058/ What I'm Wearing: Weeks 40 & 41
A fortnight of Ivy Style and Prada inspo + looking ahead to Dries Van Noten for spring 2024
What I’m Wearing is a series where I share all of the outfits I’ve worn over a given week (or two), along with styling notes, links and related thoughts. If you see an outfit you like on my Instagram, you’ll find it here.
Note: This is a long newsletter — click through to read in full if it gets cut off in your inbox!
A Fortnight Of Khaki
After a month on the road wearing some of my more special pieces — lace skirts, tulle tops, taffeta dresses, and the like — I was in the mood to dispense with excess and nestle into my comfy classics.
In my case, “classics” means the stalwarts of Ivy Style: navy blazers, burgundy loafers, crewneck sweaters, button-up shirts and a lot of khaki — mainly these mildly-pleated, mildly-balloon shaped Zara chinos which I wholeheartedly recommend. I opted for tan (also available in navy) because I don’t have many (any?) lighter coloured bottoms suitable for fall/winter. If the past two weeks were any indication, I’ll get a lot of use out of them.
(If you haven’t listened to the 7-part Ivy Style podcast on , please do! I learned so much about the history of American — and Japanese — fashion and culture.)
Temperatures were still balmy two weeks ago, and I turned to my vintage YSL khaki shorts, a variation on a pair my mom wore in the ‘80s. I paired them with a navy wool blazer and burgundy tassel loafers — all three in the most classic of proportions.
There’s no rule that you need to modernize your classics. But if you want to, the “lever system” I wrote about in my last WIW applies here too:
I visualize this idea like a lever system: each element of your outfit is one force which moves it in a certain direction. An element could pull an outfit towards a certain aesthetic, and/or dictate its level of formality.
Tossing in a modern piece — the colourful, metallic fringe top — in an otherwise classic outfit steps the look out of 100% prep territory, and into something more rooted in today. Contrary to what I wrote above, I recognize this top is very much “excess,” but hey, I’m a capricious woman, okay?
On the other hand, had I worn an Oxford shirt or turtleneck with this outfit, I’d fit right in on the campus of Vasser in the 1950s. (Side note: I wonder how many Asians attended the Ivys back then, in contrast to the controversy surrounding quotas today?)
Another way to manipulate the lever is to play with proportions.
For the rest of the fortnight, I paired my new Zara chinos with more pieces out of Ivy Style’s canon. I’d been looking for a dark/midnight navy button-up to add to my already very-navy wardrobe. This is not a complaint, or a “I buy too much of one thing” situation. First, I don’t have a navy shirt, and second, navy is so versatile as a base colour; I can easily pair it with other neutrals, colours, and even with itself. Navy + grey + oatmeal = my fall/winter neutral trifecta.
Enter Tibi’s cut-out shirt which I picked up during fashion week:
Here, all my pieces are classic, but with some modernizing elements, e.g. the slightly balloon/tapered proportions of the chino and the cut-outs in the shirt. The tweaks are subtle and you can clearly draw a straight line to the outfit’s first cousin here:
Onto another Ivy staple: tweed.
Tweed arose in Scotland in the 1700s where it was worn by rural workers for its warmth, wind-resistance and robustness. By the early 1800s, British aristocrats with country estates in the highlands adopted it and, from there, tweed moved its way into the middle classes and eventually the preppy repertoire. (Who has read the Official Preppy Handbook? Hands up in the comments, please!)
In a separate lineage, in the late 19th century, women began adopting tweed as a political stance to challenge the social coding of entrenched gender roles. In 1924, tweed entered Coco Chanel’s collection, evolving into the tweed set we’re most familiar with today — which is where my Valentino jacket finds a more closer relative:
The lever that’s modernizing this outfit is the proportions of the tweed jacket: its dropped shoulder, zip-up, and sporty vibe moves it away from both the classic Harris tweed sports jacket, and Chanel’s boxy blazer.
For a similar look, I found a well-priced, no-label wool blend jacket on Poshmark that I’d be curious to try (I think that’s Japanese on the care label (?) if anyone wants to sleuth out its origins).
Finally, two more looks featuring the same Zara chinos, this time with classic knit jumpers. In the outfit above, the modernizing levers are the tabi flats, pleated bag, and oversized cut of the leather jacket. And below, the pleated bag again, as well as the on-trend Miu Miu ballerina flat.
I’ve mentioned before that I’ve never really worn jewellery, and that over the last couple of years, I’ve been working on my building my collection on my face, ears, neck, wrists and fingers. Some recent additions….
All Eyes on Miuccia (and Raf)
All eyes have been on Prada and Miu Miu for the last few seasons, as have mine. For me, what stood out was not necessarily that the collections were inspirational from an ideas standpoint, but that they were just so darn wearable (some exclusions apply, like that ridiculous Miu Miu low-rise micro mini).
In my last WIW, I talked about one of go-to outfit formulas:
relaxed knit + bottom + shoe
which, when drilled down further, becomes:
relaxed knit + midi length skirt + shoe.
Moving from transition season into the chill of fall/winter, a toastier version of the formula becomes:
relaxed jacket + relaxed (or not) knit + midi length skirt + shoe
— which is what Prada did here for F/W 2022-3, with an emphasis on the sheer motif in its midi-length skirts.
It’s an outfit I put together regularly in the winter months with my own pieces, with the addition of turtlenecks, tights and/or boots.
And here’s my take on it below using a vintage Prada skirt I found at VSP, from which I removed the lining to get the sheer effect. I was kicking myself for lending my white Aritzia mock neck (similar) to my sister-in-law, so I added the white layer to my hips rather than my neck, but the effect is similar enough!
This season, we saw a similar formula at Prada, although it’s worth noting that the white skirts also walked down the runway in mini-length, as well as in slim silhouettes. And here’s my take on a look from Prada F/W 2023-4:
Variations On A Theme: Dries Van Noten, S/S 2024
On the subject of my go-to formula, a variation of it also applies to some of Dries Van Noten’s S/S 2024 looks:
relaxed jacket + lightweight top + mini skirt + shoe.
Dries was a standout show to me because the clash of patterns, colours, fabric treatment and embellishments were just so fun and inspires me to move beyond my safe neutral palette.
TBD whether this actually happens, but it’s at the top of my list for inspo for spring!
That’s it from me for this edition of WIW!
As always, from the bottom of my heart, thank you reading and continuing to support this newsletter.
Stay safe,
Irene
I needed to comment even before reading everything, but this particular Articles of Insterest series of episodes were F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C. Avery Trufelman is not credited enough for all the research and work involved. I am amazed she isn't more recommend (I know BOF made her part of their list, but still).
I read the Official Preppy Handbook, and in my work life I did an updated version for Sperry :-) I just got new chinos too! You make me want to break them out! XOXO