The (Summer) Lust Index: Vintage RL, Vacation Dressing, and Jenni Konner's LA Picks
Hot is a state of being.
There’s some English kook on TikTok with a crazy bouffant flow and a weird spray tan dictating to people in a rather sanctimonious tone about what is and isn’t chic about making your bed. I saw a video where he insisted you only need two pillows per side and thought, couldn’t be me. I sleep in a down pillow fortress with a dog on my head, thank you very much. And find myself with a distaste for the mass-market minimal Millennial DTC look that a lot of bedding companies reach for these days. Enter: vintage bedding.
I love vintage Ralph Lauren, but I only want a touch of it. Maybe it’s having a full-on Shabby Chic princess bedroom in my youth, maybe it’s being in my bridal era… I have a soft spot for a ruffle or a little blue-and-white. But as an adult, I want it to grow up with me, set against modern furniture and interesting art — just a wink at heritage without fully leaning into a theme. Collected, not “decorated”.
You have to be very restrained to keep it from veering into cutesy. I think artist Tyler Hays does this well with his Delft-inspired ceramics at BDDW. So do John Derian and designers Nickey-Kehoe. The trick is to go for things that feel more Amagansett Beach House than country estate, and to be extra picky about prints. It may be a shibori pillow, a wink of chintz, a pop of Yves Klein blue, a wide-set French ticking stripe over a narrow one, or a particularly washy cornflower blue. It really has to be exactly right.
When we were apartment shopping, we opted for pre-war charm, a garden for the dogs, and a key to Gramercy Park over size and modern amenities. Our place still has original parquet floors and casement windows, so I leaned into the 1890s architecture instead of fighting it. While our loft in Atlanta was industrial, vast, and white, here I ran in the opposite direction, going for color and coziness.
Flipping through a book the other day, this photo from Jacques Grange by photographer Ricardo Lebougle stopped me in my tracks and sent me pulling my 90s RL Catalina Island bedding out of storage. Contrasted with the modernity of a stern Sterling Ruby piece above my bed, I think it’s a great summer vibe for our bedroom. I looked up some additional blue and white bedding to mix in from there: Vis-a-Vis, Abc Home,
Is anyone else like, really excited for summer? Unusually excited? I just have a feeling this is going to be one of those epic summers that becomes lifelong lore. Is it hot divorcee summer? Slam pig summer? Too soon to say! After the incredibly rancid vibes of summer ‘25 (a la poubelle!) and an excruciatingly long winter, we’re all due a string of carefree, sunny days (and a good season of Love Island USA). I’ve been having more fun than usual planning my wardrobe — still me, but with some colloquial tweaks. Sort of like pulling cards from the same deck.
I’ll be on Sea Island for an extended July 4th, and then we'll head out to Pebble Beach/Carmel, where we’ll stay until after our wedding at the end of the month. Very different vibes: Sea Island is preppy and oozing with Southern charm. Carmel is, as a friend likes to say, “quiet luxury Palm Beach”, or as I like to say, “the land of cashmere and shorts weather”.
For the Beach Club at Sea Island, where it will be almost offensively hot and humid, an Agua Bendita bikini with a coordinating sarong in a print my eyes don’t find offensive, because the girlfriend I’m going with has thoroughly claimed Johanna Ortiz. A white seersucker set from With Nothing Underneath with little red Row heels. A menagerie of SLBs. A Janessa Leone hat. High Sport shorts. A bandana-print pool bag from Call It By Your Name. Colorful beads. The leg trick!
For Carmel, thin cashmere from The Row and white crepe Gala pants. White cotton shorts, minimal black flip flops. Yaser Shaw wraps. A favorite ball cap and a good dry brush. Lots of pretty (but appropriate) pajamas for plodding around my in-laws’ house. And of course, for this trip, a lot of bridal looks (!!), but I’ll tell you about those another day. I can’t wait to see what my friends wear.
And then there are the Hamptons, where we’ll be all of August. When I’m out on Long Island, I care about proximity to my favorite restaurants and a dog-friendly beach, which is why Amagansett is my preferred hamlet. The girls there get it, and it’s where I feel I can dress the most myself — in a pair of Phoebe Philo track runner sandals, for example, which would surely be misunderstood by the country clubber hometown crowds in Sea Island, or a Sophie Buhai headband, which would read as too literal in a preppier setting.
A barely-there Prada dress with a low back and a dalmatian jasper tassel worn backward. A wacky terrycloth robe. A sack full of goodies from My Bob. An architectural Rohe dress. Vintage Levis. Threadbare t-shirts with diamonds. Bare nails. Toe rings. Elder Statesman cozies for cool evenings. That damn lighter necklace. Birkenstocks. Weird hats. Severe sunglasses. Ugh, and tick repellent.
And since nothing screams sunshine more than sunny SoCal, I asked writer/showrunner/generally offline Baddie Jenni Konner to end the letter with some of her deeply local LA picks:
Los Angeles has been “best listed” exhaustively. It’s a challenge to think of places that are off the beaten path. Everyone has heard of Scout and Lake, and if you haven’t, you can Google and find 10,000 articles about them. Honestly, the entire path has been beaten to death. But I grew up here, and there are places that I love that make me feel like I’m home.
ETRA is a relatively new place for Los Angeles. It’s in Melrose Hill, which is one of those neighborhoods that all of a sudden has a name when people start building there. It has the feel of a neighborhood restaurant, which is vital and rare these days. It’s not going to change your life, but you’ll find delicious pasta, a not-too-long list of natural wines, and a chicory salad that I think about maybe three times a day. Also, and most importantly, great lighting.
Bonus: My insanely chic friend Stephanie Danan’s beautiful boutique CO. is down the street. Insanely well-made and the quietest of luxury clothing. The lightweight cashmere will honestly change your life.
I had walked past UNCOMMON THREAD conservatively 3,000 times before I discovered it. It is technically on Melrose Place, but hidden away off the street. It’s a little jewel box filled with vintage clothing and objects. When I say tiny, I mean there are basically two racks of clothing. That said, these racks are filled with well-curated Gaultier, Armani, Prada 1996 (!), Saint Laurent, and more. It is so lovely it makes me forget there is so much incense I feel like I am at a Yoga class in the nineties.
A note about where not to go: I have nothing against the Beibers. Justin once sweetly recorded a birthday wish for my daughter’s friends in a parking lot, and Hailey makes my favorite blush. But if those two frequent a restaurant, do not go there. Or anywhere the famous go. I do not know what it is about celebrities and expensive, terrible food, but the tabloids are filled with photos of stars going into the worst places in town. If it makes Page Six, avoid at all costs. (I’m looking at you, Nobu Malibu).
That My Bob bag is dreamyyyyy
Nobu Malibu is the absolute worst! Hope you have a great summer, Jess. Love all your destinations!