062. STYLE SUBCULTURES: Summer In The Office
And What I Wore To A Wedding This Weekend.
Tis the season. This weekend, I’m attending the first of four back-to-back weddings. I don’t know if the format of weddings is getting more ambiguous as the friend group hits their mid-thirties, but the “What’s everybody wearing?” pre-event chatter seems intensified. I’m keeping track, and eighty per cent of what I have bought so far this year has been to attend the multiple-events weddings I’m attending this year. I’m not mad about it.
I bullied my partner into taking pictures of me despite us running late so I could show you what I wore. On Friday, I wore the most nineties-looking outfit I have ever put together and felt great. The event was for a rehearsal dinner meets welcome night kind of a thing. The bride said the dress code was “What you’d wear to a fancy birthday”. I wore the exact same outfit to one of my best friend’s town hall + pub garden wedding three weeks ago (and to my 35th birthday celebration two nights later). Yesterday, the dress code was black tie - no ambiguity there. I wore a fifty-year-old pleated silk column dress with a sweetheart neckline that my grandma recently gave me, and I got altered to fit me. At dinner, I was placed next to the loveliest girl I had never met until the night before (Hi Farrah, if you’re reading this first newsletter!). We were chatting about a sewing course she just started taking. I suspect this is the reason why we got sat together. That, and the fact the bride knows I fall in love with every American I ever meet. We were talking about how the dress I wore would cost thousands if brands still made dresses using this much silk today. Uhm.
Over the next few weeks, the newsletter will include lots of summer holiday content and a multiple-part series on introducing color into your wardrobe. So this week’s send is the opposite: I thought before we talk about what we’ll wear on the beach this summer, let’s cover what we’re wearing in the city - specifically to the office. Those who have to abide by a formal dress code will find it especially useful. Being unable to wear mini lengths and open-toe shoes doesn’t marry well with scorching heat. The five edits should cover you for the freezing office AC, the sweltering subway, and everything in between. These feature some of my top picks from the ongoing end-of-season sale. Today’s edit is also a lesson in styling neutrals in the summer (white and chocolate brown, black and ivory, khaki and off-white, grey and cream, tan and navy).
Today’s letter is a short one. If you want to prolong your Sunday afternoon sitdown on Substack, I would like to recommend my favourite piece of content I’ve consumed this week:
’s “Should I Try To Be Pretty?”. It’s a video, in case you don’t want to be literally sitting down, in which she discusses insecurities and breaking free from dressing in a way that’s flattering. It’s fiercely relatable.Have a fabulous week. Love, L x
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Capsule #1 - Chocolate Brown and White
