Happy first weekend of fall, everyone! We’re very ready for the slow and melancholy rhythms of autumn, “the year’s last and loveliest smile,” said American poet William Cullen Bryant. Its colors and moods are reflected in what we want to wear and cook and how we organize and bring life back down to earth after summer’s sunny swirl.
We’ve found ourselves craving a little glamour and polish, gravitating towards some unusual items that are the true definition of those words (real McCoy movie star shades, opera pumps, and Violet Byzantin vernis à ongles among them). These high-gloss flourishes look all the more interesting when mixed-up with the collection of wooly country plaid and check pieces we’ve culled and the well-loved collegiate sweatshirts we’ve rustled up.
This issue meditates on wardrobe a little more than our usual letters do, but as always, we like going wherever our needs and wants take us each month. We hope you’re on the same page.
And if you’d like to hear more from us—on style, travel, entertaining and more—throughout the month, a paid subscription allows you posts in between our monthly letters.
Regardless, we’re so very glad to have you here with us. Please enjoy Issue Twenty-One!
Glen Close in Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill, Beaufort, South Carolina, 1983
In all the colors of the falling leaves, it is as crisp and toasty as an October morning. We’re craving ALL THINGS CHECKED, PLAID and HOUNDSTOOTHED at the moment, and that’s because these patterns add a certain merry, gamine tilt to anything you mix them up with. Head-to-toe options are the epitome of county cool, including Knatchbull’s double-breasted blazer, trouser and vest in a Prince of Wales check and Sea’s belted jacket and trouser. There are extra handsome blazers from Blazé Milano(!!), Gap and Isabel Marant; easy car coats from Boden, Max Mara and Dôen; couture kilts from Old Stone Trade and a RTW version from Sea; and Proche’s cozy paper-bag waist cotton twill pants. The jackets look great with our favorite high-rise dark denim of the moment or a camel skirt and the bottoms work beautifully with the knits we’re stocking up on…and finally, let’s take a minute for Rupert Everett with his duck and Burberry house check.
Its high-gloss hue is as deep and juicy as a September plum. Though we’re fans of a nail buff most of the year (especially in summer), come fall, there’s something truly satisfying about painting your nails a mysteriously dark shade. Right now, we’re craving a polish the exact tint of a certain purple stone fruit. Les Mains Hermès to the rescue! The French house, known for mixing nail colors with intense depth due to their use of a high concentration of pigments, describes their VIOLET BYZANTIN VERNIS À ONGLES as “a dark plum with an amethyst sheen, the power of a flamboyant dream.” Yes and yes. It looks snappy with everything we want to wear right now, particularly all those plaid pieces up top. It’s also a lovely lacquer to admire as you whip-up a plum torte care of New York Times editor Marian Burrows, one of our favorite food writers who went to a kitchen in the sky earlier this month.
Feet up beside your first cracking fire, you lift and sip from an ice cold coupe. Heaven is a STISSING MARTINI TABLE, preferably placed next to your hearth. Petite enough for just one or two drinks, this utterly civilized side table represents all that is still right with the world. Measuring just 11.5” in diameter and 26” tall, it was originally a feature in the dining room of Stissing House, the Pine Plains, NY restaurant owned by King chef Clare de Boer (who has a great newsletter, btw), but is now also available online. Made from hand-forged iron and finished in linseed oil by Black Dog Ironworks in Maine, the table was inspired by a 1700s design at the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum. We’re topping it with a Sipsmith martini (with a lemon twist) as we transition from summer fun to a slightly more subdued fall sipping schedule.
With their high shine and movie star mystique, there is no chicer way to go incognito. Before fashion houses sold their own eyewear and before fashionable eyewear even existed, there was Oliver Goldsmith, the first designer to make brightly colored frames from plastics, to have specs photographed in Vogue, and to create custom styles for celebrities, catwalks and movies. Or in the words of the Times of London in 1968: “What Vidal Sassoon is to hair and Mary Quant is to clothes, Oliver Goldsmith is to sunglasses.” Dior and Givenchy commissioned the atelier for their runway shows and stars such as Lord Snowdon, Grace Kelly, Michael Caine and Nina Simone frequented the Soho shop in London. But arguably their most famous design is THE MANHATTAN, the extra glossy and grand pair Audrey Hepburn wore in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This exact style is still available through the third-generation company—now run by Oliver’s great-grand daughter Claire—which has maintained an extensive archive. Just as they did in 1926, they hand-cut their frame patterns rather than the now-customary practice of heating and stamping them, which allows for a stronger overall construction that is less likely to stretch or break. The frames are also barrel polished for a week to give them that deeply luxe shine we all remember so well on Miss Golightly. We’re wearing them spy style with a midnight Beaufort Barbour, corduroy collar up!
Like football, falling leaves or a crisp pint of cider on a tailgate afternoon, it is eternally fall and forever young. A well-worn VINTAGE COLLEGE SWEATSHIRT with a good pair of broken-in jeans and a shiny loafer can do no wrong, no matter your age. In fact, we’d argue that a beat-up one—a little shrunken, a little frayed—looks even better at 45 than 25, especially when layered under one of our vintage barn jackets. (And how about these vintage collegiate rugbys?!) And if you snap-up one from your alma mater, they’re also great conversation starters for any casual field gathering you might wear them to. And there’s nothing cozier to curl up in (sofa for one?) when watching one of fall’s superb shows.
An elegant pour makes the small minutes of your day a pleasure. RORRA’S COUNTERTOP SYSTEM is the only water filter we’ve ever loved. Made of medical-grade stainless steel, it has a low-maintenance but highly sophisticated silicone filter you only need to change every 90s days (or after 200 gallons of water) and the single element you need to wash is the filter’s stainless steel holder, which is easy without any little nooks or crannies. The price tag is significant, but if you live in a place without quality tap water and don’t want to shell out for spring water delivery, it could actually be a money saver. It filters out micro plastics, lead, forever chemicals and many other containments (not including fluoride, FYI) and passes our beauty test, too. If you’re more of an under-the-counter or whole-house water filter person, we trust Wirecutter’s reviews implicitly and they tell us to get one from Aquasana. And if you’re looking for an exquisite water glass or water bottle, we have refreshing thoughts on those, too.
They are as sparkling as a winter night sky or a tuxedo at dinner. A MEN’S OPERA PUMP looks throughly elegant on a man but even more so on a woman. Invented in the Regency era to be worn with white or black tie, the patent leather and grosgrain style is the shape of a court shoe but with an extra dose of shine and tomboy cool. Stepping out in a men’s pair from Manolo Blahnik has long been a secret amongst stylish ladies and we also love these versions from Bode and the Stockholm brand Morjas, each of which you can order in the female size equivalent. And if you don’t want to go for a men’s shoe, we also adore Brooklyn shoemaker Suzanne Rae’s Opera Pump, Blahnik’s suede Reador flat, Dior’s Diorissimo slipper and Ferragamo’s classic Varina ballet flat. We’re wearing ours with black silk trousers and a slinky ivory silk blouse or an absolute knock-out minidress for a special night out at where else but… the opera!
In times of both chaos and peace, it is with you. An AMBER-SCENTED SANDALWOOD NECKLACE from Prounis is just the kind of talisman we need now. This striking strand—which is made-to-order at designer Jean Prounis’ Manhattan studio—is delightfully grounding and calming, with wooden beads that are bathed in an amber scent and hand-strung on silk cord. “The idea of scent as memory runs deep for me,” says Prounis. “The Ancient Greeks perfumed their sculptures, and I’ve always cherished how my late grandmother’s beads, years later, still held the faintest trace of her perfume. That quiet presence inspired this piece!” We will be wearing ours with a stellar wool skirt and a really exquisite cashmere cardigan.
The candles are burned down, dinner is done and now it’s time to play. We are big fans of after-dinner games that can be played by young and old, who all get to practice simple arithmetic with this easy game of dice. We originally fell in love with less elegant versions during our barstool sitting years (its a game traditionally played in English pubs, among other places), but this buffalo leather HECTOR AND SAXE SHUT THE BOX set from the Parisian game maker is beautiful enough to grace any table.
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As always, all of our illustrations are original and hand-drawn in ink by Courtney Broadwater.
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