I've been talking about it a lot * the week when we define effortless eccentric

A string of opinionated random thoughts.

This gives everything looks natural and nonchalant, yet very well thought out and put together. She got dressed with what she had in her armoire, a simple daily ritual you can accomplish with a wardrobe that suits your lifestyle, personal taste, aesthetic, weather, activities. However, to be this effortless, you need a splash of eccentricity, imperfection, chaos even.

Love

• Frisson because sometimes it’s better in French (I can’t believe I am writing this)

• A series of Fashion moments with the premise that I look at fashion shows and collections for my lifelong love of Fashion as a design discipline, not as “I would wear that” moment. That I take inspiration? Of course. But I draw the line between fashion and a bunch of garments, between a runway and trends. Fashion makes me dream, I need to be taken in a Narnia type of whirlwind, I don’t need to understand it, I recognize the beauty and get the goosebumps. So the following are my goosebumps moments and Paris has been parising.

• “LEI” by Calcaterra and Reverie by Caroline Hu

• Schiaparelli is a fierce French bitch, and we need those women in the world.

• HA x Tom Ford: to begin with, I am not a Tom Ford chick, too gimmicky Hollywood sexy expensive evening wear, the product has always been average for what I have seen in the stores, which reflects the amount of Tom Ford frocks available in outlets. But we have to recognize his business acumen: from Texas to NY, then LA, while selling a hell of a lot of lipsticks, then boom, sold everything, became a billionaire and now his namesake brand shows in Paris where Ackerman is based. That he was FROW at the first show, seemed a tad too self-glorifying for my cynical eye, after all, Dear Mr. Ford, you aren’t a Dries, a Gaultier, or a Valentino, but if your ego requires that filler like your face botox, you do you baby boy. However, HA is perfect for the role and couldn’t be a better moment in his career to assume the position. I have discovered more on an otherwise extremely reserved Haider Ackerman, listening to Bella Freud’s Fashion Neurosis session recorded a few days before his debut at Tom Ford.

• Dries Van Noten's first collection without Dries: a good debut, however, it lacked editing. I found it extra in everything, extra tassels, extra sequins, extra embroidery, extra colors, and maybe it was just for the runway, and the pieces sold in stores will be pared down. I hope we’ll see more sophistication in the next one.

• Givenchy by Sarah Burton: except the opening look that threw me off, I literally thought she had pulled a MGC on us. I have the utmost respect for Sarah Burton’s design eye, experience, and sartorial finesse, and I am all about women at the helm of majestic Maisons that aren’t MGC.

You don’t need to understand it

• Comme des Garçons designed by Rei Kawakubo statement:

  SMALLER IS STRONGER.

  Recently we feel that big business, big culture, global systems, world structures maybe are not so great after all.

  There is also strong value in small. Small can be mighty.

• As far as my personal style and taste, I have my north stars: Giorgio Armani and Prada. Mr. Armani is a gift to humanity and the relentless pursuit of beauty in la Signora’s conversations with Raf Simons always delivers what we needed, but didn’t know we needed.

• Icon moment: Jalil Johnson, I want to be his friend. You can read him at Considered Yourself Cultured

Chic, nonchalant, flaneur

• A beauty moment for Spoiled Child. A background note: I kept seeing the Instagram collagen videos with Dorinda and Rumer Willis and considered adding it to my supplement regimen. While still in my research phase, not convinced that an oral intake of collagen would have a significant effect on those age-revealing labial wrinkles, I found out that one of my daughter’s roommates is one of the brains behind the brand’s formulations. You can only imagine how I drilled him with questions and, satisfied all my curiosity, I bought the damn collagen and now I am monitoring those wrinkles like when you wait for a bulb to bloom. Meanwhile, he gave me two products to try: Exfoliating Face Polish and Vitamin C Brightening Eye Cream and not only do I love the products, perfect for my skin, but I'm crazy in love with the packaging, they make me feel expensive. Now we joke that I am their in-house Dorinda.

I don’t care

• Chloé, zero goosebumps for me.

• For Google and Apple having deleted International Women’s Day from their calendars: peak male fragility.

• Women wearing ties: I have seen a discussion in the Open Thread newsletter with Vanessa Friedman. A woman with a tie speaks restrain to me, it doesn’t exude a power stance. It is unfortunate that we live in a misogynistic society and we are subject to the ever persisting abusive male gaze, but there are elements and accessories that we can use to shield ourselves. Do you want to mean business? Wear a power suit padded shoulders, pencil skirt, silk blouse, pointy pumps and thank me later.

The sustainability debrief

The above Comme des Garçons statement together with Francesco Risso’s words:

We have pushed ourselves to produce massively, continuously and relentlessly. […] It’s a great time to slow things again.

How do you say it in Italian?

Una rondine non fa primavera, one robin doesn’t make spring. Figuratively and symbolically, so if you threw a carton in the recyclables doesn’t mean you are saving the world.

For all my new followers and anyone who wants to chat, feel free to check out my style diary, the book I wrote and published, and my posts on Instagram.