Monday Mood: Neo-Elegance
Denim, leather, black, and diamonds. Say less.
Yesterday I was puttering around my house, doing Sunday things. You know the stuff: flipping through last month’s magazines, reading a few pages of that book, cleaning out the closet, tidying up the living room. I decided to take my own advice and pick through my jewelry.
Over the holidays, my Mom gave me one of my Gram Gram’s diamond rings: a fat cluster of marquees set on a platinum band that glints from every heavily-laden angle. It’s a LOT of ring, and I love looking at it. I’d like it even if it weren’t a family heirloom — it’s something I would definitely gravitate toward at an estate sale. I set it atop my jewelry box as I cleaned things out, among a litany of sparkly pieces I’ve collected from lab-grown jewelry company Dorsey over the last couple of years. It struck me that I couldn’t tell what was Dorsey and what was vintage, save a pair of Schiaparelli earrings I bought myself as a gift to wear while hosting a dinner with MyTheresa in November.
But that’s kind of the point of Dorsey, isn’t it? It’s why I fell in love with the line the second I ran across it — because the pieces feel like something you inherited from your very chic Grandmother, but they are priced accessibly. I love the entire brand universe their founder Meg has dreamed up, I included lots of their campaign imagery on the mood board this week because the styling looks exactly how I want to feel every day and I feel like it very precisely nails that sort of neo-elegance I’m always striving for. Timeless, but with edges. You know her when you see her, and it’s often the styling of this woman that sticks her landing, not her clothes.
Meg launched a Substack of her own yesterday that you should subscribe to. Her first newsletter, about her own Grandmother, made me teary.
In my heart, I am a uniform dresser. No matter how much I try to branch out and embrace color, pattern, or things that look fabulous on other women, I find myself defaulting to the same comfort pieces over and over: a great blazer, a pointed heel, white tees, and tanks. It’s why I so repeatedly tout lines like Wardrobe.NYC, Toteme, The Row, and Massimo Dutti — because I can find beautiful, modern riffs on my favorite kinds of pieces from designers who appreciate the same uniformity in their wardrobes.
If you embrace this vibe the way I do, I never feel bored despite the very practical foundation of most of my outfits. And that’s on the storytelling power of jewelry.
Story time, I have an enormous head. You can laugh, it’s true though! I’ll never forget having a crush on a boy in high school with a tiny pinhead who I immediately got the ick for after seeing us in a photo together, haha — next to him, I had a bowling ball for a noggin. But! Just as I have learned to embrace my height over the years, I have learned to embrace my head. (I hope you’re still laughing, it’s funny.)
The perk of having an enormous brain canister? You can wear big-ass earrings and pull them off.
Lately, I’ve been loving Daniel Rosenberry’s creations at Schiaparelli, (please go look at today’s couture show in Paris, please!!) but as I’ve noted before, my love for BIG, over-the-top 80’s era clips and statement earrings is not new. For years I’ve been trolling eBay and 1st Dibs for cool vintage pieces (my favorites are often YSL). I found these, these, these, and these if you want to start down the rabbit hole on your own. Schiaparelli also sells some of their earrings online if a shopping trip to Paris or NYC isn’t on your calendar. (And if it is, lucky you!)
But maybe you don’t have an enormous head like me so earrings aren’t your vibe. Integrating glinty touches into classic pieces is also a cool way to add a little sparkle to an otherwise minimal look — this Schiaparelli t-shirt is on my wish list for sporting under my black Wardrobe.NYC blazer. It reminds me a lot of the cool crocheted one I got from Magda Butrym last summer which I wear all the time and style similarly. Or pile on the diamonds, a la Dorsey!
Anyway! Here are some pieces, screenshots, and styling notes to get your mind jogging in the right direction. And if you liked this week’s mood board, take a peek at last week’s, where I dissected the current era of Kendall Jenner’s street style.
Source book:
Dorsey diamonds / HB x Wardrobe.NYC blazer 1, blazer 2 / Loewe tank top / The Row bag / Bottega Veneta heels / vintage Cartier watch / Dorothee Schumacher leather jacket (similar) / Schiaparelli t-shirt 1, 2 / The Row heels / Massimo Dutti trench / Wardrobe.NYC black denim shirt / Oscar de La Renta earrings / Toteme blazer (sold out - resale) / Schiaparelli earrings / Magda Butrym t-shirt (sold out) / Tory Burch earrings / vintage YSL earrings 1, 2, 3, 4 / The Row oversize clutch