It has been awhile since I wrote an article about teen life, but a few days ago I hosted thirty girls from ages eleven to fourteen for a swim and an outdoor movie in Amagansett, and I have some observations.

When the movie started, a mom leaned over and had me read the guest list out loud and I had to laugh. Two Waverlys. Two Islas. A Byrdie, a Clementine, a Matilda, two Lulus, an Oona….and that was just the first ten names. Read cold, it sounds like a "how to name your child in 2026" list. I guess I have never clocked the names because I have watched these girls grow up. It took someone else pointing it out for me to hear what a stranger would have heard immediately.

While their names are wildly individual, there is absolutely nothing individual about the way a middle school girl dresses. I know this because when I was cleaning up after the party, I found three identical pairs of shorts scattered on my yard, only distinguishable by whatever was printed on the right thigh. If you are reading this and these USA or 84 shorts belong to you, please find me.

My daughters who are only twenty-two months apart fight over the same Brandy Melville shorts weekly. Another mom told me, her daughters (five years apart!) were fighting over the same shorts too, because apparently, they are never short enough. It reminded me of when I had to explain to my husband why our daughter wouldn’t wear her travel soccer team shorts in favor of these Lululemon hotty hots. I now own six pairs of these, because a Wednesday 9pm meltdown over there not being a clean pair is a fight I am not strong enough to have.

If you think the shorts are too short, you clearly have not seen the string bikinis. Last summer my daughters begged me for the women’s LoveShackFancy bikinis by jumping up and down with joy with perfect tans, the second they realized they could make the womens XXS work by tying them super tight. We now have a whole collection of them, plus these Katie J ones, all stored in hand painted “bikini boxes” they made in woodworking at sleep away camp. For anyone who wants the string look without the actual strings, Snapper Rock makes a great string-ish bikini with full built-in sides but extra ties for the illusion.

With two weeks left of summer, back-to-school shopping is officially here. It rained the other day, which meant every teen in East Hampton did what I can only describe as a bar crawl: drop off at Aviator Nation, hit Starbucks for drinks and cake pops, swing by Roller Rabbit and Eberjey for pajamas, and Dylans candy bar for a birthday boxes. Closing out the afternoon at Mad Happy for one extremely overpriced hoodie. I ran into the same fifteen girls and their mothers at every single stop, like we'd all synced our calendars without speaking.

I told my daughters that in order to earn their haul they had to help me put together a back to school shopping guide - so here goes! I hope mentioning any of these items earns you street credit with your hard to win over teenager.

Backpacks: My girls have finally stopped asking for Stoney Clover backpacks (thankfully for my bank account because the pricing would make any grown woman cry at the register) My thirteen year old wore this Polo one last year, which she will be passing on to her younger sister. This black one is also a good option.

Totes: Apparently, eighth graders have moved on to totes in lieu of a backpack, and while I don’t see how this will accommodate books, my daughter has convinced me she will be wearing this Longchamp. If your daughter does not have this bag, just get it. It is a right of passage. Last week I counted 4 navy ones on my deck.

Alternative Tote options that are not a Goyard (gd help us) are Alex Mill, Call it By Your Name and Isabel Marant.

Sweatpants: Remember Free City? These sweatpants are having a moment and Bloomingdales is stocked with sizes. Plus apparently these cut offs are very popular with a bikini top in August, what a world. Garage (yes thats the name of the store) has this well fitting sweatpant for teens (ignore the item name), and these Aritzia sweatpants come in a short length and XXS, so teen friendly.

Tanks: Despite weather patterns, my teens wear tank tops year round. The Garage tank is the runaway winner in my house. It washes well, and it doesn't have some random location splashed across the chest. They work under a sweater or cardigan for dinner with the grandparents, which is really the only bar I'm clearing at this point.

Sweatshirts: I cannot imagine your child’s closet needs any at this point, but if you do, Mad Happy, Aritzia, Garage and Alo are your ticket.

Jeans: A friend called me in a panic last July asking about these Still Here jeans which were the only pair her daughter would wear for their family photo shoot. The mom panic was real. If a 22 or 23 won’t fit your tween, these Zara barrel and wide leg are great options.

Beauty: They may not brush their teeth every night (help!!) but they absolutely have a skin care routine and love Summer Fridays and Rhode lip glosses.

School Supplies: I will use this term loosely because these are makeup bags that my daughters have told me hold their pencils and this little Lululemon purse that holds their school ID and this laptop case.

Sneakers: My sixth grader is still wearing Sambas, but my eighth grader is on to Isabel Marant. These ON sneakers should be covered in a business strategy class because my 72 year old mother, 11 and 13 year old all wear them.

Dressy Options: These sets from LSF seem to be widely acceptable and Bloomingdales AQUA has fantastic pricing of LSF adjacent sweaters and dresses. Theme NYC is designed by an actual NYC teenager which should count for something; and this black dress works for when they tell you all their friends are wearing black to the dance. Despite my aversion to pleather they seem to love this skirt and an off the shoulder sweater layered with a tank underneath is always approved.

Jewelry: My very talented friend (and mom of 3 girls!) just launched Fortelle Jewelry and my older daughter was wearing her paper clip chain and compass medallion in every camp photo. I just bought my younger daughter the leather cord necklace and heart medallion and she loves it.

Shout out to Frankies on the Park who have a fantastic website and one stop shop for all things TWEEN and TEEN and are well stocked!

As always, thank you for subscribing and please send to your lost mom friend or work colleague!! Xo

PS: La Volta, my luxury consignment site is currently taking submissions for our Fall NYC trunk shows. If you have anything you would like to sell you can send photos to consignments@lavoltanyc.com.

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The Hamptons can be a silly place. You need friends who will say so out loud, the ones who let you clock the absurdity without pretending it is normal. The other day some safe space friends told me about their dinner the night before at The Crow’s Nest, which if you are not familiar is a hotel and restaurant in Montauk that looks like it is a sound stage for a movie about fancy bohemians.

The kids butter pasta is famously $35 and my friends watched a kid cry when it came out because it was not, apparently, the butter pasta he was picturing. I have not been able to stop thinking about the linen clad toddler crying at his reclaimed wood table underneath the string lights overlooking the water.

If you are an avid No Stress Club reader you know that I see the world through outfits, and there is nothing I love more than people watching. One of my favorite places to do this is Amagansett Square where you see women buying $6 heirloom tomatoes and $900 tent dresses who feel like they are living simply.

The other day I came across a lemonade stand run by kids who were, unmistakably, fancy bohemians. I knew this because they had a Happier Grocery bag sitting on the table, and the girl running it who could not have been older than 11, was wearing mini plaid barrel leg pants so groovy it was as if she already had a Substack. Her brother had on Salomon sneakers and I watched their parents show up in their Jacques Marie Mage glasses, break down their entire operation and pack it into their vintage defender. You know one of the ones that cost more restored than a new one that they drive the half mile from their house to the farmstand like its a covered wagon. What a world.

I mentioned this in last weeks letter, but I am sort of done buying summer clothes. Of course if I see something I love and its the right price I will buy it (I am not a sociopath) but for the most part I am abstaining from buying pure summer.

During my time working at J.Crew I learned more about colors than I ever thought I needed to know. They had an entire color department dedicated to dyeing swatches and building a seasonal palette before the designers started working on the season ahead. They have a gorgeous vintage red this Fall in a button up, and cotton and cashmere sweaters that are great transitional summer to fall pieces.

Alas, if you still have the shoppies, and like me, do not want to buy anymore summer, here is a quick fire of some Fall staples.

This COS trench is back in stock after it sold out immediately this past Fall. Its a great buy and a good color.

This ALC jacket is the perfect compliment to all your new red things and gives Chloe vibes for a third of the price.

I LOVE a loafer with shorts and thankfully Bergdorf still has a few sizes in stock on these and these that I have watched countless woman try on and walk out with from the Amagansett Row store (in the middle of a heatwave).

If you want well made loafers for half the price try these ATP or Jamie Haller ones. For a budget friendly leather loafer try Steve Madden who has been doing the lords work since 1990.

If you are going into Fall without a leather jacket ARMA has some great well priced options like this burgundy jacket, this espresso bomber and this cropped suede one. I mentioned this insane Khaite one last week which made me gasp when I saw it on a friend.

Sweatshirt at the beach season is fast approaching and if you cannot wait for the no stress ones (coming as soon as my Etsy orders arrive!), try this, this or this.

This ALC sweater is the perfect cashmere color with these white, or red striped Donni pants for beach nights.

Zara made a great striped polo shirt and while you are on the site get this dress which my friend wore and I thought it was Khaite. This red satin tote is giving The Row Cecily bag vibes.

I know I promised to only link Fall but I forgot until the end of writing this about this dress that my friends at Cote a Cote posted recently. As a consolation I will mention this top that is Fall forward in case you buy both. Oops.

If you are already Boot shopping I have my eye on these and these.

Lastly, transition season is always a good time to buy jewelry because it works in all seasons. I found this and this on 1st dibs and love them with a t shirt. Jamie Haller also made these bangles which are fab.

If you have any special requests for things you need for Fall ask me in the comments! I love hearing from you. And please share my newsletter with any friends that like to talk fashion.

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PS: It is almost end of season at La Volta NYC. Use code AUGUST15 for 15% off your order. Happy Shopping!

Ever since I got my first job at 14, I have been shopping. My sister was cleaning out her house the other day and found an old email I sent from an internet cafe in Rome in 2001, talking about summer sales back when there was still the Italian Lira. I guess I was destined to write a shopping newsletter.

After two decades of working in fashion, I launched the No Stress Club so I could share the things I find online, or in little places someone tells me about, with people who aren’t already in my text messages. If you know someone who needs a break from the world and just wants to talk about clothes, please send them this. That is the whole point of the club.

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During this time of year, there are two things happening in fashion retail at once. Summer inventory is on sale because stores need to get rid of it, and the first deliveries of Fall are arriving to replace it.

For me, it means what I buy over the next few weeks needs to earn its place by getting worn more than once this month, and I have to be excited to pack it for a warm-weather vacation this winter.

Everyone likes to say the algorithm has flattened personal style, and that we are all being fed the same six things until we start dressing like strangers on the internet. But a few days ago, my friends and I went shopping in real life to a trunk show at a barn in Sagaponack and were greeted by so many unique things.

We ended up walking out with one-of-a-kind vintage jackets and beautiful glass vases that would have never shown up on a For You page on Instagram.

Over these past few years, e-commerce has transitioned into social commerce, which has us all buying the same Donni and Leset pants. But if wearing boxers and pants that feel like pajamas outside is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

There has been a lot of talk online about whether people who post links love fashion or just love shopping. For me, it is both. I love new, old, pre-owned, vintage, all of it. I don’t care where something came from, or how much it costs, only whether it’s good.

Last week I hosted a trunk show in the Hamptons for La Volta, my consignment company, and I asked my mother-in-law to check with friends to see if anyone had pieces sitting in closets they might be willing to part with. When I arrived at her house in Water Mill, she greeted me with bins and bags from women whose closets spanned decades.

We pored through the items, and every piece we pulled out was more fun than the next. A vintage 80s Chanel camera bag, color-blocked Bottega Veneta bags, leather Valentino skirts, and a burnt orange-red suede Hermès Sport jacket and skirt set that fit me perfectly.

I am not sure if other people would find an archaeological dig of someone's closet as thrilling as I did, but I had the best time slipping the clothes on and off, examining the labels, and thinking about where they had worn them.

My friend asked me to do a Substack on the new Fall deliveries, which I will do eventually, but for now I am enjoying these transitional weeks. Here are some of the best things I've bought, worn, or sourced, including a few pieces for Fall.

If you like Donni, but want a less expensive price point, The Gap has been doing a great job this season. These boxers (to be worn outside with an oversized sweater in September), this green long-sleeve (the perfect layering color that makes every outfit better), and this 100% cotton red sweater. I also like their striped shirt.

This JCrew striped knit is the perfect outfit cleanser against summer florals.

If you don’t already have a blue button-up in your closet for Fall, these Toteme and Free People shirts are the perfect shade.

I just ordered this Liffner clutch, and between the burgundy croc for Fall and the price, it was an impulsive purchase. I love using these pouches to organize a larger travel carry-on, and wear them as a clutch for dinner. This tassel clutch is also well priced and comes in great colors for travel.

Since you are saving on the handbags, these YSL kitten heel leopard slingbacks may be worth the splurge. I always love leopard for Fall, and a kitten heel goes a long way in your mid-forties. If you like a higher heel, these mesh ones made me gasp.

It was a thrill to see Molly Sims walking through the door of our trunk show. She wore this top (tucked out), with these shorts, and these Khaite suede sandals, and she looked so chic. I love a short set instead of a sundress.

I could not make the Khaite event in Water Mill last week, but two very stylish friends got this leather jacket, and I can vouch it is UNREAL.

Four more weeks of summer, so I am linking my favorite Manolo Blahnik sandals that come in brown suede.

Between the Amagansett church fair and a random vintage store visit, I have been on a costume jewelry roll. I bought this Monet Chain necklace after being inspired by seeing a woman wearing a gold collar necklace with a t-shirt and a pareo. Etsy keywords: “monet costume jewelry link necklace”

The sheerness of this AGolde t-shirt will look great peeking out of a blazer, and the colors in this Baserange one are so good for Fall layering.

Lastly, if you are not interested in selling a kidney for the Chanel carpenter jeans, I just bought these Khaite ones as a consolation, and they give the same look. Super wide leg and loose. I usually size up in Khaite, but these run true to size.

As always, thank you for being part of the club. I hope you enjoyed this week's mix of new and old, cheap and expensive, planned and completely impulsive.

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We are giving $50 off to NSC subscribers on La Volta by using code AUGUST at checkout.

If you have items that you would like to submit for the Fall show, you can send photos to us at consignments@lavoltanyc.com

My obvious first choice was Claudja Bicalho, who owns Lazypoint. It’s been on Main Street for 16 years, and it’s packed with treasures.

I interviewed her with my friend Alessandra of the Living Noto Substack. I hope you enjoy it, and please share with a friend!

If you’ve been reading for a while, you already know that Amagansett is my happy place, so interviewing some of my favorite local shop owners felt like a no-brainer.

The idea was conceived at 8 am with my friend Alessandra outside Il Buco, over coffee, which is when I have all my best ideas. We met only a few years ago, but it didn’t take long to get to know each other well. We’ve bonded over a lot of things, but it’s her perspective on life that feels most like mine. She’s happy to be alive and doesn’t sweat the small stuff.

That outlook is part of why I love her Substack, Living Noto: The Art of Living Well with MS.

Our obvious first choice for an interview was Claudja Bicalho, who owns Lazypoint. It’s been on Main Street for 16 years, and it’s packed with treasures. We have summarized the interview below, but honestly, the audio is better. You can listen to it below.

Alessandra: Great, our first interview! We are so excited! Oh my gosh, with the legend of Amagansett.

Jennifer: Should we let people guess who it is? Just say hello to everybody.

Claudja: Hello!!

Jennifer: She’s gorgeous; she’s a retired supermodel; you’re kind of like the queen of Amagansett, I’d say. How many years have you been here?

Claudja: With my shop, I’ve been here 16 years, since 2010. But I’ve been coming to Amagansett to spend my summers since 2000. I’m Brazilian, from Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Alessandra: How would I explain her if somebody wanted a picture in their head? She’s a goddess, this beautiful, silver-haired beauty who’s aged so perfectly. Nobody would guess your age. I saw your Instagram post on your birthday, and I was floored, I still don’t believe it.

How would you describe your store to someone who’s never been?

Claudja: It’s a mishmash of whatever I like.

Jennifer: A treasure trove!

Claudja: I like that! A treasure trove. I’m actually a bit of a hoarder, and then every now and again I decide to sell the things I’ve hoarded. Thank God for the shop.

Jennifer: What was going on in your life when you said, “Okay, I’m going to open Lazypoint”?

Claudja: I was in between jobs, right after the 2008 recession. I didn’t have much to do, I was getting a little depressed, in a “what’s going on” kind of place. Then one day my ex-boyfriend Mark called and said there was a little shop for rent (where Clare V is now) and asked if we should just do a store. I said okay, flew to Brazil, got a bunch of stuff made, called everyone I knew, “let me buy this, let me buy that”, some things consigned, and a lot of old objects just started coming to us. We opened this tiny shop, and Mark did this amazing wallpaper with girls walking the streets of New York in bikinis. He was excellent at putting it all together.

I stayed there for a year, but it became difficult to renew the lease, so I moved to another shop (where 180 is now). I stayed there three years, tiny but cute, and then I came to what’s now my longtime spot.

Alessandra: How do you take care of yourself, running a shop, especially in a place as busy as this?

Claudja: The “on your feet” part is the hardest. I’ve been on my feet since 1995, my first retail job at Calypso. The woman who hired me, Christiane Celle, had just come back from St. Barths; I told her I had zero experience, she looked at me and said I had the style even if I didn’t have the experience, and hired me on the spot. She left not long after, and I had to learn everything myself.

As for self-care, honestly, I don’t do that much. Last night, for instance, I did ten minutes on a vibration plate right after dinner; it’s good for digestion. I usually do a bit of rebounding too, though I’m nursing a knee injury, a bit of a champagne problem; I hurt it walking the beaches in Brazil. Twenty thousand steps a day, turns out that’s not so good for old knees.

I don’t do Botox or fillers.

Jennifer: Oh my gosh, you’ve never done any of that? You’re aging so beautifully.

Claudja: No. I had a laser treatment once in Brazil, just a light one, and that was it.

Alessandra: Do you meditate? Would you say you’re spiritual?

Claudja: I meditate in my own way, yes. Very spiritual, yes.

Jennifer: I love everything in your shop, from the little ceramics to the dresses, the jewelry; it is beautifully curated. How do you decide what goes in and what doesn’t? I’m sure a million people pitch you.

Claudja: Growing up, I was just naturally good at knowing “this is what I want to wear.” It’s mostly instinct. I don’t really follow trends; I barely look at the shows. Maybe I’ll notice Dior or Prada doing something, and think “oh, I was already drawn to that,” or something I think of ends up coming into fashion later.

Alessandra: You have a good eye. You know what you like.

Claudja: I’m very true to myself. I like most things in my shop, though sometimes I have a hard time saying no to people, even when I don’t love a line. I try not to compete lines against each other, or stock too many bohemian or too many “serious” pieces. I like a real mash-up: a little new, a little old, things with character and authenticity. I love handmade things because I grew up handmaking things myself.

Jennifer: What did you make?

Claudja: In high school, I made jewelry. I would put little bits and pieces together. I’d wear it, people would want it, and I’d start selling it in class. Putting things together and wearing whatever I’m feeling in the moment becomes the piece.

Jennifer: Has your style evolved?

Claudja: It never changed, but it evolved into better things. I really do feel like I push the envelope. I’m 66, and I don’t dress like it. My bikinis are still the same style I wore at 16. Not the same bikinis, obviously, not quite as tiny, but close enough.

Alessandra: Do you notice a connection between how you’re feeling emotionally and what you reach for to wear?

Claudja: Yes. I actually try to shift my emotions by wearing the opposite of how I feel. If I’m feeling down, I’ll put on something colorful and sexy, or something bright, to help pull myself out of it.

Alessandra: That probably happens in the store too. Your energy is contagious, and I bet it helps you style people. It’s like being a therapist, helping someone see a different perspective, including their own self-love. So many beautiful women can’t take a compliment.

Claudja: One rule in my store: you can’t talk shit about yourself.

Jennifer: I love that. I still do it sometimes; you yell at me.

Claudja: I hit menopause, and now I basically could not care less what people think. I do things for myself now. I’m so much more comfortable in my skin at this age than I ever was at 22. I always loved making my own things: macramé, tie-dye skirts. I was a tomboy; I never wore dresses. I never believed I was pretty or sexy, even while wearing those things.

A neighbor once told me, “Are you going out like that? They won’t even have enough mouths to laugh at you.” I said, let them laugh. It wasn’t that it was unflattering; it was just different from what everyone else was wearing. The next morning they were at my cousin’s door trying to borrow it, to copy it.

Jennifer: That happens so much in fashion, people who were teased as kids for their style.

Claudja: Now that I’m older, I own it. Flower in the hair, check. Lots of jewelry, rings on every finger, check. Wear whatever I want, check. Tiny bikini, check. Topless at the beach after you walk a few miles, check. I am not stopping.

Jennifer: YES!! People thrive on that energy! It’s contagious. I think part of why people gravitate to your store isn’t just what’s curated in it, it’s you.

Claudja: Yes, when I’m not there, they say it’s not the same.

Alessandra: We need more of that; women over 40 aren’t supposed to want to look 20; that’s not the goal. Society puts too many rules on women over 40. Just be you, walk into a room with your head held high.

Claudja: If you don’t own it, don’t buy it. If you think you look sexy, it radiates.

Alessandra: I was in Italy a few weeks ago wearing my leg brace for the first time out, which is new for me, only about a month old. I had on cutoff vintage Levi’s, a sheer top, cute sandals. Two guys outside a bar noticed and asked what was wrong with my leg. I said I had a bad ankle, and they said, “come into our bar, we’ll make your ankle feel better.” When you own it, people are drawn to it. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Jennifer: Is there anything in your shop right now that if someone tried to buy it, you’d fight them for it?

Claudja: Besides the Madonna photograph, which is incredible, probably the bracelets I have on. I lost one of them three years ago, in 2021, at a friend’s garden. I bought a metal detector and went out every morning trying to find it

Jennifer: The other day you and I were talking about jewelry, how everyone stops you on the street for what you are wearing, and you told me your grandfather was a jeweler.

Claudja: Yes. His workshop was in our backyard, and he worked until he was in his 90s, and only stopped because of glaucoma. He refused medication his whole life. He believed in eating well and had a big glass of wine at lunch and a beer at dinner every day, but always ate good food.

Jennifer: So much of health comes down to mindset.

Claudja: So much so. Food is medicine. I loved watching him work. He had elegant lady clients who’d visit. Every day he went downtown in a linen suit, hat, and umbrella rain or shine, as a style choice, not for the weather. He had a baby blue suit I’ll never forget.

When I went off to college after he passed, I took all his suits. He was tall and thin like me, so I’d belt them and wear them oversized, along with my aunt’s handmade nightgowns. Those were my two favorite things to wear to college.

Jennifer: Who are you wearing right now?

Claudja: Soler, from London.

Jennifer: Oh, I love her. She makes beautiful dresses.

Alessandra: OK, should we walk over to the store?

Claudja: Yes, let’s.

And we walked over to the store, and within ten minutes, Claudja disappeared into the racks like she always does, telling someone their dress needed a belt. Within a minute, she was rearranging the woman’s outfit. Some things you just can’t teach. You can only interview them and take notes.

If you want to see it for yourself (and you should), Lazypoint is at 171 Main Street in Amagansett. Open daily, April through December, roughly 11-6. Say hi to Claudja.

As always, thank you for reading and if you think a friend might like my newsletter please share!

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I started this Substack after working in fashion for years and being the person that all my friends text before they buy something, wear something to an event, or pack something for a vacation.

I was an early adopter of the internet, which was the default second job of anyone who was merchandising a catalog. Yes, an actual catalog that people filled out a form to purchase something from.

I spent the last decade working as a Digital Strategy Merchandising Consultant pitching reorganization for brands that were too focused on their stores and needed to spend more time focused on their websites.

About 18 months ago, stuck in bed recovering from a bad accident, I noticed how much my friends and I were buying through social media, and decided to start this Substack so I could take part in yet another consumer shift. I wanted to keep learning about social commerce firsthand, and I finally figured out a way to scale my work as a digital sales associate to friends navigating the endless amount of choices.

Seventy-four articles and a luxury consignment business later, I feel lucky to say that this is my job. Despite what the articles say, I am not raking in a six-figure salary on Substack, but I would love to spend more time writing, so please consider becoming a paid subscriber to support my work. I should also mention that paid subscribers are the only thing that moves you up in the Substack rankings, and when that happens, it impresses my teenage daughters, which is honestly worth more to me than the money.

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Besides a quick trip to Maine last weekend, I have been parked in Amagansett, which means long dog walks, coffee with friends, and peak mid-summer dressing. With a little over six weeks left in summer, I thought I would round up some of the things I have been wearing A LOT.

The Perfect One Piece

I started my career in retail as a swimwear buyer. Growing up in the 90s in a house with five women gave me all the body image issues. Add two C-sections and more time spent talking about exercising than actually doing it; I know exactly what bathing suit is going to look best on you.

I learned about Bondi Born eight years ago from my Aussie friend, and every time I try another brand it never compares. They are expensive, but they last forever. They also completely suck you in, hold you up, and come in colors close enough to black that you still feel safe. I switch between this and this and have multiple colors. If you prefer separates, try this or this with this bottom.

The Perfect Stripe Shirt

One of my first substack articles was The Millenial Tuck followed by The Power of A Collar, and I consider myself a serious collector of button ups.

This Matteau stripe is worth the investment because you will have it for years and can dress it up or dress it down. If this is not your moment, try these Madewell and GAP versions, which will give you a similar outfit for less.

I love a matching set and have been wearing this khaki shirt and pants from Maria McManus as my go-to mid-summer travel outfit. I know I said You Don’t Need Balloon Pants, but I don’t actually consider these balloon pants, despite the name.

If you are not into a short sleeve, try this Soldout NYC shirt, which pairs perfectly with these white linen shorts that I also wear weekly.

For more khaki-curious people, my fashionable friend was wearing these Suzie Kondi shorts with this coordinating T-shirt, and it was giving monochromatic goodness. Suzie has a store in Amagansett, and her striped shorts-and-shirt set will get you through the rest of summer

The Pareo

If you are over 40, I am here to tell you that it is time for you to invest in a good pareo. It lasts forever, never goes out of style, and looks chicer than a towel for walks on the beach. My first suggestion is classic Pucci, because, of course, what else are we doing on earth if not to own Pucci one day.

If that is not your thing, try Missoni for classic luxe Italian beach. I saw a woman wearing this mini skirt over her swimsuit with a cropped white button-up, and it was perfect. Final mini option is this Etro, va bene.

I visited the Attersee pop-up at Galerie Sardine, and I bought this striped sarong skirt, which has a hidden button closure that makes it easier than wrapping a giant scarf around your body for dinner. It reminds me of a summer version of the Dries skirts I love wearing with a simple t-shirt or tank top.

I am headed back to New York City next week for a few days, and I cannot wait to walk in and find the things I bought over the last few weeks waiting for me, having completely forgotten what they were, but certain at the time that I needed them. Tell me in the comments: what is the last thing you opened that you had almost no memory of buying?

Happy Friday, and if you think a friend might like my newsletter, please share!

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All my picks live in my ShopMy storefront 24/7. I may earn a small commission from some of the things you buy, at no extra cost to you. Happy Shopping!

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I have been coming to Amagansett for over a decade, including a two-year stint as a local during Covid, and it is still my favorite place to be. Not just because of the beach, but because there is a slowness out here that I have only otherwise found on far away islands. My version of Amagansett exists mostly on foot, which changes the whole pace of things.

Every morning I walk my dog Teddy through the square and around the lanes, which in the summer doubles as a reunion tour, stopping at friends’ houses I could never actually walk to in my September to May life.

There is something special about the two months of summer when my friends who live all across the country, or even an ocean away, land in Amagansett and we get to be neighbors again. The rest of the year is voice memos and missed calls, but out here we are back to actual proximity and showing up on each other's porches without calling first. It's the one place that gets me out of my algorithm.

My friend Katie recently asked me to put together an Amagansett agenda for her, and I was honored, because there's no one whose taste I trust more. We met years ago at school drop-off in Tribeca and have been style sisters ever since, first bonding over a shared love of The RealReal, then over a time spent together in Amagansett during Covid. A few years ago Katie started her own brand, Cara Cara, and it has become one of my favorite things to wear all summer.

Amagansett Square is right down the street from me and the true center of town. Doubles has become my go-to for lunch, especially the outdoor picnic tables, where I'm usually posted up with friends over the Freddie and Lelani bowls.

The farmers market sets up Fridays from 10 to 2, ringed by blue hydrangeas and shingled storefronts. That is where I met JGrey Studio, who hand-paints beach totes, and then walk over to Jamagansett for their pop tarts.

Il Buco Vita is where I end up for unique gifts, especially the Antonello Radis ceramics, like these mussels and this strawberry, perfect as paperweights or conversation-starting table objects. I keep the Montegranaro Bowl on my counter in New York City, just to remind me of summer during the depths of winter. They also serve fantastic coffee and fresh bomboloni made to order, with fillings like chocolate and jam.

Dinner at Il Buco Mare is a summer must. We always order a bunch of mixed dishes to share, and with the walls open to Main Street by the bar, it feels like the whole town’s twinkling-lights gathering spot.

The second night I met Claudja, who owns one of my favorite boutiques, Lazy Point, for dinner and cocktails at Il Buco's bar. Claudja is a town legend who greets every single person as if they'd been summoned personally. She has had her store for 16 years, and every summer she curates the most amazing selection of jewelry, clothing, and treasures she finds on her travels.

There are so many more places and favorites I could get into; I’ll have to save the full shopping guide for another post. But for now, these are the ones on repeat.

As always, DM me with questions or requests; I love hearing from you. And please share with a friend who you think may enjoy this newsletter.

Xo

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All my picks live in my ShopMy storefront 24/7. I may earn a small commission from some of the things you buy, at no extra cost to you. Happy Shopping!

The Vacation Shop

The Little White Dress Shop

Sardinian Summer Shop

My Favorite July Finds

When your kids are away at sleepaway camp, and your in-laws have the dog, you get to remember what it’s like to be free. I will go wherever the wind takes me, and I will accept literally any invitation, as long as it gets me home by 9:30ish.

On our second day of vacation, my husband mentioned that a friend wanted us over for Shabbat dinner that evening, at his in-laws’ house. I thought about it for exactly one second. Then I said yes. My most used response on vacation.

There’s something so chic about the way Europeans wear all white linen in summer. Practical in a heatwave, but it just looks effortlessly elegant. I pulled together some of the best white dresses of the season, at every price point, here.

If you’re not ready to commit to head-to-toe white, foundation pieces like shorts, jeans, and pants are the easy way in. Mix in some raffia, gold jewelry, ice blue, or pale pink. Just stay away from bold contrast with white. Keep it subtle.

We’re not Jewish, but I do have one Ashkenazi great-grandfather and a group chat full of Jewish friends who will absolutely fact-check this article. So the Shabbat dinner invitation felt less like an unusual plan and more like exactly the kind of night I love falling into.

We were the first to arrive, which is its own special humiliation. Nothing says “we do not know these people” like standing alone in someone’s backyard admiring their view before they’ve even come outside. A little girl in a floral sundress locked eyes with us and sprinted off, presumably to report that the weird early Americans had arrived. Then I saw the table. Thirty place settings, right on the ocean, before I’d said hello to a single human being.

I grew up around long tables. The kind that fit whoever showed up, chairs dragged in from other rooms, plates just appearing for one more person. Different ages, different opinions, everyone talking over each other about nothing and everything. So there is genuinely nothing I love more than a thirty-person table, even one where I don’t know a single name on it. Especially that, actually. A big table full of strangers is just a long table full of future stories.

Our host greeted us like we were cousins, finally making it in from out of town. He appeared in fabulously lived-in ecru denim, a perfect weight ecru popover, a large beaded necklace, and Birkenstocks. Subtle bohemian legend energy for someone in his mid seventies.

There was something magical about him, casually hosting a table of his son-in-law's friends, singing the Shabbat prayers like he'd done it a thousand times, which he probably had.

I later learned he was Armand Hadida, who, with his wife Martine, opened L’Éclaireur on the Champs-Élysées in 1980, mixing fashion, furniture and art under one roof before “concept store” was a phrase anyone used. I couldn’t believe it. After sixteen years of meeting my husband’s work colleagues, he had finally brought me to MY PEOPLE.

Most of the table was Parisian, with a handful of other Americans sprinkled in for flavor. Looking around, I clocked that I had finally left my algorithm, and I was happily amongst creatives and artists. Which tracked, since our first night on the island, before any of this, we’d wandered San Pantaleo, a hill town that felt more like an art colony than a beach destination.

Something about the spirit of the night, Armand’s warmth, the spontaneity of the whole thing, made me feel completely comfortable asking the strangers at my own table what they were wearing. Can I take a photo of that? What is it, where’d you get it? No hedging, no apologizing.

I started with the woman across from me, in her grandmother's vintage Fendi. How good?! My grandmother's hand-me-downs were exclusively Italian house dresses.

Then there was the woman sitting to the right of me, effortlessly cool in a stunning linen dress, with the most amazing gold rings. She mentioned she had four children as casually as a weather update, and even her husband was in a fantastic tunic and lots of black corded jewelry.

We ended up running into each other the next day, had a Bellini like it was scheduled, and she let me photograph her hands so I could credit her friend who made one of the rings she was wearing. Nothing says healthy boundaries like cornering a woman’s jewelry for content.

Sardinia is one of the original five blue zones, the places researchers point to when people casually live to 100, and after a few days there the reason is obvious. Nobody rushes. Lunch takes ninety minutes minimum. I didn't know any of the science going in. I just knew that the stores were closed from 1-5pm which is the longest riposo this professional shopper has ever seen.

Two days in I was taking full spontaneous naps in the middle of the afternoon. No warning, no plan, just suddenly horizontal in the blazing sun. My nervous system, evidently, had been waiting years for someone to tell it this was allowed. Turns out I’m extremely good at slow when none of my dependents are around.

Anyway. That’s the whole magic of vacation: not the itinerary, not the thing you booked months ago, but the dinner you weren’t supposed to be at, a ring you can’t stop thinking about, a friend you make over one Bellini and never see again outside your camera roll.

No stress. Just a very good table, the right people at it, and proof that the best nights still happen outside my algorithm.

Thanks for reading! If you have a friend who you think might enjoy my newsletter, or says yes to everything on vacation, please share or leave a comment!

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New here? Welcome. The No Stress Club is a weekly fashion commentary from someone who actually works in it. Start with the greatest hits: Why Substack is Better than Instagram for Fashion, The Going Out Top for People Born Before 1990 and The Women Who Know What They Want. I write here every week. I would love to have you.

All my picks live in my ShopMy storefront. I may earn a small commission from some of the things you buy, at no extra cost to you.

Some quick context for anyone new here. My cardio routine, as of eighteen months ago, consists of walking my dog and the occasional spike brought on by a Bravo reunion episode or an email that says “an extra 20% off sale, today only.”

I get peer-pressured into a strength class every few months by a friend who “just wants company,” and I go, and I am sore for four days, and I tell everyone it changed my life, and then I don’t go again until the next friend pressures me.

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So when I tell you I spent four days in the French Alps wearing a helmet, gloves, and a harness with actual carabiners clipped to it, I need you to understand the scale of what happened to me.

It started, like most decisions I’ve made purely to avoid being the one who says no, with a friend’s milestone birthday. She wanted the Alps. She wanted “an adventure.” I wanted croissants and a view.

After 43 years of living with genetic anticipatory anxiety, I have learned to stay away from all details and just say yes without reading the fine print. Which is how I ended up standing at the base of a mountain being handed a waiver to sign.

A waiver, for those unfamiliar, is a document that exists so a company can say “we told her this might kill her” after the fact. I signed it the way I sign every important document, which is quickly and without making eye contact with the content, because eye contact with the content would have meant admitting what I’d agreed to.

What I'd agreed to was via ferrata. If you don't know what that is, congratulations, your nervous system is intact. It’s essentially climbing up the side of a mountain on a fixed cable, clipped in with two carabiners that you move one at a time so you’re never fully unattached (in theory).

But about halfway up, somewhere past “I am definitely going to die,” something shifted. It was the kind of focus I haven’t had in a while. There was no room in my brain for whether I had my passport, or what time I needed to leave for the airport, or the group text I hadn’t answered. There was only the next clip, the next foothold, the next breath. It was, against every prediction I would have made about myself, kind of incredible.

The most technical piece of equipment I had owned prior to this trip was a NuFace that I used twice and then put in a drawer.

One of the adventures was a rafting trip that required two layers of wetsuits and neoprene grip slippers, which felt absurd to put on in the middle of a European heat wave and then felt like the only reasonable choice the second we hit the water. It was less scary than via ferrata, mostly because once I learned the crouching safety position, I started going into it voluntarily any time a rapid looked too high, to the visible confusion of our guide.

And for the grand finale, a gravel-filled electric mountain bike ride down the ski slopes for two hours, during which I spent most of my mental energy wondering why anyone would choose to do something like this, while our guides popped wheelies over the big rocks.

By the last day, I had worn more athletic gear in ninety-six hours than in the previous year and a half combined, and somehow I was not dead.

Because this can’t just be a story about my own nervous system: the trip itself was a masterpiece, and the birthday girl deserves all the credit. Prior to the trip, she gifted us monogrammed toiletry cases and greeted us upon arrival to the chalet with mahjong card holders.

All activities ended in a full picnic lunch in a valley dotted with stone houses that looked lifted straight out of a storybook, rosé included, which is the kind of detail that makes you briefly forget you agreed to clip yourself to a cliff that morning.

That's the exchange rate on a trip like this: you spend your mornings convinced you're about to die, and your evenings drinking rosé like nothing happened.

By the time you read this, I'll be in Sardinia, with a resting heart rate, walking around a town. Turns out you can eat crepes and croissants every single morning, as long as you spend your afternoons earning them the hard way.

Shop everything I wore and packed → My Adventure in the French Alps

All my picks live in my ShopMy storefront. I may earn a small commission from some of the things you buy, at no extra cost to you.

New here? Welcome. The No Stress Club is a weekly fashion commentary from someone who actually works in it. Start with the greatest hits: We Cannot Wear Leggings Anymore. I’m Sorry. (the post that doubled this newsletter overnight), Why Substack is better than Instagram, The Saddest Store in Soho. I write here every week. I would love to have you.

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I read it at 7am and immediately felt behind.

This is what the internet does to you now. You open your phone to look at something mildly interesting, and you close it having added six things to an invisible list of ways you are underperforming. Maybe there are some amazing people out there who read articles like this and feel nothing. But they make me feel extremely unaccomplished.

I spent twenty-two years working in fashion, starting as a merchant and then spending the next decade focused on the digital side of the business. When I was nine months pregnant in 2014, I was laid off from my job at dELiA*S (yes, that one), along with the rest of the executive team who had joined 18 months earlier because we ran out of time to turn the brand around.

Sheryl Sandberg had recently published Lean In, and with a two-year-old at home and a baby on the way, I started interviewing.

I decided that what I needed was a job with a start date at least four months out so I could have maternity leave and not miss a beat in my career. I considered this a feminist act. I still sort of do, even though I also recognize it was completely unhinged.

I put on my Zara leather leggings (I had cut slits in the sides and added a belly band to accommodate my protruding belly) and hit the streets.

One of my interviews was at the Fashion Institute of Technology, which was looking to add a full-time e-commerce professor to their faculty. I made it to the final round and lectured, at 38 weeks pregnant, to a room of full-time faculty, most of whom were graduates of the Macy’s training program in the early 80s, on how Brandy Melville had built an entire brand on social media.

I did not get the full-time position. I taught as an adjunct for four semesters.

After that, I became a consultant and spent a decade helping brands figure out how to talk to customers who were no longer walking into a store.

Then I got hit by a car.

For the first time in my adult life, I had to calm the fuck down. I started a Substack from bed. It turns out I needed to be hit by an actual car to realize I was a writer. I should have learned something from this. And I think I did for the first three months when I was stuck in bed and life slowed down a bit. But like anything, the second I started walking again, I reverted back to my old ways.

I launched a ShopMy account and a consignment company. Because why have one thing when you can have a thing and a whole other thing that requires its own Shopify, its own Instagram, its own pricing spreadsheets, and its own LLC. I now have two brands, a newsletter, a ShopMy page, a consignment inventory, and about five thousand unfinished prompts in ChatGPT and Claude trying to excel at all of those businesses. Not to mention a dog and two kids whose father has a job that does not allow for a flexible schedule, which means the math of all of this falls in one direction.

There used to be a version of this industry where you could just be good at the thing. The designer designed. The editor edited. The stylist showed up, and made everything look right and then went home. You got hired because you had taste. Having taste was, in itself, a career.

At some point that stopped being enough. Now you needed a platform, an audience, and a brand distinct from the platform but also expressed through it. Oh, and a revenue stream.

I remember when we called the internet the World Wide Web, and it sounded like a place you could visit and step away from. My family had a dedicated office with a modem that dialed up the internet, and my sisters and I took turns using it. You did not have unlimited access. Nobody calls it the World Wide Web anymore because it stopped being a place you visit and started being a place you live. And when you live somewhere, you have to maintain it.

Just this week I looked at my daughters, who have too many clothes, and suggested they start a business. Sell the dresses they don’t wear anymore. The sweatshirts taking up half the closet. Build something.

They looked at me like I had suggested they file their own taxes.

They were right. They do not need a revenue stream. They need to donate the sweatshirts and go to the beach. The answer was always just donate them. I could not see it because I have been living in a place where donating something feels like leaving money on the table.

What I actually want this summer is to sell vintage t-shirts and beach dresses out of a shack in my backyard. No Shopify. No content calendar. No brand guidelines. Just good things at fair prices, and a cash box and a sign I wrote in Sharpie.

I will not do this. I will keep building. But I want you to know I thought about it seriously for at least twenty minutes this week. And I think that counts for something.

And tell me in the comments: what did you actually want to do this summer before the content calendar got in the way?

And lastly, because I cannot help myself: if you and your AI household staff are looking for something to do, I have three businesses.

La Volta NYC for luxury consignment that is an amazing collection of stylish NYC women’s closets who have graciously allowed me to sell their barely worn treasures.

This newsletter, which you are already reading but could forward to a friend.

And my ShopMy page, where I have done the shopping so you do not have to. I may earn a small commission from some of the things you buy, at no extra cost to you.

One of the reasons I started this Substack is to help friends navigate the endless options, the endless brands, the endless refresh. And I have to say, even I am exhausted right now.

I wrote about this a little in I’m Not Skinny Enough to Be an Influencer, the gap between the fashion machine and how real people actually get dressed. And then again in My Clothes Were at Milan Fashion Week, But I Wasn’t Wearing Them, which is about the joy of great pieces having a life, not about acquiring more of them.

I’ve been in Amagansett for ten days, and my daily routine consists of walking my dog, running into people in the town square, and visiting shops like Lazy Point, Warm, and Utilitaria Montauk Outpost, the kind that don’t have websites or affiliate links.

It’s shoulder season in every sense. Not quite summer. Not still spring. The kind of in-between that doesn’t require anything new. I’m leaving for Europe at the end of the month, so I deliberately left my full summer wardrobe in New York City. I’ll pack properly when I’m back. Which means I’m wearing what I have. Leset pants, Cadet pants, Madewell jeans, Jungmaven t-shirts, and approximately every button-up I own.

Here’s what I’ve realized: I don’t actually miss it.

The new arrivals. The refresh. The thing I do where I tell myself I’m “researching” but I’m really just stress-scrolling through things I don’t need. All of it. Gone. And I feel fine. By the time I actually care again, half of it will be on sale anyway.

Getting dressed well is a long game. It’s about knowing what works for you, buying it when it’s right, and then leaving it alone. It is not about refreshing a new arrivals page every day.

The shopping content game, the links, the roundups, the new arrivals. I’ve been genuinely torn about how much of it to do. I just don’t have 25 new things for you to buy every week, and I don’t understand how people do.

What I have is twenty-five years of knowing what’s actually worth buying, and why, and for whom. That’s a different thing. It photographs worse, but it lasts longer.

That said, a few things have been following me around long enough that I feel obligated to acknowledge them. These aren’t all new arrivals. They’re the things that survived the edit.

The Loeffler Randall Karly Sandal (also comes in gold) is what I call an elder millennial going-out shoe. Summer is when I wear short dresses and skirts, and I follow “the shorter the hem, the lower the heel”, so I always wear flats with a mini. Runner-up is the Khaite Liria Flat because python is a neutral that you can wear with anything, and packing this in your bag covers you from day to night. If you want a little height, I love the Jude Mule and Jamie Haller Kit Slide because they remind me of my aunt, who grew up in the 60s and whose house slippers were a mini wedge peep-toe. Imagine.

This Tory Burch Sequin Mesh Dress was made for dinner on the Mediterranean; it comes as a top which is either practical or a trap, depending on your self-control.

For raffia bags, I keep on coming back to the Doen Pranzo Mini Tote, and something from Maria La Rosa. Her bags are like tiny pieces of art, and CLIC in East Hampton just got a big shipment.

Not necessarily a summer bag, but the Row Cecily Tote has been stalking me. First at La Garconne in Tribeca, and now here in Amagansett, where my dog has apparently adopted The Row's porch water bowl as his personal hydration station on our daily walks. I take this as a sign that he is paying his respects to the Tiina Laakkonen store that used to occupy that space. I know it's ridiculous to spend $1,250 on a navy satin bag. But the strap width is so delicate and I can't stop thinking about it. Damn those Olsen twins.

I would be remiss if I did not include my Nili Lotan Alfie Silk Shirt and Frances Silk Short in the bandana print because I wore it to dinner in the square last night and at least two women at the table ordered it before we got to dessert. It's expensive, but you'll wear it for the next three months straight, starting on that first day when you're not quite tan enough to pull out a dress.

And yes, I also bought a small amount of Zara and Mango. A mini dress, a striped dress, a beaded pareo skirt, a beaded necklace and a red linen dress. Summer things that cost nothing and photograph like they didn't. No apologies.

The full list is here.

So for now: I’m headed to Europe at the end of the month, where I plan to shop the boutiques that don’t ship internationally, find the things you can’t google, and wear my striped button-downs until the continent tells me otherwise. The new arrivals can wait. They always do. And honestly, by the time I resurface and feel like checking, they’ll probably be marked down.

New here? Welcome. The No Stress Club is a weekly fashion commentary from someone who actually works in it. Start with the greatest hits: We Cannot Wear Leggings Anymore. I’m Sorry., The Millennial Tuck, and The Saddest Store in Soho. I write here every week. I would love to have you.

Before we go any further: this is not a parenting advice column. I have no advice. I am so grateful to be their mother, but sometimes the world we are parenting in is just a little bit insane, and I think we should talk about it.

I spent the beginning of the week brainstorming what to do for the last day of school for a bunch of 7th graders. Last year I stood in a park handing out popsicles while they did everything in their power to pretend I wasn’t there. I was not doing that again. Another idea was Starbucks gift cards, until I remembered the school email about those pink drinks and pictured the rogue parent citing the NY Mag article about Starbucks as a tween status symbol. I landed on doing nothing, citing food waste, which felt especially on brand given that three days earlier we had received a last-minute “invitation” (surprise!) to walk through the girls’ projects on food waste. From 10:30 to 11:15. On a Tuesday. During the last week of school.

Every time I complain about any of this to my mom, she says “we didn’t have to do that.” And she’s right. The full scope of my parents’ involvement in my school activities was making sure I had black pants and a white button-down for the band concert. Twice a year. That was the whole job.

When they weren’t driving us to the band concert, we were outside. On the block. Until it got dark. No one knew exactly where we were. No one had signed a waiver. We came home when the streetlights came on, ate whatever was on the table, and did it again the next day. Unscheduled, unsupervised, and apparently completely over.

I genuinely do not know when kids today would have time to play outside until dark. They are never home. They go from school to practice to the car to the next thing to bed. Everyone is on a highway somewhere, driving to a facility forty minutes away for a training session that was on the calendar in October and requires a deposit to hold the spot.

The bar has moved considerably. And if you are doing all of this as a full-time working parent alongside another full-time working parent, you are an absolute rockstar. Lord knows we don’t need any more last-minute 30-minute award ceremonies, but if we did, you would surely take home the top prize.

My oldest is trying out for varsity sports next year, which requires a physical form, a doctor’s signature, and a fitness test that includes 21 push-ups in one minute and two pull-ups. I want to be supportive. I also cannot do one pull-up and am fairly certain I never could.

The dance competition circuit deserves its own post, and it will get one. The short version: three weekends this winter spent in a half-empty auditorium in West Islip with no cell service, a dead battery, and a $9 bottle of water, roaming the parking lot in a catatonic state in between performances. Followed by a stay at the same Holiday Inn Express that was mentioned in the Gilgo Beach Netflix documentary. Not to mention an award ceremony where your kid gets a “scholarship” to attend a dance intensive over a holiday weekend, which is more like a coupon toward the egregious tuition and Merch with their logo in colors and fonts I would not want to see in my lifetime.

And before you sign your kid up for any of this, know that every activity comes with a contract. Full commitment required, schedule conflicts disclosed in advance, no refunds after a certain date. We are executing legal agreements so our nine-year-olds can play recreational soccer. And then we are expected to act surprised and delighted when our kid receives a certificate for completing the thing we paid for, signed a contract for, and drove them to every week.

Jonathan Haidt needs to write a sequel to The Anxious Generation. He made a very compelling case against phones. I would like to make one against after-school commitments and the parallel universe of parent obligations that comes with them. I would do it myself, but I have to go sign something.

I’m not complaining. (I’m complaining.)

Tell me in the comments the craziest thing you’ve done, missed, signed a contract for, or driven to on a Wednesday night in the last month. I need to know I’m not alone in this. And if you need a lifeline in the meantime, google Lisa D’Amour. The woman’s voice is as good as a Xanax.

On that note, the last two weeks were a blur, and I did zero shopping for myself (except for this Nili Lotan outfit, which I purchased in a self-soothing late-night Instagram scroll).

So I handed over the reins to my daughters and let them curate the Teen Summer shop, and here we are. Shop the whole collection here.

If you are looking for adult clothes, all my picks are live in my ShopMy storefront. I may earn a small commission from some of the things you buy, at no extra cost to you.

As always, thank you for subscribing, and please send this to a friend who needs it. XO

The irony is that when I tell people my age that I write a Substack, they often look puzzled and ask me how to find it. Which is a shame, because the community here is thoughtful, smart, and design-driven in a way Instagram has not been in years. I keep wanting to text my friends and tell them they are in the wrong room.

I came of age at the peak of the American fashion magazine. Vogue, Elle (listen to this!), Bazaar, W (the size was groundbreaking), Cosmopolitan (free sex education classes), and finally Lucky! (with the post-its!) in 2000.

They arrived in the mail, and you sat on the floor of your bedroom and read the entire thing, including the perfume ads. My sister used to wallpaper her closet with Absolut ads, which blew my mind at the time, but it is even more wild to think about now that I have a 13-year-old.

I used to stock up on magazines at the airport and disappear into Hudson News, which got me in trouble with my family many times. I could not afford all of the magazines I wanted, so I would stand there, flip through two of them, and buy the other three (usually while my name was being called over the loudspeaker for a flight that was actively boarding).

Magazines were curated by editors, who made choices. Nothing was in there only because it was trending. Things were in there because someone with taste had decided they should be. The columnist had been thinking about their column for weeks. It was an act of curation, of withholding, of no, not that one, this one.

Substack does this. The writer is the editor. They have spent the week thinking. They are telling you about what they love in a voice you have come to recognize. And I have my columnists now. There is Alex DiCapo Patel at The Best Best. Lindsay Sword at Fashion Soup. Jess Graves at The Love List. Christina Grasso at The Pouf. Erika Veurink at Long Live. Kelly Klein. And Frosso at Stylé, who is actually writing live from Paris. I do not know what all of them look like, but I know what they sound like. They are doing exactly what the magazines used to do.

I want to be clear before I go further. I am in fashion. I have been for twenty-two years. I have watched it migrate from catalogs to e-commerce and from editors to influencers. I have worked through every shift of it. So when I say something has gone wrong with what fashion has become on Instagram, I am not saying it from the outside.

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I wrote “I’m Not Skinny Enough To Be An Influencer” in February, about the flattening of every fashion Instagram account into the same CBK capsule wardrobe.

I wrote “A Birkin at Duane Reade” in March, about how the Birkin has gone from a lifelong fantasy to a weekday exercise-class companion. That piece was about the objects. This one is about the platform.

Because once you see it, you cannot unsee it: the acquisition velocity that has eaten fashion Instagram is not really a story about individual women being unrelatable. It is a story about what the medium itself rewards.

Instagram is a feed. A feed needs new content. New content, in fashion, means new objects. The accounts that succeed are the ones that can produce a new object every other day.

The magazines could not have produced this problem. The magazines were too slow. They had closing dates, printing schedules, and ten-page editorial spreads that took months to plan. The whole format slowed everything down to the speed at which taste actually operates, which is closer to the speed at which one writes a letter than the speed at which one opens an app.

The actual labor of Instagram, for anyone who has tried to make it work as anything more than personal sharing, is three reels a week, stories every day, a grid post on a schedule, all of it timed to a beast whose appetite is approximately infinite. And all of it requires a face. Yours, specifically. In good light. On camera. Smiling.

Substack, by contrast, has me writing a letter once a week, or twice, if I have more to share. It is the difference between hosting a dinner party and running a restaurant. I am much, much better at dinner parties.

Instagram in 2026 is Bloomingdale’s at Christmas. It has everything. But it shows you what every other person is also seeing. There is no discovery. There is only confirmation of what was already trending.

Substack is the small shop on a side street, run by a woman whose taste you trust within four minutes of walking in. The small shop where you find the Danish knitwear designer with fourteen pieces. It is where you walk out with something that nobody else you know is wearing, which is the entire pleasure of getting dressed in the first place.

It happens to me almost every week. A writer I trust sends me to a designer or a small brand I would never have found on my own, and I save the link to a folder on my phone called next. That folder is twenty-three items long. It is what Substack is for. It is everything Instagram is not.

Just this week, Jess Graves wrote “The Olsens Did Not Tell You to Look Like This,” a beautiful piece about how the Olsens have been flattened into a single genre by their Internet disciples. Same exhaustion, different angle. That is also what Substack is for.

It is also where you finally stop chasing. I wrote “Turns Out I Don’t Need Balloon Pants” last fall, about realizing, after a week in Italy, that I did not actually need them. The boutique writer cures you of that. She does not need you to chase. She just needs you to read.

I am still on Instagram. I will continue to be on Instagram because it is where my friends live, where I share my Substacks in hopes of converting someone who is sick of scrolling, and where I share what is happening at my consignment shop La Volta NYC.

But the part of me that used to live for magazines was never going to be fed by a feed. It wanted what Substack actually is: a boutique full of real people who know what they love and get just as excited about a vintage brooch as they do about a new set from Mango.

The magazines went somewhere. They came here. I am very glad to be writing one for you. Xo

Thanks for reading! If you have a friend who you think might enjoy my newsletter, or the ones I mentioned above, please share!

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New here? Welcome. The No Stress Club is a weekly fashion commentary from someone who actually works in it. Start with the greatest hits: We Cannot Wear Leggings Anymore. I’m Sorry. (the post that doubled this newsletter overnight), The Millennial Tuck, and The Saddest Store in Soho. I write here every week. I would love to have you.

All my picks live in my ShopMy storefront. I may earn a small commission from some of the things you buy, at no extra cost to you.

So I’ve done the part nobody wants to do. I went through it. And I promptly deleted my entire inbox, and it felt SO DAMN GOOD. So here’s what’s actually worth pulling the trigger on this weekend.

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The best contestants on Super Market Sweep knew to grab those Honey Baked Hams and coffee grinds the second the doors opened. I always treat sales the same way. My first stop is always designer because that is where the percentage actually translates to real dollars on pieces you’d otherwise never touch.

Most of the good deals are going to be “Pack & Holds”, which, if you are an avid NSC reader or a fashion industry vet, you know this means last season's styles at their “kill price,” which is the final lowest price before that merchandise heads to the outlets. The sizing will be spotty, and some items may be final sale or store credit only, but this is a high-risk, high-reward situation.

I know it is going to be weird to purchase a Shearling Jacket while making summer plans, but I have been known to land some gems that made me smile the following November. The vest is great too.

Altuzarra Dress A fantastic dress to have hanging in your closet at all times.

Valentino Cropped Blazer or this Altuzarra because after the Chanel show everyone is going to want a shorter blazer silhouette.

Valentino Studded Sandal Alessandro Michele is my hero, and for someone who dresses very classically, I love the juxtaposition of the stud. The heeled version is great too. Extra points because you can wear them in season!

Bougette Suede Loafers are the GOAT of loafers and never go on sale, so if you need a brown, these are IT.

Tom Ford Python Heel. Everyone should own a pointy-toe python shoe because they look so elegant peeking out of wide-leg trousers, and sexy with a dress. These work year-round, and the heel height is perfect.

Bergdorf Goodman & Saks Fifth Avenue are up to 50% off, and I’d go for Valentino, Gabriela Hearst, and Bottega Veneta. The kind of sale that rewards a long scroll.

Khaite Private Sale sent a quiet, no-fanfare email today. Early access, prices as marked, and (notably) sale items are eligible for return or exchange — not always a given. My picks: the Syd Dress in Crimson in silky Italian twill and the Demi Skirt in Black, a bias-cut satin midi you reach for when nothing else feels right.

Toteme Jacket, Dress and Trench when in doubt, size down with this brand.

Cara Cara Alba Midi Dress The grab-and-go dress I mentioned last week, now half off, is also great in this blue and white print. Size down if you’re between sizes because there’s elastic at the back and a full skirt.

Kallmeyer Tabitha Blouse in Soft Satin Cream long sleeve, dramatic high cowl neck, the kind of cream blouse you tuck into everything and call it a look.

Jil Sander Raffia Bag or CO Trench Coat from the Shopbop Sale, with an extra 10% off with code EXTRA10. If you have anything in your save-for-later basket, now is the time.

JCrew St. Tropez Linen Shorts in White and Black and wear them all summer. I also snagged this polo.

Natalie Martin Isobel Dress or Maria Dress because she does summer so well and, I love these prints next to the water.

La Volta NYC is 15% off for NSC subscribers with code: MDW A small percentage on already-strong pricing is the kind of stack that adds up fast on a real find. This Chanel Bag, Goyard Tote, Hermes Belt or Alaia flats are the best bang for your buck.

Happy long weekend. xx

All my picks live in my ShopMy storefront. I may earn a small commission from some of the things you buy, at no extra cost to you.

As always, thank you for subscribing, and please send this to a friend who needs it. XO

The No Stress Club is a weekly fashion letter for women who have strong opinions about clothing, limited patience for trend chasing, and very little time to get dressed. Every week, I write about what’s worth buying and what your closet probably already has that you’ve forgotten about. There are shopping picks at every price point and the occasional strong take on a fashion institution (RIP Barneys).

I’ve spent more than twenty years as a digital strategy and merchandising consultant in the fashion industry, a career that’s made me a seriously good online shopper.

I started this Substack to help women navigate today’s shopping landscape, which is full of incredible brands most people have never heard of. I do all of this from my apartment in TriBeCa, so I know what the cool women are ACTUALLY wearing rather than what Instagram says they are wearing.

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The New York Times published a piece last month called Why Fashion Suddenly Loves Older Women and I read the whole thing at 7 am in my kitchen with the kind of attention I usually reserve for sale alerts.

It is no secret that fashion has spent a long time pretending its only customer is twenty-eight, very thin, and standing in front of a ring light. So reading that Chanel opened with a 50-year-old and Gillian Anderson closed Miu Miu at 57 felt like a small course correction I did not know I had been waiting for. Real women. Different ages, women who looked like the women I actually know. It took them long enough.

And the women I actually know are the same women who built La Volta NYC with me, whether they realized it or not. One hundred percent of the inventory comes from my friends, which will not surprise anyone who knows me. My friends are mostly women in their 40s and 50s, which means La Volta has accidentally become an archive of an entire generation’s closets. And every piece that comes in carries a memory with it.

I write a lot in this newsletter about the things our age group remembers in a very specific way, like going out tops, Barneys!, and baby tees, but nothing is more specific to that era than an Hervé Léger bandage dress. A few weeks ago, a friend consigned her bandage dress. You know the one. The dress that meant something. She was ready to let it go, which is its own kind of milestone, and after less than 24 hours on the site, it sold. To a 25-year-old. Who was going to wear it to her 26th birthday party.

That was the moment I realized this business was about more than just clothing. I stood there thinking about that dress, where it had been and where it was going, and what that birthday party would feel like for her, and I thought: this is the circle of life. That dress didn’t retire. It just changed hands. It is out there right now, doing exactly what it was made to do.

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I wrote a while back about scrolling Instagram at night and being served an endless loop of CBK style, followed by what “cool moms” are wearing and Birkin unboxings. There was a stretch of time where I would open Instagram and feel a low-grade anxiety, like I had missed a memo, like there was a cooler version of getting dressed happening in another apartment across town that I was not invited to. And then I went to Milan, and realized I did not actually need balloon pants. The best fashion choices I was making were not about chasing anything or looking younger. They were about the pieces that worked on the person I had become.

Which, as it turns out, is what the women I know have been quietly understanding for years. We have been here the whole time. We didn’t stop caring about how we look. We just got better at knowing who we are.

If you have a closet of beloved pieces ready for their second act, La Volta NYC is taking new consignors. And if you are the girl looking for someone else’s bandage dress, we are open 24 hours a day

Here are a few things I found on the internet this week.

All my picks live in my ShopMy storefront, and you can read every past piece in the archive. I may earn a small commission from some of the things you buy, at no extra cost to you.

As always, thank you for subscribing, and please send this to a friend who needs it. XO

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I knew exactly what she meant. My college girlfriends and I used to pass around a black one-shoulder knit tank from "Express" (it looked good on everyone!) like it was a family heirloom. It traveled from dorm room to dorm room, apartment to apartment, always paired with the same red beaded collar necklace, and each of us wore it as if we looked completely amazing and as if our friend had not worn the exact same combination the previous Friday night.

The original going out top (Contempo Casuals! French Connection! Banana Republic!) lived exclusively with black pants. Then Barney's Co-Op expanded, designer denim arrived, and the going out top finally reached its full potential. We all knew it.

May in New York is peak going out top season. It is not warm enough for a bare-legged dress (we already optimistically put our boots away), so a good top and your best jeans hit that perfect spot.

Since I have been out of college for twenty-two years, I thought I would give you “going out top” suggestions for someone who was born before 1990.

And, if you were born after 1990 and you are reading this - HELLO! I used to be you. I remember reading the “Outfits at Any Age” magazine editorials in my twenties and loved all the over 50 outfits and would dream about wearing pendant necklaces, tunics, and elastic waist pants - and here I am! Ironically, writing about lace camis.

The Black Top

The hardest working woman in show business. Underpaid, underappreciated, absolutely irreplaceable.

My answer is usually yes, because the resale value is impressive given how many people love the brand (La Volta has sold a few Khaite pieces), but for a plain black top, you do not need to spend Khaite money. These Kallmeyer, Simkhai, Tahari, and Aritzia tops are all good alternatives. This Toteme is a perfect long-sleeve going-out top to have hanging in your closet for all your evening needs.

The Cami

We used to wear camis because we were packed into crowded bars and nightclubs. Now we wear it to give people the illusion that after dinner, we would absolutely consider going to a crowded bar or nightclub (if it’s not too late).

If you need something more bra-friendly, these Ami Paris and DÔEN tops work well. I own the matching Doen Shorts, and as much as I would like to quit them, they are just too comfortable and easy in warm weather with a casual button-up or vintage t-shirt.

Dries Van Noten, Christopher Esber, and Johanna Ortiz all have great printed camis you can wear with jeans and a coordinating cashmere cardigan (bright poppy or lilac!)

The trick to wearing a cami and still covering your arms is to pull your cardigan or jacket down just enough to show off your shoulders. I learned this from Donna Karan, who famously said that women should always show their shoulders because it is the one part of your body where you never gain weight, video proof.

The Button-Up

The button-up is the most underestimated going-out top in existence. The secret is in the positioning. With the right bra, you unbutton it deep enough to open into a V and pull the collar apart just enough to show your collarbone. Suddenly, you have a top that reads intentional and a little sexy without trying very hard at all.

Soldout and Comme Si are my favorite cotton poplin button-ups for evening because their poplin has a subtle sheen. White, navy, and black, of course, but the light pink and blue look great right now. Try this twisted ALC for a short sleeve option.

The Blazer As A Top

This one requires a specific blazer. Not your emotional-support blazer, and not your oversized one. You need the one that sits right on the edge between top and jacket, and has clearly decided to be both.

This Khaite Cropped Jacket does the same, but it is sadly sold out everywhere. How great is this Destree Polka Dot jacket?

I have a ton more options in THIS SHOP, and here are some honorable mentions Ulla Johnson Lace, SEA Fringe, Doen Crysanthe, Zimmerman, Julia Amory, FRAME

As always, thank you for subscribing, and please share in the comments what going out top defined your twenties!! Xo

PS - My newest venture, La Volta NYC, is live, and you can shop it here.

PS - The No Stress Club Shop, featuring all of my Substack recommendations, is always open here. I may get a small commission from some of the things you buy. No extra cost to you. Thank you so much for supporting my work.

Today, it is who they admire, what they’ve been told, what they’re dreaming about, and the best thing they've ever found. Plus two more women who belong in this conversation.

Gabriela is the woman behind @stillintribeca - formerly in press at Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton, and Hermes, now one of the more quietly influential fashion voices on Instagram. She describes her style as “classics with a twist - pieces that are just a bit odd and irreverent, or have details that only the wearer knows about.”

Marissa Galante Frank is the Fashion Director for Accessories and Beauty at Bloomingdale’s, where she sets the trend direction for handbags, shoes, fine jewelry, watches, and beauty every season. She started as an assistant personal shopper, set a goal to become a Fashion Director by 30, and achieved it.

Whose style do you admire (that isn't famous but in your life)?

Ferebee and Eleanor named each other, which, if you follow @coteacote_official, will not surprise you. Each one’s most stylish person is the other. Ferebee says she trusts Eleanor implicitly, that the pieces Eleanor pushes her into always become her favorites. Eleanor says the same thing back.

Katie named Jodie of DanniJo - for mixing colors and textures and then cinching everything with a statement belt. Christine admires the women at The Board, all of them, for owning their looks without apology. Christina named her partner Jessica and Nicole Hanley. Aaron has a neighbor in her 80s who makes an effort every single morning, even at 7:30 am, to walk her dog. That woman has no idea she is being studied.

Samantha named her mother - never in loungewear, always with earrings, always dressed with purpose. Caroline named her son, who looks effortlessly cool in anything without trying. Gabriela named her mother-in-law, intentional in every accessory from her brooches to her glasses.

Best Advice

Katie’s came from a stylist at ELLE in the aughts: make the low look high and the high look cool. Ferebee’s is structural: never show off more than one part of your body at a time. Caroline’s came from her old boss, Ken Downing: “More is More, Less is a Bore.” Aaron’s came from Lorraine Howes at RISD: “If you don’t believe in it, no one else will.” Trust your gut, don’t waste energy on something half-baked.

Christine’s grandmother, Cordelia, always dressed for the occasion, even on a random Tuesday. Christina’s mother: wear your clothes, don’t let them wear you. Samantha’s parents: first impressions make a big impact, dress smart and with intention.

Marissa’s best advice came from Oprah - via me, her sister, which I am choosing to interpret as a compliment. The rule: no open toes on an airplane.

One Brand for the Rest of Your Life

When I asked the question, “If you could only wear one brand for the rest of your life, what would it be?” Prada comes up repeatedly - Christine, Christina, Ferebee, and Marissa, who has both a personal and professional opinion on the matter. Celine appears in triplicate: Eleanor, Ferebee, and Katie, whether mourning the Philo era or opening up to Michael Rider. Gabriela said Dries, full stop - which, given her years in press at some of the world’s most storied houses, tells you exactly where her heart lives. Jessica chose Chanel. Caroline: SACAI, r13, and Vans. Samantha: Khaite. Aaron: wherever Alessandro Michele is designing, which is the most romantic answer and also the most practical.

Current Piece You are Dreaming About

Eleanor: Miu Miu, all of it. Ferebee: the Celine large drop bucket bag in black with multi-color, sold out, of course. Katie: Renato Cipullo sea-swept earrings in her “fashion clouds” and Fendi shoes that will actually happen. Christine: everything from TWP. Christina: the full Matthieu Blazy Chanel Spring 2026 look, not just the jacket. Samantha: the embroidered Valentino denim jacket. Caroline: the Balenciaga Le City large enough to fit a laptop.

Gabriela wants a statement cocktail watch to wear with jeans - vintage pieces that deserve to be worn in daylight. The correct opinion. Jessica wants everything in the Belperron salon. Marissa is deep in a fine jewelry moment and obsessed with what Randi and Mark curate at For Future Reference. “They have the best eye and such an effortlessly cool aura”.

The Best Vintage Find

Katie: Chanel light wash jeans with embroidery thrown over a dressing room door in West Palm by her business partner, Sasha. “A true friend! They totally belong in a 90s Ellen von Unwerth editorial.” Christine: a fur wrap at Chelsea Market in the late 90s. Eleanor: vintage Chanel earrings from Peregrine Galleries in Montecito, whose collection she calls unbelievable.

Aaron’s is the one I’d frame. A Zandra Rhodes for Pologeorgis lynx coat from the 70s, found at Ina. It fit like a glove, well out of her price range. The owner asked what she could afford. “The Vintage Gods were shining down on me that day.”

Christina found a pile of size 39.5 crocodile Manolo heels at a Palm Beach thrift store. Never worn. The world is not fair, and the world is also full of miracles. Samantha: a Fendi tote at Buffalo Exchange in Chelsea, 2012. Caroline’s: her mother’s Dior knit in burgundy and ivory, which is now hers.

Gabriela’s is a tiger print Phoebe Philo Celine coat from 2015. “It brings me immense joy,” she said, which is all you ever want from a coat. Ferebee’s was a Kelly green Oscar de la Renta mini dress and pink Louboutin heels she wore to a friend’s wedding.

Happy Mother’s Day to every woman on this list, and to the mothers who taught us what to hold onto, when to spend the rent money, and how to make the low look high.

Follow along: @coteacote_official · @lapietra_official · @thenyblonde · @stillintribeca · Cara Cara NYC · Writing in Black and White · The Perfect · Shopbop · Bloomingdale’s

As always, thank you for subscribing, and please share with a friend! Xo

P.S. My newest venture, La Volta NYC, is live, and you can shop it here. Someone needs to get this Chava Studio Tux Shirt. It is brand new, in the box, and so good.

PS - The No Stress Club Shop, featuring all of my Substack recommendations, is always open here. I may get a small commission from some of the things you buy. No extra cost to you. Thank you so much for supporting my work.

I grew up with a mom and three sisters, so a female gab fest is basically my first language. There is nothing quite like talking to a woman who just gets it. A woman who has built a business or is actively trying to, who has written a book or started over at 56, all while navigating kids and somehow still thinking about what to wear. I find that combination endlessly inspiring. Fashion is rarely the whole story. It is usually the door.

So for Mother's Day, I sent a survey to nine of these women (some I've known for years, some I found through Instagram or Substack, one I met at an event last summer and instantly wanted to keep) and asked them the questions I've always actually wanted to ask. Part One today: the icks, the splurges, and the pieces they'd take to their graves. Part Two later this week: the advice, the dreams, and the best vintage finds.

Let me introduce them first, because they deserve it.

Katie Hobbs is the co-founder and CMO of Cara Cara NYC, the women-founded brand she launched in 2019 with Julia Brown and Sasha Martin - three working moms who built something out of nothing, took no outside investment, and now run a successful global brand. I met Katie over a decade ago when we were both working full-time and would admire each other’s office outfits at school drop-off.

Christine Morrison is the author of Clothes Minded: Fashionable Essays About Finding Yourself - published, she is proud to point out, at 56 - and writes the Substack, Writing in Black and White, which examines fashion, beauty, and aging with the refreshing caveat of no trends, no shopping advice, no affiliate links. Just observation. We found each other on Substack.

Ferebee Taube and Eleanor Yivisaker are the women behind @coteacote_official, which they describe as “from New York City’s streets to Southern California’s shores, a thread that continues to stitch us together from coast to coast.” Ferebee spent years as an independent stylist and PR girl; Eleanor co-founded the luxury denim brand Earnest Sewn in 2004. I love following their Instagram account to discover off-the-radar brands and see how they style pieces across their different cities.

Christina Caldwell and Jessica Sailer Van Lith are former Vogue editors, co-founders of LaPietra, and, most importantly, women I met through our daughters, which is how the best things in life tend to happen. Their fine jewelry house blends artistry with cultured diamonds and is redefining what high jewelry can be with a showroom you can visit by appointment. They are also first responders to my Real Real hotline, and are currently helping me decide whether I need a vintage Oscar de la Renta hand-embroidered opera coat with coordinating pants (not in my size) for my 70th birthday, which is 26 years away.

Aaron Dickson Millhiser is a fashion designer with over twenty years of experience at major brands, including J.Crew (where we once worked together), and is now a co-founder of The Perfect, a newsletter she runs with Alexa Brazilian and Courtney Broadwater. Featured in T: The New York Times Style Magazine. She is also their resident vintage guru and has her own shop of magical finds at thisistheperfect.com. The name says everything.

Caroline Maguire is the Fashion Director at Shopbop, which means she is literally one of the people who decides what the rest of the world buys. I met her years ago in our Tribeca neighborhood, and I will not pretend that it has not affected my dog-walking and soccer-field sideline outfit choices. She is part Taiwanese (so is my husband), and we both come from the same dynamic: one person from a big, loud, tight-knit Long Island family, one person who married into it. Our nephews are best friends; her sister-in-law coaches my niece's lacrosse team; and we are also among the last holdouts in our families still living in New York City. The roots run deep.

Samantha Smalling is the woman behind @thenyblonde - 106K Instagram followers, a former dress buyer, a downtown NYC mom, and the author of her own Substack with over 1,400 subscribers. We met at an event in East Hampton this past summer; she also lives in TriBeCa, and she was kind enough to let me pick her brain over lunch in the neighborhood last week.

Now. To the questions.

What is your fashion ick?

Every woman with real taste has a list.

Aaron went granular: labels sticking out, unclipped vent stitching (YES!), visible bra straps. The details, always the details. Caroline, the woman whose job it is to decide what goes on Shopbop, has declared white jeans and anything linen her personal fashion apocalypse - which made me giggle because I once had an entire clothing line of 100% linen dresses and tops. Opposites attract, I guess. It also reminds me that fashion is subjective and that’s what makes it FUN!!

Samantha named poor tailoring and awkward proportions. Christina has a very specific New York grievance: beachy flip-flops on city streets (this reminds me of my aversion to prairie dresses on NYC summer streets). Jessica is bothered by effort - or more precisely, visible effort. “Style and fashion should be fun, but also true to yourself. Effortless is the ultimate look.”

Ferebee is firm on wedges or heels worn with a bathing suit (could NOT agree more!). Eleanor gave the most philosophical answer: inauthenticity. “Any way a person chooses to dress can look uniquely cool and beautiful as long as it is true to their personal style. Without the core foundation, it comes off as fashion victimy.” (I loved this answer).

Christine, whose entire Substack is devoted to the idea that what we wear reveals who we are, has declared head-to-toe sweats - especially when traveling - her personal fashion apocalypse.

And Katie, whose brand was literally built on designing for emotion rather than trends, shares my own hatred of thong heels and adds what she calls “high brow basic” - that knowing resort and club merchandise that signals insider status without actually earning it. “They know you know,” she said. Devastating and accurate.

What was your first splurge purchase?

Katie’s is perhaps the most cinematic. Early in her marriage, her husband moved to Philadelphia for business school, leaving her in a tiny West Village studio to keep them financially afloat. Her mother-in-law, taking pity, pressed an envelope of cash into her hands - twenty-five hundred dollars in hundreds, earmarked for food, transportation, the survival of a marriage under stress. That stack of bills lasted approximately three days in a shoebox under her bed before a bottomless mimosa brunch led her down to Soho Chanel, where she fanned every last bill across the counter “like a mafia princess” and walked out with a black caviar classic flap. In 2005, that is what it cost. They verified the bills with a counterfeit pen, right there in front of her. “I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman,” she said. “The move temporarily damaged me in my mother-in-law’s eyes, but the bag still makes the rounds 20+ years later.”

Eleanor spent her rent money on a pair of Chloé jeans the year after she graduated from college, then had to beg her landlord for an extra week to pay. Ferebee, fresh from Calvin Klein, bought a mint-green Balenciaga leather motorcycle bag in the Nicholas Ghesquière era - which was technically a brand conflict at her job - and carried it anyway. Aaron saved for over a year as a design assistant to Vera Wang before buying an LV Speedy 30 from the store on Greene Street. Jessica bought a big white Saint Laurent bag. She still has it.

Samantha saved for months in college and bought Christian Louboutin platform espadrilles on her 21st birthday. Caroline’s was a Miu Miu perforated bowling bag. Christina’s, the Chloé Paddington Boots, Phoebe Philo era. Christine’s is the one I keep thinking about: an Ann Demeulemeester dress from Fall 1998, a charcoal grey wool sheet with five arm holes that gets wrapped around à la toga. She still owns and cherishes it. That is the definition of a good purchase.

What is a piece hanging in your closet that you will never get rid of?

Katie has a custom Cara Cara dress - one she and her partners made for themselves for their very first press event in September 2019, before their debut collection had even shipped. She doesn’t have a daughter, so she hopes it will go to a granddaughter one day. Christine has a Dior brown crocodile trench coat (chiccccccccc) from Seventh on Sale, Fall 2005, acquired at a price she describes as “criminally low.” She calls it a showstopper. She is not wrong.

Ferebee keeps all of her Phoebe Philo Celine - especially the sweaters - and the Calvin Klein pieces she accumulated in quantity while working there. Eleanor holds on to her 1993 Helmut Lang slim denim jacket with the long turn-up cuffs, bought at the Soho store when she was still in high school. “That store was the coolest.” Christina will never give up an Alexander McQueen tight black midi dress with a shoulder pad and a deep V that she has held on to since 2007. And Caroline will never get rid of her Jimmy Choo Azia nude patent sandals. Her wedding shoes.

Aaron makes things. She has a tie-dyed charmeuse dress from Vera Wang Spring 2005, a sequin blazer hand-sequined in India for J.Crew’s Spring 2016 NYFW presentation, a pink Clerici duchess satin pajama shirt from J.Crew Spring 2017. She doesn’t wear them, but they’re in there for the memories. Samantha has been collecting pieces from Oscar de la Renta sample sales with the explicit intention of passing them to her daughter one day. And Jessica has a vintage Givenchy couture silk green dress she wore to her rehearsal dinner - the same piece she names as her best vintage find, because some discoveries reorder your understanding of what clothes can be.

Part Two coming later this week: the advice, the dreams, and the best finds - from women who have been paying attention for a very long time.

If you happen to have people living in your home who still need to get you something for Mother’s Day, below are 10 recommendations, plus new picks in this shop.

1. Negative Pajamas: Super comfortable, yet incredibly flattering.

2. Smythson Croc Passport Case: The easiest way to look chic at the airport.

3. La Bonne Brush: You deserve better than your teen daughter for once, this too.

4. GOOP Overnight Peel: I swear they make you glow the next day.

5. Hermes Lip Set: the least expensive orange box your husband will ever purchase.

6. Chantecaille Blush & Bronze Set: Do not travel without this.

7. The Row Malick Sandal: The perfect brown flat sandal for summer. Another option here, and here.

8. Bedside Carafe & Glass: It’s better than a Stanley.

9. Bottega Veneta pouch: 2-in-1 bag for travel that can be worn as a crossbody for airport essentials; then remove the strap to wear to dinner as a clutch. Another option here, or here.

10. Valentino Raffia Bag: Alessandro Michele’s pixie dust has me swooning, less expensive option here, or here.

As always, thank you for subscribing, and please share your answers in the comment section below. I love hearing from you. Xo

You can also follow along with these women: @coteacote_official · @lapietra_official · @thenyblonde · Cara Cara NYC · Writing in Black and White · The Perfect

Five years ago, our closest friends did what felt like a wild and brave thing: they left New York City and moved to New Orleans. We said all the right things. We’ll visit. We’ll make it to Jazz Fest. And then life, the kind that involves a dog, two daughters, and a dishwasher that never fully empties, kept happening.

This year, we finally went.

My husband and I handed our 11 and 13-year-old daughters and our dog over to our babysitter (THANK YOU) and escaped for 48 hours. Here is the thing about midlife: it can start to feel like Groundhog Day. Same dog loop, same three restaurants, same DoorDash order, same grocery list composing itself in my head while I do all of the above. Getting out of your algorithm means blowing all of that up, even briefly, so your nervous system remembers it has other settings.

We landed at 2 pm, threw our bags in our friends’ dreamy backyard cottage, and by 4 pm, we were on the fairgrounds.

Between the music, the food, and the outfits, Jazz Fest was a masterclass in self-expression. I felt like I was transported to a different dimension when a man walked past me holding a giant tuba, while Jennifer Jones, the New Orleans festival fixture, was dancing in the background to “When The Saints Go Marching In” while covered head to toe in rainbow-colored clothing.

The headline performer Friday night was Jon Batiste, whom I first saw performing “Freedom” at the 2022 Grammys, and I loved his energy and smile.

After the show, we did a quick change and headed to Clancy’s for martinis and oysters, which were incredible.

The next morning, I fueled up with chicory coffee and breakfast tacos seasoned with “Slap Ya Mama,” which felt entirely right after the previous night’s martinis.

One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to visit the local boutiques. New York City has amazing shopping, but I love the contrast of shopping at smaller, independently owned boutiques.

Next door was Lekha, a lifestyle brand offering a mix of apparel, accessories, and beauty products. I ended up chatting with the owner, who has fantastic taste, and after working in fashion in New York, settled back in her hometown of New Orleans to open the store. I bought this beautiful dip-dye short-sleeved button-up and have since bought the Sangre de Fruta Soap, Shampoo & Conditioner, both of which my friend and Lekha introduced me to.

Our next stop was Hotel Saint Vincent, which was every bit as gorgeous as I’d imagined, and the ByGeorge inside sent me home with the perfect vintage reworked t-shirt for summer.

Our lunch was a crawfish boil and po’boys at Mahony’s, and straight to the fairgrounds for The Revivalists, Nas, and a very cinematic Stevie Nicks rainstorm.

We ended the night at Preservation Hall in the French Quarter, where Rod Stewart walked in unannounced because apparently that’s just something that happens during Jazz Fest. No photography allowed, so you’ll have to trust me.

Sunday lunch was shrimp and grits at Saba, and beignets from Café Du Monde at the airport. It was an amazing 48 hours and reminded me that sometimes you just need all five senses pointed somewhere entirely new.

As always, thank you for subscribing and DM me with questions or requests. I love hearing from you. Xo

P.S. My newest venture, La Volta NYC, is live, and you can shop it here. Someone needs to get this Celine Beach Bag. It’s so good.

PS - The No Stress Club Shop, featuring all of my Substack recommendations, is always open here. I may get a small commission from some of the things you buy. No extra cost to you. Thank you so much for supporting my work.

I remember planning outfits (mine and my sisters’) for the first day of school every year after spending all summer living in a swimsuit. Social media didn’t exist yet, and most of my friends had been away at camp, so the first day back was a real reveal. It was also a change of season. You had just done all your back-to-school shopping, and even though it was still warm outside, you had to acknowledge Fall (and your new sneakers) in your outfit. There was something ceremonial about it.

I am starting to feel that same change-of-season energy right now. After two consecutive warm days in New York, everyone’s jackets are suddenly off, and outfits are on full display. I got a few texts this week asking for spring office wardrobe updates, so let’s get into it.

The White Trouser Moment

I have been saving way too many Pinterest looks featuring an oversized ivory trouser, which is how I ended up buying these Theory pants, which are fantastic. They are made of crepe, so they have a beautiful drape and are lighter than wool, which makes them perfect for right now.

I am partial to a button-up, so I am wearing my trousers with a blue end-on-end shirt (fashion history lesson: “end-on-end” is when you alternate colored and white threads, creating a subtle, heathered texture and, in this case, the perfect light blue). The Nili Lotan one I have on is a few years old, but Ralph Lauren makes a great one.

For the Non-Ivory-Trouser Woman

Completely valid. Try a button-up trouser look in monochromatic navy or brown. It is just as polished and arguably more wearable.

Blouses for Desk to Dinner

Spring is the perfect season for blouses, and these are the ones I am loving for when you need something that works at 9am and still looks good at 8pm with a glass of wine in your hand. All of them work with trousers, a midi skirt, or your favorite jeans.

The Printed Midi Skirt

My last spring office trick is investing in a few good midi skirts. A longer skirt just feels so fresh right now, and I find them more comfortable than wearing a dress. Wear them with a button-up or polo, and you have an outfit.

I also love mixing a printed midi skirt with a classic stripe button-up for that whole masculine-feminine thing that never gets old.

That first-day-of-school feeling never really goes away; it just shows up in your office in Spring now. My DMs are open for all spring outfit questions. Send me your dilemmas, your Pinterest boards, your “is this too much for the office” photos. I love all of it.

As always, thank you for subscribing, and please share with a friend who needs a good pair of trousers. Xo

P.S. My newest venture, La Volta NYC is live! Our first in-person event was this past week in TriBeCa, and it was amazing. I plan to recap the out-of-body experience in my next Paid subscriber post.

PPS - The No Stress Club Shop, featuring all of my Substack recommendations, is always open here. I may get a small commission from some of the things you buy. No extra cost to you. Thank you so much for supporting my work.