135/ What I'm Wearing: November 2024
+ colour combo inspo + Alaia try-on at My Theresa + going out outfits
Congratulations to the final winner of In Moda Veritas’ Shop Small Giveaway: the $500 gift certificate to VSP Consignment goes to
!During this BFCM/holiday/sales period, consider turning to the small businesses which directly support families in your community. As you’re inundated with ads, notifications, and emails (including from yours truly), the new documentary on Netflix, Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy, is ever so timely. One reviewer notes:
As “Buy Now! The Shopping Experience” opens, we get to know Maren Costa, a former Amazon “used experience designer” and inventor of the “one buy click.” She details the enormous amount of science that goes into the Amazon buyer experience leading to super easy and quick (impulse?) purchases.
If you watch today, it just may be the antidote to your *add to cart* and *place order* behaviour over the weekend.
As I was surfing the net this week, I came upon these two images independently of each other:
Yes, the accessories and textures are beautiful, but I screenshotted both because I see deep plum, purple and even brown, being used as neutral-ish foundational pieces in place of the usual Ring 1 and 2 trouser, skirt, or jumper.
Consider this an addendum to my guide to injecting colour into (realistic) corporate outfits:
Straddling Rings 2 and 3, I think of deep plum as a “Ring 2.5 colour,” if you will. Like a Ring 2, it’s neutral enough that it can be matched with most colours. At the same time, it has an underlying hue that gives it a Ring 3 “non-colour colour” quality. Together, the results are: 1) easy-to-create colour combinations that 2) feel unexpected and even intriguing.
Tell me you wouldn’t look twice if you saw these colour combos walking past your desk:
While scrolling Pinterest, I also saved outfits that stood out for their delightfully unorthodox colour combinations. As I wrote in my flexible guide to colours:
In terms of what colours to choose, in my experience, I’ve learned to not overthink it. A Ring 2 neutral will go with most Ring 3s. I have a meager selection of Ring 3 pieces to choose from, and I’ve been surprised at how many combinations I’ve been able to put together from my random pieces.
As the outfits below demonstrate, you never know what will go together. Frankly, some of the palettes initially registered to me as ugly — I’m looking at you Miu Miu. Yet, I couldn’t help but keep looking; and, the more I looked, the more I appreciated their complexity. In conclusion, throw your colours together and give space for the alchemy to unfurl.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who reached out with warm wishes for my dad. He’s still in hospital and will be for some time. I continue to spend half the week with him in my workout clothes, but I also managed to go out a few times recently.
A couple of weeks ago, My Theresa carted a showroom’s worth of their most exquisite pieces across the border for an intimate viewing at the Four Seasons Toronto.
I posted change room videos on IG stories, including one in this magnificent Alaia spiral dress. Upon receiving DMs about it, I realized that some people thought I actually bought it! Just to be clear: no, I didn’t!
I try on clothes all the time as part of my market research and I figure why not share the process with my followers? My try-on stories are meant to help people visualize how clothes fit and fall, how fabrics and details look up close, and/or see clothes they normally don’t see IRL.
Alaia’s entire FW24 collection was an exquisite work of craftsmanship and I was thrilled to try the dress on! But, it’s C$17,000, people! I mean, if it’s in your budget, exclusive tip: it’s TTS (I’m wearing a size up). And, FWIW, it’s only 4x more expensive than Ann Demeulemeester’s Nouky leather “top” (C$3845) yet provides way more coverage. On the other hand, see @izzipoopi’s $5 DIY version here (she’s adorable!).
I also tried on Magda Butrym wool-alpaca coat which could have been the next Raey coat for its versatility and functionality … except that it costs — according to my friend — “the FMV of my car.” Luckily for my friend, her mother passed down a similar vintage coat to her. No one is pretending this H&M coat is the same thing, but please do turn your notifications on. I’ve had great feedback about it.
I truly loved both the dress and jacket, but you know, the Five Questions and all…
This is what I wore to the showroom:
A few days later, my husband and I attended a fairly formal bar mitzvah. There were a lot of cocktail dresses in attendance, but I went for separates, including this Monse blazer I bought on clearance at Forty Five Ten at Hudson Yards before it closed down.
Last week, Absolutely Fabrics hosted a dinner party with guests of honour Henry Zankov, Christopher John Rogers, and Rachel Scott of Diotima. YES, Diotima is now available in Toronto! AF kindly gifted me Zankov’s Anatolia dress, and I purchased the skirt separately. I adore the effect of them worn together but they’ll also be worn separately in the future.
I fussed over the look for an hour because the outfit felt incomplete. Jewellery wasn’t helping, and neither was a statement bag nor different shoes. Ultimately it was this random red bandana I spotted lying around my house that tied the whole look together. Given its size, my guess is that it used to be a part of a stuffie!
A couple of weekend outfits —
And, finally, just an outfit I put together for fun and didn’t wear anywhere!
Drop your Pinterest profile link! I want to follow you.
I love brown/burgundy/wine as a new neutral. So much black coming out this season (again) and I've found myself wishing items came in a brown/burgundy/wine colorway. I have also been incorporating some pops of blue for fun (hello, new Knife mules!)
I recently re-read your post, Five Questions I Ask Myself Before I Buy Anything. I was particularly interested in your mention of pairing down your shoe collection. I am wondering if you could say more about scaling down one’s shoe collection. If I had the guts to cull my shoe collection, what are the core shoe types and colors you’d recommend?