No baby on board
Sick walkable Mary Janes, why the best designers are all coming out of Belgium, a great NYC woodworker & more
Welcome to Concorde, Blackbird Spyplane’s “women’s vertical” that the fellas love as well. Every edition is archived here.
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Every Mother’s Day, I (Erin) share the picture above on IG, and it does numbers. Everyone — the moms and the child-free, like me — gets a kick out of it. I hope you do, too.
Speaking of moms: Last fall I published a smash-hit Guide to Cool Mom Style, where I interviewed 5 friends of mine who dress great, and happen to be moms. They told me about how having a kid changed their style, the clothes that made them feel like themselves, and calling bulls--t on the pressure to “bounce back” & “mom” as an aesthetic generally… It’s a great sletter to gift:
In today’s Concorde:
A sick workwear-inspired line for women that everyone has been sleeping on just dropped at one of our favorite shops
Why the coolest designers are all (still) coming out of Belgium
Intel on walkable-yet-chic Mary Janes — that aren’t Nike Air Rifts — as requested by a new-mom friend of mine but rockable by anyone cool. Plus, non-corny knitted ballet flats
A fantastic poem to send to your mother (or any mother you love)
An under-the-radar NYC woodworker making great pieces whose vibey “functional craft” style is in conversation with one of my all-time favorite woodworkers (what, you don’t have one?)
Let’s get to it —
A couple weeks ago I was out to dinner with my friend Dana, who had a baby last year and is currently settling back into her big Boss Lady job after what I deem to have been a criminally short maternity leave. She wanted to treat her postpartum body right and appease her podiatrist, so she asked me for some recon on walkable Mary Janes.
The catch, she said — after asking me to be her “shoe angel” — was that they needed to look stylish and pulled-together enough for meetings with the honchos at work. Do you have any ideas for me? she asked.
Two sprang to mind that I, a woman who also enjoys the marriage of comfort and style, could personally vouch for. I found some great ortho-adjacent ballet flats, too: