces that are down on their luck. I tried on a few dresses only to be foiled by how tiny women’s rib cages were back then. But had one of their custom red silk dresses from the 30’s actually been able to zip, I would have taken it home. Sneak peek of me in it here if you’re curious.
8. A Piece Of Advice
I went to a chat hosted by Beth Hutchens of Foundrae featuring Alison Loehnis, Tata Harper, and Brooke Wall — a veritable bouquet of power women. At the end of the Q&A portion, Beth said something that hit me hard enough that I whipped out my phone app and wrote it down. “The thing that you do that you’re embarrassed about, that’s your strength. Focus on what makes you an outlier.” Sometimes the words that you need in the moment are the things that find you. As someone who’s prone to self doubt and who has a running mental list of flaws to work on, I was taken by the idea of refocusing on how some of these things that feel like shortcomings may actually have more power than I give them credit for.
Thx and see you next time!
love those madewell jeans!
Wow love that piece of advice. Such an interesting take that I will definitely be thinking about