Another year, another impossible garden dream deferred by Florida’s hostile relationship with anything green and growing. While my tomato plants surrender to the heat before they can produce a single fruit worth harvesting, I console myself with Loewe’s utterly ridiculous tomato bag – a luxury leather love letter to the vegetables I’ll never successfully cultivate. It’s absurd, it’s sold out, and it perfectly captures my annual summer solstice ritual of mourning crops that never were.
This year’s ensemble is built around that tomato-shaped talisman, paired with a simple sundress in the neutral shade of dead leaves drying on the vine, an olive cardigan for the aggressive air conditioning that makes Florida summers bearable, and white sneakers adorned with playful peeking hearts that seem to wink at the absurdity of it all. The jewelry leans celestial – gold sunburst earrings to honor the longest day and chunky rings that catch the light. I briefly considered adding the matching tomato bra and panties from Fleur du Mal, but decided that might be taking the theme to an embarrassing extreme – even for me. While I may hide indoors until sunset, I can still dress like someone who appreciates the sun’s theatrical peak performance, even from a safe, climate-controlled distance.
Consider this my sartorial offering to the season – a collection of pieces that celebrate abundance and growth and all the bright, beautiful things that thrive when I’m not directly involved in their cultivation. Here’s to another summer of admiring other people’s tomatoes and wearing mine instead. Usually, I’d just add this year’s ensemble to my old summer solstice collection post and share it across social media, but since I’m taking a 2.5-month break from the digital noise, this tomato-centric vision gets its own dedicated space here on the blog.
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I’m obsessed with Cordelia Cupp –and her outfit– on The Residence. The whole ensemble speaks to my love of clothes that somehow exist outside of time – the riding jacket with leather patches, the Fair Isle sweater vest, those perfectly balanced trousers that are neither too slouchy nor too crisp.
It’s not that the clothes themselves are strange; they’re actually deeply practical and beautifully made. But there’s something almost subversively old-fashioned about them in the context of the White House’s contemporary glamour. They’re clothes that prioritize function over fashion, durability over trends. I half-expect to find them in some vintage shop with a mysterious story attached, or in my grandmother’s cedar chest, alongside hiking boots still caked with mud from adventures I never got to hear about.
I love how she moves through the White House completely unconcerned about standing out. She arrives in “a world where how she looked was going to look completely different from everybody else,” and doesn’t seem to give it a second thought. The pants especially. How do they fall just so? I want pants like that – practical enough for crouching to observe birds or suspects, but with enough structure to suggest competence.
I especially appreciate how every bit of her appearance feels deliberate yet completely unprecious. Her leather satchel looks lived-in but purposeful. And her shoes – sturdy, practical hiking sneakers ready for whatever terrain her investigations might lead her across. And those socks with their subtle stripes peeking out between pants and shoes – a tiny touch of whimsy in an otherwise utterly practical outfit.
Her style borders on dandified but it’s not full of vanity. There’s a thoughtfulness to each piece that seems rooted in function rather than fashion. It’s timeless in a way that feels almost jarring amid the White House formality – not because the clothes themselves are strange, but because nobody dresses with such honest practicality anymore, especially not in settings where appearance typically trumps comfort and utility.
If you are wondering about the specifics of the outfit, here is what I have found out…
Banana Republic Brown Wool Riding Jacket with leather patches
Polo Ralph Lauren Brown V-Neck Fair Isle Sweater Vest
Keen Brown Hiking Sneakers
Bed Stu Dark Brown Leather Satchel
Socks??? A mystery!
The title of this post is one of those perfect lines Cordelia delivers with such understated precision. Her humor is written so wonderfully- she’s not trying lighten the mood or entertain, she’s stating observations with remarkable clarity. Throughout the series, her quiet asides often contain more insight than entire monologues from other characters.
There’s something about Cordelia that’s strangely charming despite her eccentricities. Unlike Sherlock Holmes, who can come across as a brilliant asshole, she seems so much more human. She’s methodical and meticulous, but her brilliance feels like it comes from somewhere deeper, more grounded.
I can’t imagine she wears perfume, but if I were to create an imaginary fragrance for her, it wouldn’t be composed of specific notes so much as atmospheres: the quiet scrape of feet over limestone outcroppings, mist rising from forest pools at dawn, wind threading through ancient hawthorns, leaf-litter rustling with small creatures, wild mint glimpsed along a trail, the mineral tang of distant rain clouds gathering over a bird sanctuary, the cool breath of air from a deep ravine where raptors circle.
Are you watching The Residence? Are you obsessed with Cordelia’s style too? Those pants, right??
P.S. do you have a favorite character and is it Sheila???
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What if the deep-ones’ hybrid offspring wore couture? What if the transformation from human to something else were not just biological but sartorial?
In a foggy maritime underworld of jagged rocks and ambient sounds of crashing waves, models crawled, slithered, and contorted themselves forward in the Elena Velez Fall 2025 Ready to Wear collection (“Leech.”) Opening the show was Anna Delvey—ankle monitor and all—a bizarre yet somehow fitting choice for a collection that seems to revel in subverting expectations. I don’t know why I am still laughing about that, but I am.
The collection feels like it was salvaged from some ancient shipwreck—tattered sails repurposed into flowing garments, rope elements that both bind and decorate, metal pieces catching what little light existed in the space. Some looks featured these seaweed-like textures that seemed to cling to the models like they’d just emerged from the deep.
The “maritime abyss” setting, complete with fog and rocky shores, could easily be the misty coastline where the Marsh family made their unholy pact. Even the three personas—especially “The Land Walker”—echo the uncanny transition states of Innsmouth’s inhabitants, neither fully human nor fully transformed. The collection seems to celebrate rather than fear this metamorphosis, though, reclaiming the power in becoming something other. The residents of the half-submerged coastal town have hiding their gills and webbed fingers and decided to make it fashion!
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I’m not over here trying to Statler and Waldorf my way through fashion week (look, I only tune into this stuff when it gets weird and fun, so I have no idea if we’re even in an official “fashion week” right now or what. There seem to be dozens of them? Whatever.) but can we take a moment to celebrate the brilliant absurdities that make runway shows so captivating?
As someone who genuinely loves fashion in all its forms, I find particular joy in those delightfully outrageous moments where designers push boundaries into the realm of the fantastical and farcical. These are the runway spectacles that make you whisper in awe, “what beautiful madness am I witnessing?” I’ve rounded up my recent Favorite fashion fever dreams not to critique but to revel in the glorious chaos that happens when designers throw caution, convention, and occasionally physics, and quite often good taste, straight out the window.
But also there are some things here that are genuinely lovely! There’s room for all of it, the pretty frocks and the sartorial lunacy, in the eternal wardrobe of my heart.
Junya Watanabe Fall Winter 2025 ready to wear
Alexander McQueen fall 2025 ready to wear
Vivienne Westwood Fall Winter 2025
Rick Owens Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear Collection
Ann Demeulemeester FW25
Marine Serre Fall Winter 2025
Zimmermann Fall Winter 2025
COMME des GARÇONS FW25
Yohji Yamamoto FW25
Moschino FW25
UNDERCOVER FW25
Noir Kei Ninomiya Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear Collection
Hodakova Fall 2025 Ready-To-Wear Collection
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If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know one of my original intentions was to share the things I truly love (in addition to sharing pictures of food!) I don’t always do that as often as I like anymore, so every once in a while, I need to take a break from trying to convince people I know the slightest thing about art or perfume or fashion, and instead just say, “Hey! Look at this thing! I like it!”
Because of that aforementioned doctor’s visit and the changes she wants me to make for my health, as well as trying to keep a better eye on spending, I have put a moratorium on clothing shopping for the time being. If my human meatsack is undergoing an evolution, I don’t need to buy any more garments for it as it continues to mutate. In the meantime, I’ve begun some projects that are pretty intensive and consuming, and I don’t have time to be thinking about clothes or what to wear anyway!
I need tried-and-true uniforms, so I’ve gathered up some favorites into a bit of a capsule wardrobe for easy stuff to wear that I don’t have to put one single thought into. They are comfortable and reliable, and they are 99% black because I am both a creature of habit and a creature of the night! Here they are, in no order, because they’re all equally good!
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For every dreamy dress that makes its way into one of my How To Wear fashion collage ensembles, there’s a digital graveyard of discarded possibilities – beautiful things that weren’t quite right because the ruffle-to-lace ratio failed to properly evoke the precise feeling of reading Gothic romance novels by candlelight during a power outage, or the shade of black wasn’t quite the same black as a crow’s feathers found in a cemetery at exactly 3:47 PM on an overcast Tuesday.
I spend hours haunting the darkest corners of haute couture collections, pursuing that perfect piece that speaks to whatever strange mood has possessed me that day. A stunning Alexander McQueen gown? Rejected because the hem wouldn’t appropriately billow in the theoretical breeze of an imaginary Victorian ghost hunt. That breathtaking Valentino piece? The beading caught the light in a way that reminded me too much of morning dew rather than the glimmer of fairy lights in an abandoned conservatory.
Would you believe that for every dress you see in my finished collages, I’ve passed over at least fifty others? Fifty! Each one lovely in its own right, but ultimately set aside because the neckline wasn’t dramatic enough for swooning over ancient cursed jewelry, or the silhouette failed to capture the essence of “widow who definitely did not poison her third husband but has excellent taste in mourning wear.”
A blood-red Rodarte with velvet ribbons at the shoulders, tea-length and slinky – a dress that captured the exact color of freshly spilled… well, let’s say wine. But – and this pains me still – the way it caught the light was more “elegant dinner party murder mystery” when what I required was “secret vampire masquerade where everyone pretends they’re just wearing really good lipstick.” I spent three days contemplating various shades of crimson trying to convince myself it could work. Reader, it could not.
A transcendent Simone Rocha creation in ivory organza with crystal-scattered corsetry and, how to put this delicately? Sequins placed in such a weird way that they’re essentially crowning a pair of imaginary sagging mams, creating an effect that’s somehow crazy fascinating. It’s giving “disco meditation on the drooping divine” when what I needed was “possibly transformed into a particularly elegant moth while conducting questionable botanical experiments.” The upside-down, underside boob crowning was just too distracting for proper ghostly activities.
A Comme des Garçons masterpiece of gathered jacquard cotton that held such promise: a symphony in black with a flared hem that looked like it had been designed by architects who exclusively work in shadows. But alas – while the structural gathering created the perfect silhouette for looming menacingly in doorways, it would make it impossible to dramatically drape oneself over ancient tombstones without getting caught on the carved cherubs. No amount of strategic flaring could solve the physics of proper Victorian swooning. Some dresses simply refuse to compromise between avant-garde menace and classical gothic poses.
An achingly beautiful Alexander McQueen creation that both haunts and taunts me – a sheer, dotted tulle masterpiece with gold sequined unicorns galloping across its surface. Perfect in absolutely every way… except that I couldn’t find a single photo of it laying flat or even on a hanger. And how can one properly daydream about wearing such a magical thing when there’s always someone else already wearing it in the photos? (We need that blank canvas, that absence, that empty space where we can project our own ghostly selves into the dress!) Alas, this unicorn remained, appropriately, too ethereal to capture in the way I needed.
An Erdem blazer that whispered such dark promises, with its dusty pink cotton-candy corsage trailing tattered ribbons against strict black wool like a forgotten Valentine pressed between the pages of a book of funerary customs. But the double-breasted structure and relaxed cut were giving more “eccentric gallery curator who specializes in cursed paintings” when what I needed was “mysterious lady novelist who may or may not have a collection of possessed dollhouses.” The distinction, while subtle, makes all the difference.
An Oscar de la Renta creation that looked like someone had captured the winter night sky and sewn it into a dress – all starbursts and comet trails and snowflakes that might actually be sea anemones frozen in time. The Art Nouveau-inspired crystal embroidery was absolutely perfect for every celestial occasion I could dream up… except that this cheeky little number was definitely more “tipsy on champagne with shooting stars” when what I needed was “solemnly communing with ancient nebulae.” Some dresses are just determined to have more fun than you had planned.
And finally, a Taller Marmo gown of black tulle and cascading fringe that promised every dramatic entrance I’ve ever dreamed of. I passed it by at the time, but now I realize it’s giving “Endora, but make it goth” – like if Samantha’s mother traded her signature tangerine caftans for something more suited to materializing dramatically in your living room at midnight instead of noon. Just imagine the withering looks she could deliver to Dum-Dum in this number, all swishing black fringe and sequined disdain. I could absolutely kick myself because that is EXACTLY the vibe I didn’t know I needed.
Why am I telling you this? I guess because I am sitting on a (virtual) pile of pretty dresses, and I need someone else to play pretend to dress up with me. Sometimes you spend hours hunting for the perfect gown for an imaginary moonlit garden party that will never actually happen, and you have to share that particular form of beautiful madness with someone who might understand. Someone who won’t question why you rejected a masterpiece of haute couture because it wasn’t quite right for theoretical ghost-spotting, or why you have such specific opinions about which dress would be most appropriate for dramatically reading poetry in an abandoned conservatory.
Maybe you’re that someone. If so, pull up a chair (preferably a high-backed walnut throne with blood-red velvet and lurking gargoyles, but I won’t judge if your chair only has regular Gothic architectural details). We can swap stories about the ones that got away – the almost-perfect gowns that whispered the wrong secrets, the beautiful dresses that cast the wrong shadows.
(And yes, I realize these are theoretical dresses that we never would have got in the first place because if we had a spare 36K, we would invest it or pay off our mortgage or something sensible like that. But that’s the beauty of window shopping for ghost-appropriate couture – the price tags can’t hurt you when you’re just playing pretend.)
If you enjoy posts like these or if you have ever enjoyed or been inspired by something I have written, and you would like to support this blog, consider buying the author a coffee?
So I guess I have been making various “How to wear the summer solstice” outfits over the years and posting them willy-nilly on the internet and social media, but I have not been properly gathering them up in a blog post afterward, like I typically do with my other How To Wear collections. Le whoopsie! So that’s what I am doing today.
With such curations, I might usually include a bit of preamble about whatever aesthetic aspect of the seasons linking them with this, that, or the other kindred sartorial elements, but today I will leave the connecting of those dots to you. I have bees to bother and cookies to think about baking (I probably won’t bake them, but I’ll think about it all day) and a mustard yellow tunic to wear, and such is the extent of my summer solstice practices. I am sneaking all of this in-between minutes of the workday, so I am doing my best with what I have to work with!
Click on each image to be whisked away to a page where you will find all of the items that comprise the ensemble. Please note that these were pieced together over the span of several years and many of these things are sold out or discontinued, but you can often find the same or similar items on resale sites. Also, my daydreams are opulent and not inexpensive, so yes–many of these things are stupidly pricey, I am well aware of that!
Summer Solstice 2026
Summer Solstice 2025
Summer Solstice 2024 (light & dark version)
Previous Summer Solstices…
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My fantastical, fabulous friends! I am so excited for Kjersti Faret’s Everyday Fantasy Clothing Collection, which she just launched on Kickstarter earlier this month–and I think you will be, too! I have long been a fan of the fierce, joyous, tender oddball sensiblilities manifesting in her art, which explores fascinating facets of art history, queerness, and the occult (read more about this in a previous interview with Kjersti)
…and now we can WEAR some of this artful magic!
The “Everyday Fantasy: Clothing Collection” is inspired by medieval art and fantasy worlds but made for daily life. A dress, tunic, leggings and cincher belt – each piece has been thoughtfully designed by artist Kjersti Faret, the creator behind Cat Coven. The clothing is made in LA and is available for all genders in sizes small – 5XL. Right now the campaign is live on Kickstarter, which ends October 1st.
Read further for Kjersti’s insights regarding the inspiration and process for this marvelous, and I will insist –MUCH-NEEDED– collection, and get a peek at all of the magical pieces that will be available!
I love dressing up in fantastical clothing (think Renaissance Faire) but most of it is impractical for everyday life. I took the designs I love and made them to suit modern wardrobes while still feeling playful. Most fabric is made from a machine-washable blend of linen and rayon, and everything has POCKETS! Also, when I usually see a beautiful laced-up dress, they’re just a solid color and I wanted to make it more whimsical with the prints. I want my clothing to be fun!
I put a lot of humor in my work and the art that gets me excited are things filled with silliness. Medieval manuscripts are my number one all-time favorite inspiration since they’re serious religious texts with silly doodles in the margins. These monks are spending the majority of their time crafting these, and yet the margins are filled with pooping monkeys or nuns picking dicks off a tree. To me, those manuscripts are the physical embodiment of “don’t take life too seriously.”
The “Tapestry” fabric pattern was inspired by various medieval tapestries and the classic “mille fleur” (“thousand flowers”) pattern that was popular in the middle ages and early Renaissance. I created some of my own creatures to add into the pattern based on other forms of historical art like manuscripts as well. While coloring the design I tried to imagine I was a weaver and what would translate well to graphic shapes in a textile. That’s what helped me choose colors and shapes, to keep it as authentic as I could to the source material.
The patterns were drawn on multiple pieces of computer paper with microns. To make the pattern repeat you have to shuffle the squares around as you draw so all the edges meet. Once the ink part was done, I scanned and stitched it in photoshop and added the color digitally.
The “Armor” pattern was inspired by decorative etchings on armor. A lot of the armor I looked at was “costume” armor, or armor that was worn for ceremonial events and was way too fancy to have actually been worn out on a battlefield. There are so many good examples in the Met’s Arms and Armor exhibit. None of it is a copy from historical references – I created my own filigree swirls and put in creatures that are nods to existing beings or my own imaginings. If you take a close look at this pattern it’s like a weird “where’s Waldo?” game. Little witches, toads, faces, and boobies are hidden throughout.
Being an art history nerd, I also named each piece after some of my favorite artists.
The Leonora Belt is named after surrealist Leonora Carrington. I love her work so much and think she would have enjoyed the sphinxes in the screen printed design.
The Edvard tunic is named after my favorite expressionist, Edvard Munch who you will know as the artist behind The Scream. A secondary layer to the name is that it’s a nod to Edward Teach A.K.A. Blackbeard, because inspirations for the shirt came from “pirate shirts”. By that I mean, shirts pirates usually wear in movies and television shows. It’s got a loose flowy fit that goes perfect with a belt and of course, has pockets.
The Artemisia Leggings are named after Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, who I just love and wanted to name something after her. The leggings are made from recycled water bottles. They also have “chito sante” (organic biomass from crab and shrimp shells AKA food waste) impregnated on the fabric, which gives it anti-bacterial and moisture wicking properties. Side pockets are perfect for cell phones.
The Gunhild dress is named after someone nobody will recognize because it’s my own grandmother. She was an artist and art teacher who passed away in 2020, partly due to Covid. Without her encouragement in my early years, I wouldn’t be the artist I am today.
I love this dress because it looks like a princess dress but it’s actually comfortable and there is a practicality to it – the laces in the back are adjustable. If you gain or lose a few inches, the dress can be adjusted to your shape. And of course, pockets!
The inclusive sizing was really important to me. Right now the range is from small to 5XL, but if I continue doing clothes like this in the future I’d like to expand it further. A lot of brands (both small and large) barely go beyond 3X (and a lot of times they aren’t even true plus size measurements). I looked at other true plus-size brands to make sure we got the measurements right. As a very small business, I understand how expensive it can get to grade so many sizes. But at a certain point (for larger companies) it becomes a conscious choice to exclude larger bodies.
When it comes to how clothes fit, I personally dread it when I gain or lose a few pounds over the years because then my favorite pieces become too tight or too baggy. Each piece in this collection is meant to be forgiving. The leggings are stretchy and the laces on the bottom give a little extra room in your calf if you want. The dress has adjustable lacing, as does the Leonora belt. The tunic has a flowy, loose shape that can be worn as is or cinched with a belt. So while the prices are more expensive, it’s because they are made of high-quality materials and fair labor and are made to evolve with your body.
This collection is really an ode to art history and the craftspeople that came before me. So many artisans throughout history were anonymous or just lost to time. Printmakers, etchers, weavers, embroiderers, woodcarvers, engravers – these and more are all crafts that inspire me and require much time and dedication to become a master. Some of these I’ve tried myself so I know the patience required and how tedious the processes can be. A big project like this couldn’t have been created without many hands. I had a great production team and factories in LA that helped make this collection a reality.
All the chainmaille in these photos is hand woven by It Is Known, a women-owned small business in NYC. Get 10% off on Itisknown.net with code COVENXKNOWN10 until October 1, 2022.
An supernova disco ball dreamscape of lavish esotericism glitters across the Zuhair Murad Fall 2022 Couture this season, about which the designer notes, “I am really attached to this world, and I am curious to know about the future and about this world that is really mysterious and really old, you know. You don’t know if it’s true or not, or the meaning, and I love signs and symbols.” Well, that’s great, and this is gorgeous, but I am really just here for the surprise lobsters.
I was today-years-old when I discovered the otherworldly alien surreal and shadowy architecture of the ANCESTORS virtual couture collection from threeASFOUR. Created in collaboration with digital artist Shingo Everard, the collection “bridges the gap between the real and virtual worlds to create a new way of experiencing fashion and fashion ownership.” Taking inspiration from ancient and current technologies threeASFOUR has created a collection of virtual garments that leverage the power of VR, 3D printing, and couture techniques.
Note: I was listening to this song at the time I was gazing at these photos, and it made for a really, really perfect experience.
A blood-red Rodarte with velvet ribbons at the shoulders, tea-length and slinky – a dress that captured the exact color of freshly spilled… well, let’s say wine. But – and this pains me still – the way it caught the light was more “elegant dinner party murder mystery” when what I required was “secret vampire masquerade where everyone pretends they’re just wearing really good lipstick.” I spent three days contemplating various shades of crimson trying to convince myself it could work. Reader, it could not.
