Create your own weather
Breezy summer coats; a deep-cut Japanese line making great PANTS and dresses; graphic-design slappers & more
Welcome to Concorde, a bimonthly edition of the sletter where Erin takes the lead. You could call it a women’s vertical, but the insights, intel and “cute swag information” transcend gender.
The full Concorde archive lives here.
Heyyy, Erin here! Back from a bunch of travel that included a truly blessed week at a gorgeously run-down villa in the hills of an Italian region our paisans know as… Toscana. I was there for a creative retreat organized by the writer Alex Auder, whose recent memoir, Don’t Call Me Home, is a perversely funny account of growing up in the Chelsea Hotel with her Warhol Superstar mom. It might be just be the “literary ice-cube down your back” you’re looking for here in the hot & sleepy middle of what can often feel like the mid-est of months…
Anyway, one afternoon during the retreat I was sitting in San Marcello Pistoiese, as one does, drinking a Campari & soda and eating my way through a brown paper sack of purple plums when I was gobsmacked by POETRY IN MOTION: A woman floated past me wearing a brick-red linen shorts set, chunky fisherman sandals, and a long black silky overcoat that billowed out behind her. She was a vision. On a 100-degree day, wearing a coat was completely unnecessary — inappropriate even! — and that made the whole thing impossibly chic.
I’ve been thinking about the idea of a “summer coat” ever since, and today we’ve got:
a bunch of new and vintage trenches I dug up that have beautiful BILLOW potential and are, relatedly, lightweight enough to be worn year-round.
A sick under-the-radar unisex made-in-Osaka line that turns out extremely good PANTS, jackets, coats and dresses…
The optical-illusion-inspired works of a goated graphic designer that can and should brighten up your desk & bookshelves… (especially his calendar!)
LET’S GET TO IT —
Jonah and I are both A.C.A.B. (Against Checking Any Bags) when we travel. The only thing I hate more than checking a bag is packing things I don’t end up wearing. So when I was preparing for my trip to Italy, I knew I needed one very good dress that I could wear repeatedly.
Luckily I’d just purchased such a dress — a long drop-waist piece with an elegantly ballooning skirt made from a crisp, cool cotton. It’s by a unisex Japanese line that I wasn’t familiar with until recently, and that deserves a PROMINENT spot on your radar: