Concorde 002: Pattern DJs have more fun
Plus: House-slipper excellence, vintage Kenzo, needle-beaded jewelry, and 2 great magazines
Welcome to Concorde, a new 2x monthly creation from Blackbird Spyplane where Erin takes the lead. You could call it a women’s vertical, but the insights, intel and “cute swag information” transcend gender. Issue 001 is here…
Hiii & YES, this is it — issue 002 of Concorde!
Since we touched down with issue 001 The New York Times profiled us (here), and so did The Guardian (here).
Let’s get into it …
— Erin & Jonah
I (Erin) used to fight with my mom as a teenager about what I wanted to wear. Specifically, we argued about whether my outfits needed to “match,” and I was squarely in the h*ll no camp. I thought my thrifted plaid golf pants looked cool paired with a striped button-up dress shirt, layered under a graphic baby-tee. My mom’s philosophy was 1 outfit, 1 pattern. But because I’m strong willed — and because she is capable of Mach 3+ style herself — mom finally accepted the truth: her daughter was a Pattern DJ.
I still am, even if sometimes I feel a certain pressure not to be. Little kids do wonderful Pattern DJ-ing all the time, and for that reason I think there’s a temptation to regard bold pattern-mixing as something you’re “supposed to grow out of.” But tell that to the swagged-out old ladies you see in any major city rocking wild pattern collisions while out doing their grocery shopping. What unites the kids and the grandmas is their aura of rule-breaking IDGAF joie de vivre — something that those of us in the middle could learn a thing or two from.
When we put together our guide for how to wear colors well, I devoted a section to color-coordinating multicolored patterns, where the combo might risk cacophony but, if done right, goes very hard. And I’ve always been drawn to other high-level Pattern DJs — like designer and Spyfriend Ellen Van Dusen, who once gave us some fantastic advice for mixing and matching throw-pillow patterns at home.
I recently discovered another fantastic Pattern DJ: NYC-based Kassandra M. Lao Pietri, who designs a small line called KasMaria. Her collections consist heavily of mixed-print Japanese-cotton separates, like a dress containing two differently colored plaids (below left), or cotton-linen elastic-waist pants with one skinny-indigo-striped leg and one wide-indigo-striped leg (below right). Excellent.
Intrigued, I hit her up to find out more …