TWIO: Work, school events and chasing Kate Moss's belt.
Plus a note about tailoring vs. facial laxity.
This is the first of a series I’m going to call This Week In Outfits (TWIO) in which I will describe things I wore, and how I got there - both emotionally and in terms of how it all came together; and things I thought about, relating to clothes.
FEATURE
The Lara Bohinc Belt Kate Moss Wore - my journey
It all started when I saw this photo of Kate Moss at the launch of her Diet coke collab - where she said in the press Q&A, “Well - I have always loved Coke” (heh heh).
After some googling I discovered this fabulous waist belt is an oldy but a goody for Kate, going back to 2011 and the Jamie Hince days. It was even the cause of an online scandlet for Bohinc. In a very Slovenian take, Bohinc initially refused to gift the belt to Mossy saying “I didn’t want to see her Filipina maid wearing it”. Anyway - she needn’t have worried. That belt has been slung around the Moss waist on the regular for over a decade.
I had also, by coincidence, recently bought this vintage belt on Etsy with the idea that it would help me out with oversized white shirts in the coming summer. Now I felt it was a charming but inferior version of the Bohinc. I also learned that Bohinc has stopped designing both accessories and jewellery altogether and these days, exclusively sells furniture.
So - beauty, Kate Moss, scandal and rarity. Naturally, I had to have this belt.
It took me two days of searching to find it. I didn’t know initially that that it would be as complicated as it turned out to be, but the more trouble I encountered, the more deeply I committed. In the hours where I was chasing down leads, I got dinner to the table late and burned, I fell behind in my research schedule in my actual job, and forgot a call with my son’s teacher. But! On the UK Ebay site I had to set up a VPN to access, I found it - posted by a woman who had owned a boutique in London and who was selling her old stock. I might as well have struck gold. Only, you know, it was kinda the opposite. I tried to bargain her down from the 250 pounds she wanted, to no avail, and I bought that sucker for the asking price plus international postage. Yes reader, I felt a little dirty - like how I imagine it might feel to wake up on your kitchen floor with your face buried in cake. To be honest, I’m still processing the madness but I don’t know. I’m happy.
Also, in one the nicer aspects of buying things from real people, lulumg73 (aka Michelle) and I had a lovely chat between sorting out international sale complications. We talked about the joy of belts, Covid in Sydney and in London, and what it’s like to have, and then close, a shop. Michelle also said I was the nicest customer she ever had - so, flattering.
I was reminded of Fran Liebowitz talking about dealing with herself, dealing with shop people - which I immediately identified with, and expect to peak as menopause takes hold:
“I’ve always been easily annoyed, but now I’m in a constant state of rage… Sometimes I walk into a dry cleaner and I know its going to be three months… In three months I’m gonna have such a such a fight I’m not going to be able to go in here ever again…”
It’s nice when you can control your demons long enough to make a good impression.
THIS WEEK IN OUTFITS
School events - sport and theatre
I had to be at some things for the kids this week. When I went to watch my son’s football I wore this essentially white outfit which worked out quite well for feels. I started with the joyous fact that it was sunny, which meant white jeans and T-shirt. These are my best white jeans from Agolde. High waisted balloons are where I’m at rn. It is also still cold tho - which meant jacket. This is the one that was hanging by the door that I’ve been wearing every day for some weeks now. It’s a Mr & Mrs Italy that I’d squashed in the cupboard and forgotten about after it had it’s moment, but which I resurrected this winter because why buy all this stuff in the belief that you’ll wear it forever, when you actually don’t. Something also died for this coat so I owe it to the fox.
The sneakers are from Gucci - I bought them in Paris where they made a lot of sense. Sometimes I want to wear logos. Mostly I don’t. This felt like a logo occasion because white, and the parka was lifting everything’s game. Notice both the parka and shoes are trying to be hilarious? An ordinary cotton jacket with a fox fur collar. A pair of “dirty” skater shoes - but they’re covered in resurrected 90s Gucci logo fabric. The point of course, is irony - but as I am a straight-up wearer of cotton parkers and skate shoes, I think of it more as just-the-tip luxury.
The raffia bag is my travel beach bag because it folds up into a suitcase. It was the best thing I could have possibly grabbed as I was walking out the door. The raffia bag brought relief to an outfit that was flirting with being obnoxious. I only worked that out in retrospect but it was very true. In any outfit a couple of items have to speak to eachother, and I had two themes. Springtime and winking luxe.
Later in the week we went to Sam’s play on a freezing night. I’m wearing what Leandra Cohen calls “recently-old” Victoria Beckham, bought on the Outnet last year during COViD lockdown. I had to force myself to wear them because effort hurt on this cold night, but they were awesome. VB excels with trouser cuts, so much so that even my baby daddy noticed. The top is from Dries years ago and has a sparkle thread. The colour is sublime. The trousers look crimson here but not as bright as that. I wanna say third-day menses. Other’s would probably go with port wine. The point is that they went together and that what turned this ensemble into an outfit.
I’m also wearing Balenciaga knife heels I bought this winter. They’re already in solid use because they’re basic without being basic. A black leather pump (*yawn*) with an extreme cut at heel and toe that makes it a timeless spanner-in-the-works. That’s the beauty of Balenciaga. Indeed their inherent goodness was proven when the baby-daddy said “I like your shoes”. It takes a lot to blast through Jono’s lack of concern for clothes and these items succeeded.
The last notable is this Blazé Milano jacket, which is halfway between a coat and blazer. This is a handy kind of item for winter in Sydney - I have two and wear them day and night, year after year.
Business time!
This week I also had cause to go to work in an actual workplace, for the first time in ages. French necklace occasion, obvs. Something deep inside me also felt it was BIG BANGLE time but I fought that urge - am not actually in a Wes Anderson movie about offices. Or so they say. I don’t know tho. Don’t you think life has Truman Show vibes?
I’m wearing Gucci sling backs, Zara top and pants and the Tibi Liam blazer (another all time favourite) if anyone is interested. 50s vintage necklace from France. The starting point was the pleather pants because comfortable and warm but not black and boring. Brown actually. And therefore fabulous!
I have to say tho, that after a day in Zara pleather, I was simply not as happy as I was after an evening in those Victoria Beckham red trousers. I am trying to suppress a fear that I might be aging out of fast-fashion.
I’ll leave you with this thought: there may be a point where tailoring has to offset facial laxity and real tailoring in good fabrics may be as essential as trans-dermal ultrasound in dealing with naso-labial folds.