Chop chop
Cut-to-fit knits, organic-cotton separates, a new suit, flung fits & more
This is Concorde — Blackbird Spyplane’s “women’s vertical,” except it’s for everyone who is cool. Every edition is archived here.
Our Blackbird SpyBooks bookshelf of great reads is here.
Members of Spy Nation get on-demand recon in the Classified SpyTalk Chat Room. Ask your own question here.
The B.L.I.S.S. List — a helpful rundown of Beautiful Life-Improving Spyplane Staples, from socks to snacks, like my favorite vegan pâtes de fruits — is here.
A couple years ago, I (Erin) visited the Tokyo studio of one of the greatest designers of the 20th & 21st centuries: Issey Miyake.
Yes! Your girl literally saw how the pleats are made. The place was, as you’d imagine, on point: Every designer I met wore head-to-toe Issey as they showed me, e.g., forthcoming sculptural knits co-designed with computational algorithms. What I didn’t see was the man himself: Issey-san died two months before my visit.
There’s a Mach 7+ souvenir I cherish from that visit that I’ve never written about before: a (pleats-free) unisex slapper with a simple but ingenious design.
You can cop versions for yourself, and they just dropped in new colors last week.
Also in today’s Concorde:
The “Flung fit” continues to fling across the fashion universe, turning up again this week in one of the most influential label’s Fall 2025 lookbooks
Fresh intel on a made-to-order suit
Organic-cotton hoodies and tees from one of the few swimwear lines I recommend (now on sale), and a multi-season knit dress I just copped
Designer stoneware, a recently published book of poetry that has bars & more
Let’s get to it —
My Issey souvenir has its roots in a groundbreaking collection designed to minimize waste, fit all kinds of different body types, and be easily “tailored” by the wearer. It was first released decades ago, and the idea was so fresh that it inspired a bunch of gallery and museum shows.
Today it feels as fresh as ever, in no small part because we’re talking about a subtle “elevated basic” type piece that — unlike the highly ubiquitous Pleats Please joints — most people wouldn’t even clock…
But the pinked seam running from the neckline down the shoulder to the cuff looks cool as hell and it’s a telltale sign that you are a tasteful tied-in real one.