Favorite of the Day: Michael Kors

The fact that I often love Michael Kors and his take on preppy, American sportswear shouldn't surprise you, but the fact that I have chosen it as one of my favorites might. The collections are consistently pretty and wearable but I often get distracted by something that lives closer to the extremes.

But this season I've been longing for a breath of fresh air. For a collection that didn't revel in carefully constructed nothingness.

And this preppy, American sportswear provided just that.


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Favorite of the Day: Carolina Herrera

Child Samantha was always drawn to the "pretty pretty". The big skirts. The sweeping trains. Adult Samantha isn't as easily impressed by such things. But there are some designers who do that work so well, who can still draw out my slumbering love for drama.

Carolina Herrera produces those types of ensembles every season, but in the midst of a season of black and white and utility they stood out even more than usual. Not just for their beauty, because so many of the clothes presented during this week are beautiful, but for the way that they spoke to one another.

Everything felt connected. Each piece told one part of the same story.

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Favorite of the Day: Alexander Wang

New York Fashion Week is at the halfway mark, and I find myself bored. Everything started to bleed together almost from the beginning, and it's been hard to become excited by collection after collection of the same old thing. But the Alexander Wang show provided me with a jolt.

I watched the livestream in my room and found myself standing up. Bouncing around. Dancing to the music. The clothes were thrilling. The girls sped down the runway. He was playing with the prevalent sporting motif but that has always been his wheelhouse, and unlike most others he continues to provide fresh takes on it. These were not off-duty yoga looks, devoid of shape or life. 

They were sharp and tailored and hard and sexy. 

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Favorite of the Day: Tomas Maier

New York Fashion Week started fully yesterday and as editors and buyers and bloggers wandered the city covered in the latest trends, I observed all of the goings on from afar. When it comes to my personal style, I've settled into a life that has become less and less concerned with those ups and downs.

Marveling at things I only see working on others is second nature at this point, but I still love a collection that I can imagine living my life in. And on day two, Tomas Maier presented exactly that.

It was a perfect slice of Samantha through and through.

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Favorite of the Day: Whit

Even on the day of its soft opening, it was already obvious in what direction the Spring/Summer 2015 season in New York would be moving. But because it was so early, I decided to ignore all of that. The prevailing winds and the dominating trends. Instead I relished the simple joy found in the best types of summer clothing, which were all on display at Whit. Vibrant and light and playful. Maybe moving west has made me a breezier person.

Or maybe it's just made me more accepting of breezier sensibilities.


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Daydreams

I first wrote about the Stella McCartney Resort 2010 collection when it debuted. I fell in love with it on sight. The shots of yellow and red and green set against navy and black and white. The sparkle and shine that ran through much of it. The stripes. Five years later, I still think of it often, dream of it really. There are other collections that linger in my mind. McQueen and his chessboard. Jacobs and his Louis Vuitton carousel. Wang and his locker room. But this collection, presented to us in a stark, white space haphazardly filled with balloons and shoes, lives adrift in time in a way that the others do not.

For those who make this world their life, recognizing the age of a collection becomes something of a sport. There are always markers, sometimes deep and sometimes superficial, left behind by the season's dominant trends. Rare is the designer who can avoid them altogether. McCartney herself is susceptible to those shifts as such movement is the inevitable outcome of doing business. The fashion industry is about change, about keeping up and playing that game, and many who cannot keep up are left behind to fail. 

In the five years since the collection’s debut, a lot has happened in my life. I moved home (for the second time) and moved away (for the second time). I toiled for four and a half years in apparel retail. I emotionally grew out of many of the stores that dominated my adolescence. And I came to appreciate clothes not only for their beauty but also for their versatility.

In many ways, we are at peak “personal style”. We Tumbl and Instagram our ensembles. The personal quickly becomes the public and the once unknown become icons. In that world, where things now move more quickly than they ever have, change on top of more change is applauded. And I relish it. I love nothing more than to settle in every season and see what the designers have brought us, what thoughts have left their heads and become reality. To see who has created something magical. And to observe how those invited to take part in the spectacle choose to clothe themselves.

My own style story is written all over this blog. The thawing of my icy hatred of floral prints. My loathing for, and subsequent love of, suits. And here, in one collection of 56 looks, all of that distills down into something manageable. If asked what my personal style is, I can simply point you in this direction. It is deceptive in its simplicity and some might see it at as boring, but I see classics. Pieces that can be worn for years and styled for multiple ages. Items that will become well-loved. 

Even the jumpsuits play a part. They remind me of my mother. Of the photographs that live in our Boston home and contain portraits of her much younger self. Of the feel and the weight and the smell of her clothes, especially the ones that featured so heavily in my early childhood. She has always been much cooler than I. Although they would never be found in my closet, their presence here is a nod to her and to her influence over me. 

Even if that influence did nothing more than produce something of a polar opposite.


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One Step Back

Occasionally a step back can also be a step forward. At least I think that's true of this place and what I do here. The idea of changing the pace of things has been lounging in the back of my mind for at least the past two years. The Favorites and The Roundups forced me to stay abreast of all that was changing and all that remained the same within the fashion world and when I moved home almost five years ago, I thought that I would need that push. That if I wasn’t careful I would lose the pieces of myself that I had gained while trying to build a life in New York. But I should have known better, should have known that I don’t have to handle my love of or my passion for certain topics.

So much of what I’ve done here in the past few years has felt burdensome and tiresome. I don’t know who I’m serving, but it's definitely not myself. When I wrote the post announcing that I will be moving to California in the spring, I realized what was missing. I had become so wrapped up in the ups and downs, the peplums and color stories, that my tone had become increasingly impersonal. And although I am capable of removing myself from the equation rather deftly, that is never what this was meant to be. So there will be a return of the more personal essays that dominated the earlier days of this blog, back when there was still a swear in the main title and I was still a bit unsure about what I was doing. I doubt that I'll be able to stop myself from doing a roundup here or there. Especially about the coats. How much I love the coats! But they won't dominate the conversation.

There might also be some longer, nerdier fashion pieces. Sometimes I find myself spouting off on Twitter about topics like my love of Prada and its quirkiness.

Miuccia Prada can change the tone and mood of her collections as deftly as anyone in the industry. And it rarely feels forced.
— Samantha Powell (@sdpowell1) February 21, 2014

Or like change simply for the sake of change. It's delightful. And quirky. And somewhat off, but only in the best way.
— Samantha Powell (@sdpowell1) February 21, 2014

I've come to realize that 140 character bursts aren't sufficient. That I want to delve a bit further. Or a lot further. That I want to improve my criticism and analysis. That this place can be a playground upon which I practice those skills. It has always provided a space for that to some extent but often in short bursts that leave me unsatisfied.

But it will be a little while before these changes come into effect. Until then there will be closet inventories to perform and goodbyes to make.