The humidity may have dropped, but the temperature just keeps on rising. 78 degrees at 8 AM? That’s damn near uncivilized!
With the threat of melting ever-looming (Isn’t that euphemistic? What I really mean to say is, when you’re all too aware that your ladylike glisten could degrade into an ungodly sweat at any moment), the idea is, the fewer clothes, the wispier the fabric, the better. And forget layering!
But not in New York. Even in the summer, the layering muscle (always well-toned amongst the our most stylish friends) never goes unexercised. Here are some summer layering techniques those of us in NYC have definitely gotten the hang of:
**Necklaces: why wear one when you can wear three? I myself layer two: a short strand of pearls on a gold chain, paired with chunky wooden beads.
**Tanks: Now in its third summer, who would’ve thought the racerback tank would still look so sexy? These tanks look even better with one poking out under the other. My favorite racerback is the American Apparel Rib Racerback Tank (you can buy them here in just about a million colors).
**Bags: Unless I’m going out at night, I don’t pack light, and I can never fit everything I need into the dainty little handbags I’m so attracted to when shopping. To carry it all, buy that clutch an older brother, like this Prada Robot tote bag.
**Bangles: I’m almost sick of the arm-stacked-with-bangles look, but not quite! I love bakelite bangles (the quiet ones). I spotted this lovely green one on eBay. Maybe you can still catch it.
Probably for the same reason I don’t study up on the members of my various favorite bands, I really do not take more than a passing interest in designers as people. It’s not that I fail to appreciate talented folks– it’s just that, like in the case of music, it’s the creative product that I care about. Talking about a designer is so amorphous; I prefer to discourse on a particular piece or line (and then I can go on forever).
However, when designers start talking style theory, when they manage to inspire me to try new looks, to wear things different ways, I start to pay attention. This month I unearthed two nuggets of inspiration buried in pretty divergent publications: the first is from July’s Glamour; the second, the July 4th issue of The New Yorker. Both are sage sentiments courtesy of– you guessed it– designers:
** “In [John] Galliano’s book, perhaps the biggest fashion Don’t isn’t putting together a bad outfit (kudos to you for trying!, he’d say); instead it’s getting stuck in a style rut, wearing the same looks over and over again.”
I hear that! Easy as it may be to throw on those tried-and-true hit outfits, repetition erodes any undertone of risk, of subversion. Wear a new ensemble, something you swore you wouldn’t leave the house in, and you’re a sharpened knife.
** “Yohji [Yamamoto] likes to say that ‘perfection is the devil’”
Hallelujah! Have you ever felt dissatisfied with an outfit and realized it’s because it’s just all too perfect? Worse yet, that it all matches?!? I say nothing beats a well-executed clash. Black and navy? Oh yes, please. Stripes and flowers? I’ll take seconds.