What to Wear in the Hamptons
Omg, are those outfit pics?
For me, summer officially begins when I’m watching Love Island, eating Citarella chicken salad in a bed somewhere on Long Island. I like to head out in June when the weather is still cool in places and the towns haven’t been fully swarmed yet. I’m writing to you now from East Hampton, where I’ve been since Friday, feeling a bone-deep level of relaxation that I needed on a biblical level.
I brought my assistant, Izzy, with me, who, as it turns out, has a real knack for photos — so we actually got outfit pictures for once, something I usually either dodge entirely or just forget to do. As soon as we dropped our bags, we headed to Il Buco Al Mare for a late lunch. I remembered sitting at the bar there last summer and chatting with a couple who had a cute dog. The dog was kind of blinged out in a sick collar, and when I asked about it, they told me it was their own brand, Fast Out. Their stuff is extremely special. But I digress. After lunch, we walked across the street to The Row and La Garconne for some retail R&D.
The Row in Amagansett is channeling their building’s provenance and merchandising some of Tiina’s brands into their assortment. Most notably on the racks is Dosa, the Los Angeles label Christina Kim founded in 1984 with her mother, Vivian. The clothing is made with artisans Kim works with directly across India, Korea, Mexico, and beyond, built on traditional textile techniques rather than industrial production. She instituted zero waste into the practice in 1992, before the term carried any weight in fashion. Their output is small and their pieces are not easy to come by — and of course, they’re a favorite of the sisters Olsen. I came home with a breezy white tunic dress that I’m going to get loads of mileage out of this summer.
I also found it really intriguing that they also had an entire case of Frederico De Vera. De Vera is the Filipino-born jeweler, gallerist, and collector who opened his first eponymous shop in San Francisco in 1991 before moving the gallery to New York, where it now sits in Chelsea on 28th. He builds his jewelry from antique fragments — Roman intaglios, Georgian brooches, rose-cut diamonds, baroque pearls, Mediterranean coral — each piece one of a kind and never duplicated. His premise is that nothing has to be precious to be beautiful, and that the work is less about making something new than giving discarded things another life.
At La Garconne, I was immediately enchanted by a hot pink bag that looked like the woven pot holders my sister used to make as a kid on a mini loom. When you shop for a living, you see it all. It takes a lot for something to stop me in my tracks, but this thing left me dry heaving. The designer is Daniela Gregis, a doctor’s daughter who trained as a herbalist before fashion. She came to clothing through textile research, and her collections lean heavily on knit, crochet, and natural fabrics made largely by hand in the Bergamo region. She shows at Milan Fashion Week and I love that she brings her tailors and workers out to take the bow with her — a literal acknowledgment of the artisanal production the brand is built on. Her crochet bags are all one of one and kind of hard to come by, but I found a few at A’Maree’s, and a preloved one on Vestiaire.
Lemaire’s home fragrance oils also jumped out at me at La Garconne. It’s Lemaire’s first foray into fragrance and only launched this year — a five-piece collection called “Objets Senteur,” guided by Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran — and the scents aren’t meant for skin (did my dumb ass immediately put it on my wrist? Yes.) but for the home, designed to be applied to objects placed near where clothes are stored. The two ceramic diffusers, Pomme and Emboîtage, were made in collaboration with the estate of the late French ceramist Annie Fourmanoir (1931–2024), pairing her sculptural forms with the line’s woody, smoky scents. The objects are built to be refilled over time, so the scent lives in the vessel rather than dissipating — spiritually closer to a piece of furniture than a candle.
They also have an embarrassment of Jacques Marie-Mage there, and I begrudgingly tried on a pair of oversized sunnies that channel that 1960’s Jane Birkin vibe everyone seems to be going for right now. I expected to hate them because I think that shape can look kind of silly, but something about these suited my big head and I fell in love with them. Turns out, they’re a collaboration with the Lennon/Ono estate on “John & Yoko by JMM,” a limited-edition series handcrafted in Japan and modeled on the actual eyewear the couple wore while recording Double Fantasy in 1980. The collection runs two frames: Dr. Dream, after Lennon’s softly browed mid-century studio glasses, and the pair I got, Ocean Child, after Ono’s, its name pulled from a line in Lennon’s “Julia” that translates her first name. Talk about a story.
We had dinner in East Hampton where there was a little block party going on for the Knicks game. Samantha Ronson fully infected me with the illness of her fandom earlier this year and now I am hopelessly invested in this team. I also partially blame Laney Crowell whose brand Saie had a suite earlier this season (genius for a makeup brand to market to the women fans and hook up the dancers and wags) where it dawned on me that basketball games were like, so fun.
The next day we spent entirely in Montauk. When my friend Ashley asked what I was wearing, I told her I was channeling “unhinged Montauk Mom”, and I think I nailed it.
We rode out to meet up with her, staying at Rachelle Hruska MacPherson’s old beach house (still just as charming). She was there hosting a bead bar for her brand Don’t Let Disco at Rachelle and her husband Sean’s hotel, Crow’s Nest, which I’ve mentioned here before as one of my favorite places out east. It’s just a special, cozy spot. I picked out a necklace Ashley fashioned from an old Pucci scarf (similar here) and clipped on two of her totems to add to my stack for the night.
Rachelle and Sean have just redeveloped the Montauk Lighthouse Restaurant, and we went to the opening night which I frankly used as a guise to get hands on Rachelle’s new puppy, Lucy. I couldn’t tell you much about The Lighthouse restaurant except that they installed The Jane Hotel’s iconic old disco ball front and center, which is a rad move. But I was wayyyyy too drunk on puppy breath to pay attention to much else. (I do remember Holly from Marfa Stance’s Grinchy green Birkenstocks though, those were phenomenal.)
From there, we went to check out the new Barlume Beach Club in Montauk because St. Lucia was playing and your girl will never miss an opportunity to see St. Lucia. We ran into tons of friends there! Woldy! Romilly Newman! Esha! It was the spot to be.
I think the key to dressing out here is finding the right mix of esoteric bits without abandoning that classic East Coat uniform. I’m not trying to look like I just walked off a sailboat 24/7, but I do think the combination of relaxed and refined out here calls for its own approach, tailored to which little hamlet you’re vibing in.
For example, my underwear was swimwear yesterday! But I styled my cover up with accessories that made me passable to the Maitre’d at Le Bilboquet and enjoyed my spritz in peace overlooking the boats in Sag Harbor, including these great Linda Farrow sunglasses. My Phoebe Philo sandals were the true hero of the weekend, I wore them almost everywhere. Not only are they insanely comfortable, they give every outfit that “wrong shoe” vibe that Allison Bornstein always talks about that gives a look some necessary friction. And they gave me like 2.5 inches of height, so I felt like I had a little heel on.
We’ll be back out in a couple weeks and then here all of August after the wedding, when the events and socializing really pick up, so I’ll check back in on the topic of what the babes out here are wearing later in the season. ‘Til then, cheeks out!
