This will be my last personal letter until September. I’m using the next week or so to regroup, as I’ve got some big newsletter changes I’m eager to share with you all! Stay tuned…

Below is everything I wore, read, and bookmarked in August.

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What I packed for my trip

• The hero was a lightweight striped sweater from extreme cashmere, which I wore on the plane and pretty much everywhere else.

• I also packed a red chunky knit High Sport V-neck sweater that I got on The RealReal. The brand’s tops don’t get as much hype, but I’m starting to like them more.

• Another hero: My Church’s fisherman sandals, which I’ve mentioned before for being super sturdy and blister-free. (On sale here in white/black/navy.) I also wore my Heru sandals the other day and was reminded that they’re a little softer.

• My P.Le Moult wasp pajamas, purchased in Vienna.

• I tried the nonchalant Prada dust bag/pouch thing (a well-known Miuccia-ism), but I have to say: it’s not chic unless you’re going to a restaurant or something and can throw it into a booth. Otherwise, it’s an inconvenience. I wore it with a long Cawley dress that has a pretty back.

  

• A linen mesh windbreaker (now on sale + in blue) from Small Talk Studio was the perfect light layer, and I brought my shorts by the brand too.

• I was excited to wear my new blue (blue!) painter pants from B Sides, but within 15 minutes of putting them on for the first time, I spilled flaming hot grease from a chicken sandwich (Dua Lipa’s favorite in Copenhagen lol) all over them… I remembered that Xavier Donnelly (the creative director for Ash Hotels and jetsetter extraordinaire) once told me for a T magazine story that he uses hotel soap to wash his clothes. So I scrubbed the hotel shampoo into the stains because it had oil on its ingredients list (oil lifts grease) and dabbed with a towel. I can’t believe it, but it worked!!! Took three attempts. I now want the brand’s celery set after trying on the hoodie at Oroboro.

What I bookmarked

• I need the Anne Sofie Madsen rat bag. (A Danish designer whose show I liked.)

• I’ve started checking ReSee daily. It’s nothing like TRR, but they do have some good stuff, like this purple velvet Comme dress.

• Speaking of TRR, I accidentally came across some good men’s stuff, including this Armani leather jacket and these green Prada sneakers.

• And someone must get this Victor Costa dress for Valentine’s Day.

• I also think someone should wear these Vaquera pearls to their wedding.

What I read

• A pretty devastating vacation read, but Rachel Aviv’s You Won’t Get Free of It, a compilation of her reported essays about mothers and daughters, had me upright at the beach.

• I also started The Ladies’ Paradise by Émile Zola because someone mentioned it in a newsletter, and became convinced over the weekend that I need to open a store… But I don’t actually want to sell anything… Thoughts?

• Also: A democratic socialist is running for office while working at Bergdorf Goodman as a sales associate for The Row. His name is Eon Huntley. He makes $25/hour and 5 percent commission on sales. The Row gives him a stipend—between $5,000 and $10,000 per season—to spend on the product he sells. (That’ll get him like, 5 things.)

• This “Talk of the Town” with the owner of Old News Newsstand made me laugh out loud. A man heading to B&H asked, “Do you have Zyns?” Reiss replied: “We have zines.”

• As a Girl Who Sweats, I agree with this take. I never went near the Donni taffeta. I also hate wrinkles.

• Has there ever been a more “me” headline? Donna Karan has a rat problem. Sounds like a big litigious mess.

What I screenshotted

Emma Orlow, who writes about food for Caper, inspired me to search the “chili eating contest” section of eBay. It led me to this. And eventually this.

Our first stop was the island of Bornholm, which is technically part of Denmark but reachable only by ferry from Sweden. It’s known for its gorgeous rocky landscape, local arts scene, and smoked fish. Compared to the rest of Denmark, it seems laidback, but we still ate at a Michelin-star restaurant (where all the waiters wore Birkenstocks) and accidentally stayed at the same hotel as supermodel Helena Christensen.

Next, we took the ferry back to southern Sweden, where we stayed for two nights at Talldungens Gårdshotell, a cozy, 18-room inn and restaurant in the hills of Brösarp run by the renowned and very friendly sommelier Emma Höök and her husband David Levung. There, we continued to eat and drink like we were in a color-soaked Ingmar Bergman epic.

Finally, we drove back into Denmark, ending in Tisvilde, which is often likened to the Hamptons for its landscape, proximity to the city, and posh beach vibes.

It was the most frictionless vacation I’ve ever taken. We never sat in traffic, got lost, or drove over a pothole. We were never delayed for more than 20 minutes. We never fought off tourists. We never really even broke a sweat. As an American and especially as a New Yorker, it’s crazy to be in a place where things just function and not everything is a fight.

Of course, living like this ain’t cheap. Denmark is especially expensive. But we were happy to see some new places, wear light jackets in August, and breathe some fresh air. That’s what credit card points are for!

Below is our full itinerary. Please, steal it.

Part 1: Copenhagen

HOTELS: I was put up at Henrik’s for the duration of Fashion Week, a new-ish hotel that’s part of the Hildebrandt Hammer group. (All four hotels are on the same block.) It was cozy, comfortable, quiet, and centrally located between the train station and the city center. It was also, of course, impeccably decorated, with designer tea kettles in every room.

FOOD: The first place Matt took me when he arrived was a hot dog stand by the train station called John’s Hot Dog Deli. I was skeptical, but it was so good we ate one and then immediately ordered another.

Trust me, you’ll want an $8 dog after you figure out the USD-to-DKK conversion... However pricey, I had some pretty life-changing swirled eggs at studio x kitchen and warm buns at Juno the bakery. (Danish breakfast will make you want to buy a million cute little egg cups.)

My favorite lunches were at Apollo Bar and Cafe Rabes Have. My favorite dinners were at OMAR and Bar Vitrine. And if you want nice wine on the water without such a scene, check out Rosforth & Rosforth under the bridge instead of La Banchina.

SHOPPING: Scandi style isn’t really my thing, and I wasn’t there to spend a ton of time (and money) hunting down vintage. That said, I enjoyed the designer selection at Stoy, where I tried on a Nicklas Skovgaard jacket, and I thought Reseller's vintage curation was the best. My stylish friend, Sam Herzog, recommended I check out NAKED, which has an impressive selection of women's sneakers. I also passed by Piccolo CPH, a store that sells tiny baby shoes, on my way to Mr. Larkin. For menswear, check out mfpen, Grocery, and Another Aspect. My heart really sang at HAY House, though, where I bought tiny toothbrush holders and fondled these drinking glasses. I also ordered a bottle of Frama’s “Apothacary” body wash when I got home.

Part 2: The Island of Bornholm

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This wasn’t my first eclipse, and I hope it’s not my last. I decided to un-paywall my essay about witnessing a total eclipse in Austin, Texas in 2024 because it’s one of my favorite newsletters. And because the SJP eclipse Instagram is always worth an rewatch. Enjoy!

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In 2017, the last time a total solar eclipse was visible in North America, Sarah Jessica Parker looked up at the sky and lost her shit.

She flew down to South Carolina, which was on the “path of totality” that year, for the full experience, and, lucky for us, filmed every second of it. The resulting footage, shared in two parts on Instagram, remains one of my favorite online artifacts to date (other than photos of Chloe Sevigny and Pauly D sitting next to each other at a Knicks game, which is basically the celebrity equivalent of an eclipse). The two videos she posted make me laugh-cry every time I watch them, which I’ve done maybe a hundred times in the years since.

“It doesn’t make any sense!” SJP says breathlessly in the first video, panning the camera around like an amateur horror movie director. “It’s happening! Oh my god, you guys, it’s happening!” She and her family are on a boat somewhere down South, and the sky gets darker and darker as the moon takes bigger and bigger bites out of the sun. When it’s almost fully covered, she lets out a maniacal laugh and screams that she can see the “corona,” which is the firey white outline of the sun’s atmosphere. Then she starts to embellish a bit. “And lightning! And birds that are rarely ever seen!” she shrieks. [???] “This the most spectacular, unimaginably perfect, beautiful…” She trails off, whispering, “Ridiculous,” before the video cuts out. 

In the second video, she whispers that she “made it,” as though the world was going to end and she was spared. “It’s so humbling,” she says. “It’s so… extraordinary.” 

I love these videos because they are so deeply Sarah Jessica Parker. They are so over-the-top, so theater kid, so I couldn’t help but wonder. She sounds like Carrie faking an orgasm. For years, I used them as further evidence that Sarah Jessica Parker is, in fact, a huge cornball.

And then I went and did the exact same thing.

I had no idea a total eclipse was happening until a moon-conscious friend of mine told me she was going to Austin, Texas, to see it. “Wait, that sounds fun,” I said. “Can I come?”

New York, the state where I live, would also be in the path of totality, (my new favorite phrase), but it didn’t matter; I wanted to be with my Moon Friend. So I used every single one of my credit card points to book the most expensive domestic flight I’ve ever booked. This is what points are for, I told myself.

I was so excited that I paid real money at the last minute to get to Texas a day early. On my flight were a bunch of CalTech and UCLA professors (I was flying from Los Angeles) who all seemed to know one another, plus a guy in a t-shirt that said: “What happens in the black hole, stays in the black hole.”

When I arrived in Austin, it was a sunny, cloudless, 85-degree day and nothing could get me down—not even an Uber driver who referred to the “eclipse” with air quotes as though it was not an indisputable cosmic event that was absolutely going to happen.

The next morning, I woke up like a princess in a Disney movie and looked through the small slit in my blackout shades. Are those… Clouds? No. Couldn’t be. I was in TEXAS. The state I’d used all my points to get to because it was BETTER than other states. NASA was here! Beyoncé! Then I opened my weather app: Cloudy for the next two days.

I ran to the roof and looked up. Sun?? As I chugged multiple cups of coffee, I frantically began to Google “Texas + eclipse + clouds” and got only bad news. “Cloud coverage will ‘most likely’ impede eclipse viewing in Texas, NWS reports,” read a headline from the Austin American-Statesman. The publication's name sounded vaguely Republican, so I kept Googling. But all the results were the same: There was a very good chance that I wasn’t going to be able to see shit.

When my Redacted Moon Friend Who Missed Work to See the Eclipse checked into our hotel, I ran down to her room to tell her what I’d learned. “We have three options,” I said, going full It’s Always Sunny meme. “We either call it and fly back home, find a car and drive to Missouri, or take our chances, which don’t seem good.” She looked at me, bleary-eyed after catching an early morning flight, with an expression that said: I need you to chill the fuck out. “Sorry,” I said, taking a breath for the first time in maybe an hour. “It’s going to be great no matter what?”

When we met up with the rest of our party, I realized how much of an entitled, overcaffeinated psycho I was being. It didn’t help that I’d just finished reading The Lost City of Z, which put me in a treasure-hunting, all-or-nothing, blindly obsessive state of mind. “I’m not worried,” said a Chill Person Who Lives In Austin. And just like that, I wasn’t either. As Annie Dillard writes in her oft-quoted “Total Eclipse” essay from 1982: “Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him.”

Or, as a friend back in New York said when I texted him a screenshot of the Austin American-Statesman article: “Well, isn’t it going to get dark?” Yes, it was. Whether I could see it or not, the moon and I were going to get married.

On the big day, I gathered with about ten other people in a small neighborhood park. My Moon Friend got us glasses with little cowboy hats on them, plus filters for our phones, so we were READY. At around 12:15 p.m., it started.

For the next hour, I experienced what everyone else across the States presumably experienced. The clouds actually made it more dramatic because every time they parted, a sliver of light would appear and we’d all scream, “It’s back!”

At one point, a mother and child came to the playground next to us. “Emilia!” The mother yelled. “Emilia!” I took off my glasses and looked around, slightly spooked by the coincidence. “It’s your inner child calling to you,” giggled my Moon Friend, who was obviously tripping on shrooms.

I did feel like a kid again, though. I could “catch a fly,” as my mom used to say when I’d stare at the TV with my mouth open, eyes glazed over. The thing about an eclipse is that it’s not that deep. Really, it’s the simplest thing in the world, which is why it’s so powerful. Everyone can be into it, and that’s awesome.

The night before, I lay awake trying to grasp “what it would all mean.” Would it be the period at the end of a sentence? Or the beginning of a new one?? “I think all I’m searching for is a good time,” I whispered to my Moon Friend the next morning, sober and slightly embarrassed by how uninteresting that sounded. “I think that’s great,” she said, sincerely.

At 1:35 p.m., the world went dark. Street lights came on and dogs started barking. My eyes struggled to adjust. Some people say it feels like dying, but it was the least sinister darkness I’ve ever felt. Time did not exist; only a quiet stillness. In the moment, I was too stunned to cry, but I cry when I think about it now. My brain just can’t process something so incredible. What a gift: two minutes of peace.

I’m not going to wax poetic about it because I’m not Annie Dillard, but I will say this: Witnessing a total eclipse was certainly better than kissing a man, and worth every single Chase Sapphire point. See you at the next one, SJP.

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I swear, I have never seen so many flip-flops in my flippin’ life. They are truly everywhere: on men's and women’s feet, on bikes, at restaurants, in the office, and even at formal events. They are worn with French pedicures and toe rings, and styled with everything from Tekla pajamas to corduroy pants. They are colorful, bedazzled, and made of rubber or leather. Sometimes, they are heeled.

Havaianas, specifically, have the city in a chokehold. On Tuesday night, the Brazilian footwear brand hosted a party to celebrate the launch of its latest Franken-flop, a rubber “Kitten Heel” with a prominent toe shield that promised to bring CPHFW to “new heights.” The line to get in was so long, though, that I immediately called a taxi and left. I saw everything I needed to see.

Because this was my first time at Copenhagen Fashion Week—and because I’m old and not on TikTok—I was unaware that the toes-out trend was so ubiquitous here. Apparently, it’s been a thing for at least a few years now, after Birkenstocks fizzled out. My friend Sue told me over DM: “I spent four weeks there in the spring, and at every single place I shopped, someone would say, ‘You could wear this with colorful Havaianas!’”

Some people credit Danish influencers like Pernille Teisbaek for making the trend a street style mainstay. Others (understandably) find it offensive that cool Brazilian girls aren’t getting any credit. More than where the trend came from (all roads tend to lead back to The Row), what interests me is how a trend can take over an entire city, like the virus in Pluribus.

Copenhagen is a relatively small capital, with about 75 percent of its 600,000-something (core) inhabitants being Danish, so it’s easier for everyone to be on the same page about things, generally speaking, whether it’s driving an electric car or wearing flip-flops. I often felt like I was walking around a larger version of the West Village. But I also read about the “Law of Jante,” an unspoken Scandi rule that frowns upon individual bragadociousness, similar to how I heard Irish people scoff at “having a notion.” Let’s call it “quiet capitalism.” This explains why I saw so few designer logos and peacocking from locals. Flip-flops are (or, rather, were) perhaps a way to do something different without being too different.

Ironically, though, to an outsider like me, being carefree enough to wear flip-flops everywhere, even on a bike, is actually a huge flex. My New York brain was shocked by how many people didn’t seem to fear getting their feet dirty or having their toes gnawed off by a rat. A local named Monique told me she’s “never worried” about such a thing. Can you imagine?! She’s also not concerned about falling to her death on a bike, either. (Her Miista mules are actually harder to bike in, she said. Less toe grip.)

This is all to say: you can’t fool me, Scandi girls! You may think you’re being subtle, but your flip-flops are screaming. “Look, we have universal free healthcare and 52 weeks of paid parental leave,” they say. “Our streets are clean, our roads are intact, and we think 80 degrees is hot for the summer!!!”

Sigh. Must be nice. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Other highlights:

• The best breakfast I had was at studio x kitchen. Matt said they were maybe the “best eggs of his life.” Atelier September was a runner-up.

• The best pastries I had were at Juno the Bakery. I tried three different ones.

• I’ll be back in Copenhagen before I fly home, but my favorite stores so far are Frama, Stoy, and HAY House. I also went to Pico and spent $40 on a hair clip. (The biggest one I could find.) It reminded me of Brandy Melville, and I don’t mean that in a bad way.

• Matt bought this striped shirt at Another Aspect, and I’m going to try to steal it from him.

• I wish I’d bought these Cecilie Bahnsen sneakers.

• La Banchina is a fun scene, and the food is actually really good, but you can also just buy a bottle of wine and jump in the water anywhere around town. The New York mind cannot comprehend this either.

My favorite look of the week:

No flip-flops at mfpen! The Danish brand celebrated its 10-year anniversary this season (Copenhagen Fashion Week also celebrated its 20th, if you can believe it), but it’s a relatively new label in the States, and only recently started doing womenswear. It reminds me a bit of the Swedish brand Our Legacy before it got investment from LVMH (complimentary), and stands out for its price point. Matt has one of the brand’s shirts, which seems to be what it’s known for. I’m biased, but I think it looks very nice!!!

NEXT TIME: I’m on vacation! But you can expect a recap of my trip + more Copenhagen recs next week.

Tomorrow, I fly to Copenhagen for Fashion Week, which I’m excited to report back on, since I’ve only ever been there in the winter (and that was 10+ years ago). Then I’ll be offline on vacation the week after, passenger princessing through Denmark and Sweden on a road trip with Matt 😇✌️

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In the meantime, I’ve been basking in the best of what the tri-state area has to offer. I stayed at a friend’s house on LBI, visited my mom upstate, and also got some much-appreciated beach time at The Boat House on Shelter Island, thanks to Design Within Reach and Boutique Homes. If you’re interested, the three-bedroom spot, which overlooks the harbor, is available to rent through November, and I’m positive it’s just as pleasant in the “off-season” as well.

Although we only got one day of blue sky, which I will never take for granted again, we still had a ridiculously dreamy weekend. We packed sandwiches and drove to Shell Beach, which was somehow empty on a Friday afternoon. We piled into the hot tub. We grilled. We bought fresh fish from the farmer’s market and ate it raw. We played Jenga and Trivial Pursuit and watched the World Cup at Salt, a local bar, where Matt ordered so many Long Island iced teas that the bartender asked: “Who is ordering Long Island iced teas???”

On top of all that, DWR let us borrow a brand-new Mercedes for the trip, which made the three grown men I brought along squeal like little girls. Of course, the entire house was also shoppable. I had no idea DWR sold mattresses, and the firm one I slept on made me question the “extra plush” one I have from Saatva. I’d also buy the outdoor lamps, the Hawkins New York beach towels, and this $20,000 record player if I had all the money in the world, although if that were the case, I’d just get the whole house.

Below is everything else I enjoyed in July.

What I Wore

It’s important to have a summer alter-ego, and my Versace muscle tank is helping me embrace my inner Baywatch character. (Hot tip: much of Dario’s one-and-only runway collection is now on sale.) I’ve also been wearing my H-O-R-S-E shorts in three different colors. Red is my new favorite.

I’m still on my hat journey… But I rounded it out with some other brown accessories, including a Sézane raffia bag, which is the right price but still sturdy, and Church’s fisherman sandals, which were expensive, even when I found them on sale, but so far, entirely worth it. (Set an alert on TRR; these are $168.)

At the bar on Shelter Island, one of my friends was like, “Why are all these women wearing rope???” I didn’t understand what he was saying, but then I was like, “Oh, do you mean…. Crochet?” The male mind cannot comprehend on-theme beach attire.

What I Bought

• More electrolytes, sleep gummies, and wipes to remove sunscreen from my face.

• A Systemarosa x Coming Soon x Cold Picnic “futbol” bath mat.

• For Copenhagen, I got Flòwze sandals on sale, an Extreme Cashmere striped sweater, and I’m also packing this Attersee knit tank top, which is now on sale as well.

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What I Bookmarked

• This photo of Victoria Beckham in her WAG era came across my feed, and the top looked familiar. It’s Dolce & Gabbana. I found it on The RealReal.

• Carmen Amsterdam, a store I’d like to visit one day, launched its own “House Shirts.” I’m partial to lilac and pink.

• The Row released suede ankle boots that look like the Ludwig Reiter ones stylist Anny Choi put me onto ages ago. I’m kicking myself for not buying a pair when I was in Vienna earlier this year. She said they run large: “I’m a US 6 and got 4.5, but [they’re] big. Could have gotten 3.5 or 5.” (I dm’ed her about this in February, but never pulled the trigger.)

• Of course, I find the straw hat of my dreams at the end of the summer. Maryam Keyhani is still undefeated.

What I Read

• Biz Sherbert gave a Parsons freshman $100 to see what (clothing) they’d buy. A fun idea.

• The NYC Ferry launched merch. The slogan is cute, but I wish the designs/styles were better. Put it on an L.L. Bean tote!

• People left farewell messages at the shuttered REI SoHo store. “Once went on a first date here because a guy had to pee,” read one unsigned note. Another says, “Best gear and best bathroom in the city.” Okay, so people are sad about the bathroom?? I regret never using it—my preference is the Apple store—and walking away from these sunglasses.

• Speaking of bathrooms, I did not know about the poop-fluencers. But of course there are poop-fluencers.

What I Screenshotted

My friend Maxime’s mom is extremely chic and makes a mean deviled egg. She posted this cheeky tray to display her gorgeous creations that reads “THE DEVIL WEARS PAPRIKA,” and I love it.

NEXT TIME: A dispatch from Copenhagen Fashion Week.

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The forecast did not look great: temperatures were expected to reach 98 degrees, smoke from Canadian wildfires was turning the sky hazy orange-gray, and panic about an explosive diarrhea-causing parasite was rapidly spreading across the city. Did he maybe want to reschedule to a day that wasn't quite so apocalyptic…?

“There is no day that I wouldn’t come,” said Flynn when I arrived at 9 am. He’d only been at the Greenmarket for 30 minutes, and his XL extendable Mac Sports wagon was almost full. (He would get there earlier, he told me, but street cleaning doesn’t end until 8:30 am, and he needs to be able to park his van nearby.)

He ran to get blackberries first. He’d also already grabbed armfuls of corn, bags of small “fairytale” eggplants, pattypan squash that looked like colorful flying saucers, and multiple “flats” of fruit. But we still had a lot of ground left to cover.

“I’ve been yelled at by so many old ladies,” said Flynn, who wore his uniform of a t-shirt, khakis, and waterproof hiking boots from On, his new kitchen shoe of choice after his girlfriend, writer and stylist Amanda Lee Burkett, told him they made him look like designer Jonathan Anderson. “They come at me, and they’re like, you’re why I can’t get my tomatoes.” But what else is a guy with a 40-seat, California-inspired, seasonal, and vegetable-forward restaurant to do? The Greenmarket doesn’t offer wholesale, so it’s every chef for themselves out there.

Flynn comes to the Greenmarket four days a week, every week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays with Hannah Chirillo, head of purchasing at Cove, who has her own XL wagon to fill, and usually focuses on pre-orders. On this particular Wednesday, we also ran into at least three other chefs, including pastry chef Lauren Schofield, who makes beautiful, fruit-covered cakes, and pastry chef Clodagh Manning of Zimmi’s.

Diarrhea be damned, the Greenmarket is clearly the place to be. I find the whole thing overwhelming, though, even when I’m only getting one tomato, some lettuce, and a decadent muffin back in Carroll Gardens every Sunday, so I asked Flynn to walk me through his approach to buying different fruits and vegetables.

Below are his tips for embracing the chaos, including how to know when a raspberry is good, where he gets various tomatoes, and why he has “stone fruit trust issues.”

“By the end of the trip, I always feel like I need a post-market nap,” he said.

Basil

“If you’re gonna buy basil here at 10 am, you’re just kind of fucked,” said Flynn. He was referring to the fact that it was sweltering hot, and by late morning, most basil plants would be crying for help. “We get most of our basil from our garden, but we’ve also started to keep some in the wine fridge. Not the walk-in, because if it gets too cold, it goes bad. My sister also told me the other day that she bought some basil from Trader Joe’s and put it in a jar of room temperature water, and it kept.”

Berries

“If it’s been pouring for like a week, they’re not going to hit the same. They need to be baked in the sun to taste really good. If you want to be a really OCD farmer’s market buyer, you can check whether it rained upstate or in New Jersey. I’ll talk to the farmers. You can also tell: when raspberries, for example, are very open, they’re drier.”

“Same with strawberries; they also need lots of sun. We’re in a strawberry lull right now. Everyone got them in early April. The craziest New York thing is there’s a huge bump of September/October strawberries. No one acknowledges this, but they’re the best ones. The September strawberries from Samascott are my favorite berries ever. They’re the darkest red you’ve ever seen.”

Eggplant

“Squeeze ‘em. You want small ones to be hard, but for bigger ones, you want a nice little give. Otherwise, it’s not ripe.”

Flowers

“James Durr has the best ones on Saturdays. Luna Family Farm is also consistent. For sunflowers, the longest-lasting ones are from Oak Grove. I’ve never really ever figured out how to keep sunflowers fresh, though. I’ve heard you can blowtorch the bottoms, but my advice is to just enjoy them until they die.”

One purveyor told Hannah to cut the bottoms every single day, and they’ll last for two weeks.

Lettuce

“We buy from farms as far upstate as possible; the colder the climate, the better.”

Stone fruit

“This was a weird year for stone fruit because it was a very late frost. There’s actually a bit of drama, with some people thinking farms are secretly buying from elsewhere… I have stone fruit trust issues after being burned too many times. I don’t pre-order anymore. I have to eat one first, which I can kind of get away with because I buy in bulk. I just got some white nectarines from Caradonna, and you can tell they’re good because they’re slightly pink on the inside.”

Tomatoes

“I go to Campo Rosso on Fridays, Eckerton for heirlooms, and Sycamore for Sungolds. They also do these really amazing mixed cherry tomatoes later in the summer, and have sauce tomatoes. But depending on the point of the season, I’ll just buy as many Sungolds from different places as I can.”

“If you’re buying one tomato, leave it on the counter. But if you’re buying six flats, like we are, you have to keep some in the fridge. We’ll pull them out two days before we use them. If we buy them underripe, we’ll leave them out, but if they’re fully ripe, we don’t really have another option.”

“For me, it’s about consistency [when picking out tomatoes]. You either want the whole thing slightly underripe or fully ripe. Otherwise, you’re going to have a lot of dead spots.”

Bonus: Flynn’s Favorite Farmer’s Market Snacks

“I get a cinnamon roll from Bread’s Bakery, and Lani’s juices are the ones. I had a crazy iced tea from them that tasted like chicken broth. It was really weird, but it was good.”

You can read all of ’s farmers’ market dispatches on his Substack, The Market Report.

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Last weekend, I was on a 6 train headed to Brooklyn from Grand Central when I missed my transfer at Bleecker Street. I got off at the next stop and trudged up the stairs with three huge tote bags, hoping to catch the F at Broadway-Lafayette. But as soon as I emerged from the Spring Street station into SoHo, I realized I’d made yet another, even worse mistake.

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Last weekend, I did almost nothing. I made an OxiClean stew in my bathtub with my white shirts, and you’d never know they were once covered in pit stains. I ate a “swingle,” or a mini key lime pie dipped in chocolate and frozen on a stick, at Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pie in Red Hook. (Perfect dessert.) And I finished The Bottom of the Harbor, a book of essays by New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell chronicling the various eccentric characters of the New York waterfront in the 1940s and ‘50s, including rats.

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As weddings have gone from private affairs to personal branding opportunities for anyone with a social media account, competition to stand out, or celebrate in a way that feels truly unique, is fiercer than ever. Finding a dress is no longer just about getting something you like; it’s about finding something that no one else will have.

“When people approach bridal, they think that they have to think so outside of the box, and be so extra, when in reality, you should really think about what you’ve worn in the past, who you are, and what you like,” says bridal stylist Anny Choi. “Do that instead of trying to change your whole personality in order to be different.”

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Having worked one-on-one with brides for eight years now, Anny knows her way around a wardrobe crisis—and how to steer brides towards something that fits their personal style. She also founded Over The Moon’s bridal styling program in 2018 alongside the website’s founder (who is also the editor of Vogue Weddings) before launching her own styling business in 2022.

Increasingly, brides are coming to Anny seeking hard-to-find vintage looks over traditional wedding dresses. As evidenced by her own closet full of incredible archival pieces, which she prefers to wear as a guest to the many weddings she’s invited to, Anny loves vintage and is really good at tracking it down. But she feels like brides are interested in it “for the wrong reasons” these days.

“They only want vintage if it’s a certain a designer—Valentino, Chanel, etc.—and they don’t stop to think about the dress itself and the shape and whether or not they like it on their body,” she said. “Obviously, wedding coverage and social media are a big part of it; you don’t want something that everyone else has, and I get that. But I always tell my brides to take a step back. If this weren’t Chanel or Valentino—if this were a no-name, $50 dress from a thrift shop—would it still feel like it’s the dress that you need to have? And does it still make you feel amazing?”

It’s a good question to ask yourself before you buy anything, bridal or not. Sometimes, while I’m scrolling, I will literally hold my hand up to my screen to cover the brand name, so that I can see something for what it really is. (I recently did this with Auralee, for example, and saved myself about $600.)

Instead of starting with a designer name, Anny likes to find the silhouette that works best for her clients first. What shapes do they already have a lot of in their closet? What tends to look best on them, and what do they feel most comfortable in? “It makes my job easier, because then I can pull things in that general direction, versus going out and looking for vintage just for the sake of it.”

This year, Anny also began working with some of her favorite contemporary brands, including Colleen Allen, Christopher John Rogers, Batsheva, Rosie Assoulin, and One/Of, to produce more bridal-friendly versions of their ready-to-wear looks, which she displayed for the first time collectively at a trunk show in May. (Alongside a smaller collection of vintage finds!)

“Women hire me as a stylist because they don’t want to walk into a traditional bridal boutique and buy a dress,” Anny explained. “They want to bring on a stylist who has relationships with non-bridal designers, so that they can be connected and wear something that anyone can’t just walk into a store and get.” In this case, the lesser-known the brand, the better.

In addition to ditching well-known bridal designers, which may have been a status symbol 4-5 years ago, “more and more brides are also walking away from the very traditional, classic ball-gown look,” Anny added. “They want their bridal wardrobe to be a reflection of their personal style and what they would wear day-to-day.”

Anny’s idea is a win-win for everyone involved. Brides feel like they’re not getting something so mainstream and mass-produced, but rather something small-batch by a designer they love, and the designers get to expand their client base in the process. “Most of the brands I’m working with are small businesses, and these custom projects bring them a good amount of cash that they can then use towards their seasonal collections,” said Anny. This isn’t to say that they care less about bridal; they’re just limited on time and funds. “Having me as an in-between allows these designers to focus on what they do best, which is the creative part and the design, while I’m handling all of the customer service.” Plus, the trunk show model makes their work more accessible; brides don’t have to hire a full-time stylist to get what they want.

“The goal for me is to open a permanent showroom in 2027,” said Anny. In the meantime, she’s testing the waters with pop-ups and trunk shows. And so far, so good. At the most recent trunk show I went to at the Sophie Bille Brahe showroom uptown, I watched a total stranger try on a white Colleen Allen gown and was so overcome with emotion that I nearly cried.

It was a white version of a velvet, ridiculously flattering, deep U-neck dress that I already own in black. “The idea is to take these evening and black-tie dresses that you’d wear to someone else’s wedding, make them in white, and maybe add a little bit of a train,” said Anny. “It feels more wearable and modern, especially if it’s made by a brand that you’re already aligned with. If you’re not wearing Oscar de la Renta day-to-day, why should that be your only option?”

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The only look anyone cares about is the bride’s because it’s her wedding. Not yours. And that’s great news!!! Because it means you can wear whatever will make you feel your best.

Of course, your outfit should be respectful. If the bride says she wants all of her bridesmaids to wear Missoni, then Missoni be it. (True story.) But otherwise, what’s stopping you from buying something you actually want?

“It’s an opportunity to dress up and have fun with your personal style,” says bridal stylist Anny Choi, whose opinion I trust more than most. “You don’t have to play it safe. And if it doesn’t turn out great, just don’t post a photo after.”

In addition to eight years of experience as a bridal stylist (plus seven years before that working for Vogue), Anny is an all-star wedding guest, traveling from India to Montana to London to Italy and back to New York again to celebrate her friends. As summer wedding content starts to flood my Instagram feed, she’s one of the few people I’m turning to for inspiration. (She recently attended a wedding in Montana in an iconic Spring 2018 Chloé suit that she found on The RealReal, for example, which she also wore to a wedding event last October.)

About a month ago, in the thick of my wedding guest anxiety, I called up Anny for some advice. I’ve divided the tips she shared with me into two parts: the first is for guests, and the second is for brides, which will hit your inboxes on Sunday.

Below the paywall are her dos and don’ts for shopping as a guest.

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The streets of New York were filled with Knicks merch last week (and still are). But the looks that stood out were the one-of-ones: the custom t-shirts, bedazzled jerseys, and creative combinations of orange and blue. Below are some highlights, plus Hannah La Follette Ryan’s photos from the scene.

• On the night of the Knicks’ Game 5 win, Ramell-Correen Frederick, or @tattood.cloth on Instagram, offered custom embroidery of images and phrases like “bing bong” on the streets of Fort Greene using his vintage embroidery machine.

• First Lady of New York Rama Duwaji wore an upcycled Knicks T-shirt dress by 2026 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist Miss Claire Sullivan to the parade.

• Stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson interviewed the “expert tailor” who worked with Karl-Anthony Towns’ girlfriend, Jordyn Woods, on her custom looks.

• Batsheva sold out of custom t-shirt dresses.

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Hannah La Follette Ryan is a Brooklyn-based artist and educator from Amherst, MA. Her Subway Hands series has been featured in dozens of publications in the US and abroad. She freelances for New York magazine and The Nation and has collaborated with Boy Genius, Valentino, the Guggenheim, and many others.

You can read all of her “Subway Rat” columns here.

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They correctly assume that all anyone wants for a made-up holiday is a fun gadget and/or a gift card for wagyu hot dogs. I’m not a Grill Dad, a Golf Dad, or a Car Dad (and my own dad died when I was 11), but every time I scroll through one of these lists, I learn about some new tool or device I didn’t know existed, like an industrial-strength toothpaste tube squeezer, or a portable pizza oven, and feel a brief but potent shopper’s high.

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This is why Father’s Day gift guides are so funny: absolutely no one needs an industrial-strength toothpaste tube squeezer and/or a portable pizza oven (even if it allows you to make “pizza in places you never thought possible”). But no one seems to know enough about their own fathers’ interior lives to venture beyond the obvious stereotypes and get them literally anything else. According to these gift guides, everyone’s dad is a reclusive alcoholic with bad taste and a love of sharp objects? And while that may be true… I feel like, as a society, we should maybe stop giving men more knives.

This is all to say: Father’s Day gift guides are hilarious, but they also make me sad. I think we can do better, which is why I scrolled through hundreds of items and pulled out the funniest, most ridiculous recommendations. Below are my favorites, plus a few of my own ideas.

Recommended Product: A Pocket Handsaw

The NYTimes really thinks your dad needs a handsaw. It’s the second item on their Father’s Day gift guide, and that scares me. Also, anyone can just buy this on Amazon??? That might be even scarier.

Who recommended it: NYTimes / Wirecutter via “The 37 Best Father’s Day Gifts”

Recommended Product: A Personalized Hammer

Just in case your dad confuses his hammer with another dad’s hammer at the hammer function.

Who recommended it: NYMag / Strategist via “The Best Personalized Father’s Day Gifts”

Recommended Product: A $500 Infared Baseball Cap

Congrats, your parents will never have sex again! Your balding dad doesn’t need a reminder that he’s balding, or any excuse to wear a baseball cap in bed.

Who recommended it: “The 2026 Father’s Day Gift Guide” by Goop

Recommended Product: A $1,040 JW Anderson x Guinness Sweater

I fear for your father’s safety. You’re going to let him out of the house in this?? I don’t care if it’s by Jonathan Anderson. Your dad doesn’t know who that is, and neither do his friends at the pub.

Who recommended it: “The Best Father’s Day Gifts for the Design-Loving Dad” via Architectural Digest

Recommended Product: A Magnetic Wristband

Okay, this is actually kind of sick. You’re allowed to get this for your dad, but ONLY if he agrees to wear it as a fashion statement.

Who recommended it: “The Verge’s Father’s Day 2026 Gift Guide”

Recommended Product: Gorilla Grip Meat Shredder Claws

This one (paired with the title of the product and the guide) made me laugh out loud. It’s called a fork, my guy.

Who recommended it: CNN via “The 45 best gifts for Dad in 2026 that show how well you know him”

What I’d get your dad, instead:

• Sponsorship of a local beehive and the honey that comes with it. Greenwood’s is brilliantly called “The Sweet Hereafter.”

• A tour of Paul Rudolph’s townhouse. I went a few years ago with some friends, and it left a lasting impression.

• A Made In pan. Matt loves this thing more than me.

• Tickets to see a clown show. Great conversation starter and a lesson in vulnerability.

• A copy of London Falling by PRK. A book about parent-child relationships disguised as a murder mystery.

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As Sam Herzog said on her panel (which you can read about here, ICYMI), collecting is “the most elite form of shopping,” whether it’s a rare jersey or a rare pair of Prada shoes. Below are some of the night’s MVPs.

Photos by Hannah La Follette Ryan.

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Hannah La Follette Ryan is a Brooklyn-based artist and educator from Amherst, MA. Her Subway Hands series has been featured in dozens of publications in the US and abroad. She freelances for New York magazine and The Nation and has collaborated with Boy Genius, Valentino, the Guggenheim, and many others.

You can read all of her “Subway Rat” columns here.

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My face still hurts from smiling at all the brilliant and beautiful panelists/attendees of The Sports x Fashion Summit, and my throat still hurts from screaming at the Knicks game, which I watched afterward in a massive, empty new Chinatown dim sum spot called 100 Feast. It was perfect.

I first want to thank my co-hosts, Sam Herzog and Naomi Accardi of systemarosa, who spent many hours curating an all-star roster of panelists with me and made the event look super chic, among a zillion other things. Also, a huge, huge, huge thank you to Nike for making the event possible and Game Seven for putting it together.

Grazie mille to Balera for the delicious food, and thank you to David Benthal and Hannah La Follette Ryan for photographing.

Another huge thank you to the panelists for being there—stylist Courtney Mays and Nike mastermind Hami Delimi came a very long way—and sharing such thoughtful, honest, and insightful answers to our questions. Nike got Gotham FC forward and Harvard graduate Midge Purce in the building!!! I was in awe.

Last but not least, thank you for being there! I loved meeting you and seeing your outfits, which I’ll highlight in a separate letter featuring Hannah’s photos.

Below is a recap of some key moments. I learned so much from everyone, and I hope to have more of these conversations in the future. (You really had to be there!!! The quotes below just scratch the surface.) My main takeaways are that there’s still a lot of progress to be made in merging the worlds of sports and fashion, but when they do come together, it’s a beautiful thing.

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PANEL 1: “The ESPN-ification of Fashion”

Moderated by me.

A discussion inspired by i-D magazine editor-in-chief Thom Bettridge’s Substack essay about how fashion and sports went mass, resulting in fans becoming “experts” who care just as much, if not more, about gossip, trades, and individual players as they do about the clothes/the game. During the panel, he suggested that Bernard Arnault do his own version of Lebron James’ “The Decision” next time he hires a new creative director, and I agree.

Panelists from left to right:

• , editor-in-chief of i-D magazine

• , award-winning journalist and author of “SportsVerse”

• and of The Sports Gossip Show

Key quotes:

Charlotte on why gossip is good: “To talk about sports with a true sports fan, there's so much lore, and I think it’s been used to keep people out in the past. Like, if you don't know this, we're not going to tell you, and you're just gonna have to start from here. It’s like starting Selling Sunset at season 8. It’s a great way to keep out people who traditionally haven't had access to sports media or found themselves represented or spoken to. So what we're trying to do is break down some of those barriers and say, ‘Hey, we'll tell you who these people are. We'll give you the lore. You can start now; it’s not too late.’ Daniel, you said that gossip might have been frowned upon before, and to that point, I think a lot of the media has protected these institutions, saying, ‘We're not going to tell you the unsavory things.’ Now, people have lost trust in institutions, and it's like, Well, why not say what's actually going on? And I think we've seen that in both the sports world and the fashion world.”

Thom’s “hot take” on what cuts through the noise: “I think both sports and fashion have become almost too cultural, in the sense that I feel like 95% things I read about fashion aren’t about clothes, and 95% of what I read about sports isn’t about playing sports—it’s about people being traded or whatever. So I feel like there’s this really amazing magic trick that brands have done—and that journalists have done—of expanding these things outside of what they are. Because it would be boring if fashion were just about clothes. But it’s almost like it’s expanded so far that there’s a desire to actually talk about the actual thing again. […] I just feel like we kind of lost the plot a little bit.”

PANEL 2: What Does an Athlete Look Like?

Moderated by of systemarosa.

How brands, stylists, and athletes are working together to push the boundaries of sports style codes.

Panelists:

• Courtney Mays, stylist with athlete clients including Breanna Stewart, Megan Rapinoe, Chris Paul, Kevin Love, Sue Bird, and Anthony Anderson

• Hami Delimi, global senior brand director of Nike Energy

• Midge Purce, forward for Gotham FC of the National Women’s Soccer League and the United States national team

Key quotes:

Midge on how being a part of a team helped her find her personal style: “Growing up, I didn’t really have a choice for my sense of style. My dad’s a single father, and I grew up just wearing whatever my brother wore, so T-shirts, shorts, and sweatpants. It wasn’t until I got a little money that I began to actually explore what I want to wear and what I like. I think being on a team around a bunch of other women is really empowering in a special way. It makes you really confident in making decisions about what you want to do and how you want to present yourself in life.”

Hami on how his background informed the collaborative work he does at Nike today, like the recent X2 collection: “I actually grew up in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, which is really at the center of the city, and my elementary school was literally in front of the historic Chanel building on Rue Cambon. I’m gonna sound old, but at that time, the brand’s fashion shows all happened in that building, so since I was five, all the way until I was ten, it was actually hard to focus four times a year because of the fashion shows happening just next door. [Fashion and sport] used to be completely separate, though. While I was growing up in this environment, I started playing football […], traveling to the suburbs [to play], and being exposed to a world different from the one I grew up in. Navigating these different worlds, moving from one to another, and blending everything helped me find my way and absorb what was relevant in each. Then I started DJing and traveling the world, meeting people, so I guess all that really shaped me as a person, and somehow influenced the way I’m working today.”

Courtney on how there’s still a lot of work to be done: “I’m so grateful for these moments, because we’re obviously pushing the needle forward in the conversation about the convergence of sport and style, but I think there’s still a lot of logistics that need to happen. Brands aren’t necessarily throwing clothes at me, or you know, excited about athletes. Stylists, and not just me, are doing a lot of educating to the fashion world, because [brands] know LeBron, they know Megan Rapinoe, but they don’t know everybody, and I think a lot of times I’m trying to explain who these men and women are in order to open the doors for them. When I started, nobody cared. And I started with LeBron, so I started at the top. My whole career has been in sports, but we were buying Ralph Lauren. They weren’t giving us Ralph Lauren. I think social media has allowed us to live in a world of illusion. I don’t mean to sound like a Debbie Downer, because I’m not at all, but I think that there’s so much work that needs to be done. I’m happy because, as much as I love styling, I also love talking about the process, so we can educate both the athletes and the brands and work better together. So, yes, there was a time when brands were like, ‘No, thank you,’ and it might have been this morning. […] We’ve always looked to athletes as trendsetters and tastemakers, and I think that the world is now catching up, and I think that there is a larger conversation about race and gender and gender presentation that needs to be had about why we’re just not figuring it out. So I hope that I can keep those conversations going, and that maybe five years from now, when you ask me that question, I can say, ‘Everyone is so excited to work with us.’”

Midge on what the future will hold: “Because of the way AI is embedding itself in culture and society, I think sport will be one of the last places that you can actually get this really raw, authentic human experience. We’ll actually be forced to make sport a greater focal point of fashion and culture because we’ll run out of other options that feel good or satisfy human nature. No one wants to watch robots play. There’s this purity and sanctity in sport that will become even larger as AI continues to kind of dilute the rest of the world.”

PANEL 3: We’re All Stans Now

Moderated by Sam Herzog of systemarosa.

Fashion and sports fanatics come together to find common ground among their obsessions.

Panelists from left to right:

• John Colver, stylist and senior fashion editor at Office magazine

• Arianna Cho, fashion collector with an archive full of vintage Issey Miyake, Undercover, and Comme des Garçons. (She also co-owns Sake Bar Asoko.)

• John Palumbo, Newcastle jersey collector and high school math teacher

Key quotes:

John P. on how the most “valuable” shirt is not always the one that’s worth the most money: “I have shirts from the biggest stars who have ever played the game. But the most meaningful jerseys in my collection are the 1994 Morocco home and away jerseys. I was 11 years old in 1994 when the World Cup was here, and my mom took me to those matches. She took me to see Morocco play Saudi Arabia at Giants Stadium. At the time, we didn’t want to wait in line to get that jersey. Of course, it turns out to be one of the rarest jerseys ever created, and I waited 30 years to finally get it. We lost my mom a couple of years ago, and it brings back the memory of that day: June 19, 1994, going to Giants Stadium when it was 109 degrees outside. Value doesn’t matter; it brings me back to better times.”

John P. on the greatest length he went to get a jersey: “The day before Thanksgiving one year, I didn’t tell my wife where I was going. It was in the middle of COVID, too, so everybody was kind of paranoid. I was like, ‘I’ll be back in a couple of hours…’ I drove from New Jersey, where we live, to Staten Island to meet a Russian guy I’d been talking to on eBay. He didn’t speak much English, but I showed up at his house, and he invited me into his basement. My students love this story. I was like, ‘I’m never coming back.’ But then he shows me the most amazing collection of shirts I’ve ever seen, and I got a shirt I’ve always wanted: a 1983 NASL match-worn jersey from the Dallas Tornados. So it all worked out.” [His wife shrugged and told me he brought her back a cup of coffee.]

Arianna on how collecting brings people together: “So, I always have a crazy manicure, and I always tell my manicurist to base her work off a collection. Right now, I have Spring ‘97 from Comme des Garçons, for example. One time, I had Spring 2006 Junya Watanabe, and I was walking to the tailor to pick up my clothes, and I saw a girl, and I was like, ‘Wait, your shirt is on my nail!!!’ She laughed, and she recognized what I was wearing, too. I couldn’t even take a picture; it was just too good a moment.”

John P. on his most memorable interaction: “One day, I was wearing a match-worn shirt of Tony Viola’s. (He was the World Cup 1994 goalkeeper from New Jersey.) And I walked past him. I was like, ‘Hey, this is your shirt.’ We got to talking, and he was like, ‘How did you get that??’ It was just one of those wild, full-circle moments. He probably thought I was weird, but I had to stop and say, ‘Hey, I’m literally wearing the shirt you wore 30 years ago.’”

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So excited for the Sports x Fashion Summit on Wednesday!!!

Over 450 people signed up, which is crazy, but there are still a few spots left…

Below is a general run of show so that you can plan accordingly.

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Date: Wednesday, June 10

Address: The Aula gymnasium at 268 Mulberry St, New York, NY 10012, USA

Time: 5:00 - 8:00 pm

• Drinks and bites will be served starting at 5:00 pm. Our friends at Balera are catering, which means you should definitely get there on time!

• Panels will start at 6:00 pm sharp and run for a tight 30 minutes each, with time for audience questions. Seating will be available, but not reserved.

• The event will now end by 8:00 pm, just in time for you (and me) to watch the Knicks game. Amen.

PANEL 1: “The ESPN-ification of Fashion”

A discussion inspired by i-D magazine editor-in-chief Thom Bettridge’s Substack essay about how fashion and sports went mass, resulting in fans becoming “experts” and craving volatility.

Time: 6:00 - 6:30 pm

Panelists:

• Thom Bettridge, editor-in-chief of i-D magazine

• Madeline Hill and Charlotte Wilder of The Sports Gossip Show

• Daniel-Yaw Miller, award-winning journalist and author of “SportsVerse”

PANEL 2: What Does an Athlete Look Like?

How brands and stylists are working together to push the boundaries of sports style codes.

Time: 6:45 - 7:15 pm

Panelists:

• Courtney Mays, stylist with athlete clients including Breanna Stewart, Megan Rapinoe, Chris Paul, Kevin Love, Sue Bird, and Anthony Anderson

• Hami Delimi, global senior brand director of Nike Energy

PANEL 3: We’re All Stans Now

Fashion and sports fanatics come together to find commonalities between their obsessions.

Time: 7:30 - 8:00 pm

Panelists:

• John Colver, stylist and senior fashion editor at Office magazine

• Arianna Cho, fashion collector with an archive full of vintage Issey Miyake, Undercover, and Comme des Garçons. (She also co-owns Sake Bar Asoko.)

• John Palumbo, serious Newcastle jersey collector

See you on Wednesday!

Emilia :)

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To prepare for my future trip, I’m seeking recommendations, and there’s no one whose Google Maps I’d want to access more than designer Meryll Rogge…

Last summer, Meryll was appointed the creative director of Marni. (Read why it’s such a perfect fit in my interview with her for T magazine here.) She also has her own namesake label, which she launched in 2020, and a knitwear brand called B.B. Wallace.

Born in Ghent, Meryll would often take the train into Antwerp to shop and eventually attend the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, so she knows the city better than most. She studied under legendary names like Walter Van Beirendonck (a founding member of the “Antwerp Six”) and alongside fellow-Belgian talents like Glenn Martens, now the creative director of Maison Margiela.

“If you think about the work of Dries, Martin Margiela, Walter, etc., it's the story of independence and of a unique point of view,” she said of the Antwerpian way.

One day, I’ll get to see it up close for myself. In the meantime, here are her generous recs!

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Where she’s shopped the longest:

My first conscious purchase was at around six years old: a floral padded dress with a matching jacket, very early ’90s, bought at a store called Princess, which is still owned by the same family today. (Although the owner doesn’t remember selling this highly fashionable girl’s outfit!)

There’s a full circle moment in the fact that we now work with them. At one of their other stores, Renaissance, they carry Meryll Rogge, B.B. Wallace, and Marni.

New-ish store she recently discovered:

It’s not new, but Atelier Solarshop by Jan Jan Van Essche is worth mentioning. I think it’s an achievement for an independent brand to have its own space with such a distinct, personal voice. Alongside the brand’s collection, they also offer a curated selection of home goods that make great gifts.

⁠Area or street she’d recommend spending an afternoon:

Antwerp is small enough to cover on foot in a single route. A good place to start is the MoMu to see the new exhibition on the Antwerp Six.

From there, walk to Het Modepaleis, the Dries Van Noten store, and continue via Steenhouwersvest towards Lombardenvest (or stop at the niche perfumery, Necessities first). Along the way, you move through different parts of the city’s fashion offering, from the Meir (famously hosted Diesel back in the day) to Kammenstraat (where the Vier Antwerp store used to be), and into more high-end shopping.

Nearby streets like Schuttershofstraat and Lange Gasthuisstraat bring together a mix of high-street and international luxury brands.

Sint-Jorispoort is arguably one of the cutest streets in the city and is worth a short detour.

For flowers, stop by Baltimore.

Vintage store:

There are many good ones. They have one thing in common: a focus on Belgian designers, alongside Japanese and other international labels. Rosier 41 and Labels Inc are good examples. There are a few more interesting vintage shops in the Haredi quarter, but I haven’t made it there yet.

Home goods/furniture store:

There’s a super fun shop that sells the most amazing Christmas decorations and Christmas balls, open all year: Dauwe Christel. An ornament a year for me! I have Gherkins pickles and cowboy boots.

Another home goods speciality store on the Mechelseplein is a knife shop. Literally called: De Messenwinkel.

Multi-brand store:

Renaissance, Louis, Houben, or Verso. Each has a very different approach and clientele.

Gallery:

A special place just outside Antwerp is Kanaal, created by Axel Vervoort. Set in a vast former industrial site, it functions less as a conventional gallery and more as a curated environment where art, architecture, and interiors merge. There’s a permanent installation by James Turrell there.

Speciality store:

Ganterie Boon, a glove shop that has been in business since 1884, always has a very beautiful window display, and the shop is lovely.

⁠Hotel she’d recommend to friends.

Hotel August and Hotel Julien. Good balance between price and comfort. There are more ‘upscale’ ones, but they can quickly feel a bit overdone or over-the-top.

Restaurant she’d eat at before/after a shopping day:

Things move quickly in Antwerp; there’s a new restaurant popping up every month, which is fun, but let’s stick to the classics…

For afternoon tea, you can go to Domestic, which has amazing pastries and bread.

Close by, you can go to the bakery Goossens for the chocolate bread (delicious) and sugar bread, or Philipps Biscuits for a traditional “Antwerp hands” cookie.

For great Belgian food, you can have dinner at Ciro’s, which has always attracted a good art crowd.

There’s also a big local market on Saturdays near the Stadsschouwburg, where you can eat Belgian shrimp croquettes from a food truck (but not a trendy one).

Antwerp has a lot more to offer, but there’s just not enough space here!!

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I’m hosting another summit!

The previous one went so well that I’ve decided to do it again. This time, on a completely different subject: SPORTS!!!

Following timely discussions on the “State of Shopping,” I thought now would be a perfect moment to talk about the state of fashion as sport and sport as an extension of fashion, given the upcoming World Cup, the next Olympics being in the U.S., and gestures broadly. (Go Knicks.)

And who better to serve as co-hosts than my stylish and athletic friends Sam Herzog and Naomi Accardi of Systemarosa, a creative studio that bridges the gap between fashion and football a.k.a. soccer??? (They introduced me to my boyfriend at one of their events in 2024, so who knows, maybe you’ll find your soulmate in the crowd…)

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Our Sports x Fashion Summit will take place on June 10 from 5-8 PM at the Aula gymnasium (famously and fittingly the same location as the Rachel Comey sample sale) and is powered by Nike.

The goal is to bring sports and fashion fanatics together under one roof for a night of lively discussion and debate.

Food and drinks will be served at the start. Then there will be four different panels, moderated by me, Sam, and Naomi, with some incredible athletes, writers, editors, stylists, and fashion/jersey collectors. If you hang around on Substack, I think you’ll be particularly interested in the panel with editor-in-chief , who will discuss the “ESPN-ification of fashion” with the hosts of The Sports Gossip Show and . Each panel will last 30 minutes.

We’ll have more specific information to share soon, but make sure you save the date and RSVP at the link below.

Sign up to attend here.

My last summit filled up in 5 minutes, so act fast!

See you there,

Emilia :)

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I went to my first Knicks game at Madison Square Garden. We sat on the “sky bridge,” which is basically on the ceiling, but whatever, it was great. Go Knicks.

I enjoyed the new Iris Van Herpen exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum.

I saw some nice-looking lights at New York Design Week.

I went to London with Allison, and we did the five-hour Belmond British Pullman murder-mystery lunch experience we’ve been dreaming about for a very long time.

And I got domestically partnered, which doesn't mean I got married but does mean I’ll save $500+/a month on health insurance and get better coverage!!! I’ll write about this once I get my new card in the mail because it was the best $35 I’ve ever spent.

Below is everything else I did this month.

What I Wore

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My relationship with The RealReal has lasted longer than most in my life. Our romance began in 2015, when I was 22 and a young professional interested in buying a pair of studded designer pants for $100. We’ve had our ups and downs ever since, but our attraction is undeniable. Over the last 10 years, no company has had more influence on my closet and how I shop.

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The RealReal is where I got the outfit I wore for my first day at New York magazine in 2017. (Which made an editor go, “Omg, it’s so cute that you dressed up,” meaning I never wore the outfit again and probably consigned it on TRR shortly after.)

It’s where I found the Calvin Klein suit I wore to my suit-themed 27th birthday party at Primo’s in 2019, the dresses I’ve worn to at least three weddings, and the shoes my friend wore to her own.

It’s where I bought my first pair of Prada shoes, where I was introduced to names like Geoffrey Beene and Romeo Gigli, and where I learned to identify Michael Kors-era Celine, Phoebe Philo-era Chloé, and Tom Ford-era Gucci.

Recently, I was inspired to dig through my entire purchase history from start to finish. I learned that I’ve been wearing a leather Tom Ford-era Gucci skirt BACKWARD since I bought it in 2021 (smh), and that I purchased a Marc Jacobs x Stray Rats tee in 2022, long before I started this Substack. I also learned roughly how much money I’ve spent over the last decade…

I can’t even begin to calculate how many hours I’ve spent scrolling, though. I still check the site twice a day, at 10 am and 7 pm ET, when new items are released. If I’m late, it means I’m either on vacation or dead. When people ask me how I’m able to find what I do, I explain that I’m not “better” at The RealReal than anyone else; I’m just insane. At this point, I cannot imagine my life closet without it.

Looking at 11 pages of past purchases revealed a lot about myself, my style evolution, and how I shop, as well as about fashion in general and how trends and prices ebb and flow. (Everything used to be so cheap, my god!!! 😭) Below are a few other key takeaways, along with some more embarrassing photos.

Fashion is a flat circle

Two of the first three items I ever bought on The RealReal were from Chloé, a brand that I spent the next 10 years ignoring… Until recently. They say it takes a decade for a trend to make its way around the sun, and reviewing my purchase history, this appears to be true. Not only am I looking for feminine Chloé tops again since Chemena Kamali revived the brand, but I was also reminded that I’ve already participated in trends like “Snooze Mode” before (see below).

Only basics will last

I was surprised and slightly horrified by how few items I still own today out of the hundreds I’ve purchased over the years. Of course, your style changes a lot in your twenties, and The RealReal allowed me to explore. (And re-consign when I changed my mind.) But it was good to be reminded that it’s often the more “boring” basics that are the true gems. A pair of Tod’s knee-high black suede boots, for example, which I bought for $76 in 2022, remain one of my most-worn finds to this day.

But it’s okay to go rogue

That said, The RealReal is an ideal place to shop for special occasions, like weddings. You’ll spend less, and you’re guaranteed to have a look no one else will. Plus, when you inevitably re-consign because you don’t want to be photographed in the same look twice, it’ll feel better than getting $35 at Beacon’s Closet, trust me.

Be patient

For The RealReal’s new book, Real Style: Dressing with Intention & Expressing Yourself Through Style, which comes out in October, I wrote about how I pieced together one of my favorite Prada outfits over the course of a few months. (First, I found the blazer, then I found the matching skirt, which was a few sizes too big, and got it tailored to fit.) Something similar happened with the Emilio Pucci bandana below, which I bought in 2022. Two years later, I found the matching skirt. Sometimes, when you’re not looking for something, it finds you.

Over time, you’ll become a collector

Returns and re-consignments aside, I feel an overwhelming sense of pride when I look back at my purchases. Over the last 10 years, I’ve amassed a collection of (mostly Prada) pieces that I’d never, ever part with. Sure, I made some wrong turns along the way, but eventually, I found my lane. It’s the most satisfying way to shop—piece by piece, over time—and I have no regrets. In fact, I look forward to seeing my receipts in 2036.

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Six Items on TRR You Can Easily Repair

Every January, fashion writer Emilia Petrarca publishes a series called “Repair Month” on her newsletter, Shop Rat, and obviously, I am a huge fan. I keep her handy Google Doc of tailors and cobblers bookmarked, and have used it to revive a designer bag my grandma gave me and get a dress for a wedding tailored at the last minute…

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7 months ago · 86 likes · 12 comments · The RealGirl and Emilia Petrarca

Instead of waiting five months to buy one that was tiny and uncomfortable, as I did the last time I furnished an apartment, I went with the first one I saw that Matt and I both liked: Sixpenny’s L-Shaped “Neva” Sofa in medium-weight linen.

I’d already bookmarked the brand after browsing the Strategist’s list of best couches, so when Sixpenny reached out to see if I’d want to try one, it was a no-brainer. Sure, I’d previously put in writing that I’d never get a couch that resembled a bed. But the thought of being able to watch a feature-length film without getting a crick in my neck was very appealing to me, as was gaining back the many, many hours of my life I would have spent scrolling, probably to end up with the exact same thing.

So, I ordered a big, comfy, Nancy Meyers-y, “jasmine” greige couch. I love lounging on it every day (with Matt, who can now fit next to me), and have decorated the rest of the living room around it.

Below is everything else I’ve bought since.

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