 | | At the Schiaparelli couture show in Paris.Simbarashe Cha for The New York Times |
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Hello, Open Thread. Greetings from Paris, where the couture shows have been going ahead full steam, despite the current unrest. It has been a strange week. |
Still, over the course of my career, the only thing I have seen derail the collection schedule was the pandemic. (Parties are a different story — it's easier to cancel a party.) For all its seeming frivolity, the system is unrelenting. |
There are generally two justifications for carrying on. The first focuses on the human need for beauty as a moment of grace during suffering, an explanation I think is important. |
I remember once asking the head of Shenkar, a top Israeli college for fashion, why she had decided to go ahead with the school's end-of-year collection show as bombs were falling around Tel Aviv. "It becomes a statement about the belief that good and beauty will prevail," she said. "Otherwise what is the option? That you succumb to hatred and ugliness?" |
This is relevant in that couture is the highest example of fashion's art. But it is also fashion's most elitist, expensive art, which is where the problem lies. As prices become ever higher, it's hard to avoid the sense that luxury is profiting off the rich getting richer and everyone else getting poorer, rather than being accessible to more people. And economic inequity is deeply connected to discrimination. |
Sure, people can watch the shows online, but that goes only so far as an emotional panacea. |
The other justification is that fashion is a huge business, providing work, and hence income, for millions of people — and billions in tax money for countries where the megabrands reside. That is also true and maybe more relevant here, especially when it comes to couture, which has very specific rules about exactly how many specialized full-time employees a brand must have to qualify for the appellation. Dior and Chanel, et al., may represent privilege in the extreme, but they also represent a lot of work. And workers. |
Anyway, one of my favorite trends in recent years is the practice of designers bringing their studios and ateliers out onto the runway to take a bow after their shows. At this point, I think it may behoove all of them to make it a regular thing. |
Now that the shows are over (you can catch up on the reviews and news here), I am excited about watching the fashion show at Wimbledon, where my colleague Jessica Testa has already reported that Gucci is having a moment. |
Also about Madonna's tour, whenever it is rescheduled, since Guram Gvasalia of Vetements is doing the costumes. He's quite an extraordinary character, and I profiled him this week. Sometimes it is surprising what subjects say to you, even when the tape recorder is on. Read it and tell me what you think. |
Finally, thanks to everyone who wrote in about yoga pants. Some further recommendations from readers include Betabrand, Vuori and Spanx. |
Now have a good, safe weekend. I'm about to go on holiday, so talk to you in two weeks! |
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Your Style Questions, Answered |
Every week on Open Thread, Vanessa will answer a reader's fashion-related question, which you can send to her anytime via email or Twitter. Questions are edited and condensed. |
 | | Karsten Moran for The New York Times |
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I'm going on a two-week hiking trip in August and am trying to figure out what to pack. We're limited to about 33 pounds, so I need to pack lightly. I'd love to put together a wardrobe that's practical, chic and wearable beyond the trip. Any suggestions? — Suzanne, Saratoga Springs, N.Y. |
The capsule holiday wardrobe is the holy grail of travel: an interchangeable, efficient system of dressing that in an ideal world necessitates no more than a tote and a bag that will fit in an airplane overhead bin. This is a particularly pressing ideal this summer, as warnings grow of airport chaos and the potential for lost luggage, but packing lightly also provides what I think of as a much overlooked psychological boost. |
Sure, movies are full of the glamour of landing on the airport tarmac with a quadrillion Louis Vuitton trunks (hello, Elizabeth Taylor), but there is something liberating about leaving most of your worldly possessions behind. The weight of stuff falls from your shoulders, as does the time spent deciding what to wear. Instead, you are free to enjoy and experience the place where you are, your ego fading into the background so you can ogle what is around you, be it nature or monuments. |
Also, of course, it's just a lot easier to carry. |
Fashion professionals may not seem like the best people to advise on how to pack less since their days are spent thinking about how to wear more, but given the travel demands on their time, they know a fair amount about the subject. Erik Maza, the executive style director of Town & Country, said he had been traveling with only a carry-on for decades — even for two-week, two-city fashion week jaunts. Thus, an ad hoc survey of such colleagues yielded the following tips. |
1. There's no magic number of items or combination of colors to pack, though most experts advise between 10 and 15 items (underwear and socks do not count), and say that neutrals are generally easier to mix and match than a panoply of potentially jarring shades. (The other option is to hew to a kind of monochrome dressing.) The key is that everything fits together like a cog in the wheel of your adventure. |
2. Shoes are the biggest space suck. For hiking, you need a sturdy pair of shoes, a more casual pair of walking sneakers like Keds and perhaps sandals. If you are also going to a city, add a pair of dressy sandals. (My solution: a pair of fancy Birkenstocks, which can be worn at the beach, walking and out to dinner). |
3. Samira Nasr, the editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar, suggests a chambray or linen button-up or two, which are great as a cover-up during the day and double as tops for more formal occasions. |
4. Pack a pair or two of shorts and two pairs of pants, maybe in cotton or rough linen that can be wrinkled. (Avoid belts because, if you are wearing a backpack with a waist strap, they can chafe.) Add one dress, a cardigan or hoodie and a thin rain jacket. Also accessories, of course. Forget folding: roll. |
Even if you have the luxury of traveling with many bags, it's worth trying a capsule travel wardrobe system, simply for the mental and emotional experience. It's like spending a little time in Marie Kondo world, without the commitment. |
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