Sunday best: The ladette

Today, I’m feeling a classic ladette look. Maybe I sniffed the first distant whiff of Fall last week. There were days where the air conditioning was off and I noticed the sun setting a little earlier. High summer is passing and I find my mind ready for the sun’s oblique angle and the golden light of Fall. And maybe it’s the back-to-school connotations that make me think about preppy basics, classic casuals.


I’m ready for seasonal changes and the sense of momentum they carry. Transitional seasons push and pull me and being so mutable I feel at home in them, in the vacillations of their days. And of course, this means my long-awaited trip home is approaching too and I feel so ready for that, always curious about seeing Ireland and family anew.

So maybe all of that too impacts what I’m thinking about wearing today. Because these clothes carry a familiar nostalgia, a sense of timelessness but also ebb and flow through our style consciousness. And there’s something cyclical and grounding in returning to familiars, something striking about seeing them anew and liking them in a new way, a way that fits a sense of self that didn’t exist last time.

And all that time ago I was a ladette and didn’t ever admit to being as sensitive as I am. We all threw shapes and hammed and crowed. And we were buoyant with confidence, real and imaginary. Now, I’m both weaker and stronger, less brazen but more myself. But there’s still a little ladette in me. And it’s fun still to ham and crow and even to throw shapes once in awhile.

Products: RB3016 Clubmaster from Ray-Ban | Étoile Isabel Marant Quincy Shirt from La Garconne | MiH Jeans Paris mid-rise cropped jeans from Net-a-Porter | Tannis Hegan long strap bag from Lark | Heeley Parfums Sel Marin Eau de Parfum from Barneys | WB.SET8 from Scosha | London Karicole from Bass Shoes | Rolex Oyster Perpetual Bombay from 1stDibs