I want this coat. And if you don’t have one like this… you might want one, too. I have to admit that I am pretty tired of all the influencing going on these days. (I get it, it’s a business, but my Instagram feed has basically turned into QVC. When did that happen?) But as tiring as that capital-I-Influencer word has become, I have been lowercase-i-influenced to look like this for years:
Lauren Bacall.
Audrey Hepburn.
Ali McGraw.
Catherine Deneuve.
Meryl Streep.
Peter Sellers (!)
The Queen of England.
For me, these figures were the original influencers and sitting in the movie theatre was where I got my first smack of how I wanted to look or who I wanted to be. Or at least the me I wanted to be wearing a trench coat. I cannot think of this coat without imagining myself in black and white, walking somewhere important on a city street. Am I lonely? Or on an adventure? Meeting a lover? Having a nervous breakdown? So many choices! But a trench coat is dramatic. Wearable… yes… but with the bonus of a cinematic scene going on in your head. Or is that just me?
I have two trench coats in my repertoire already, and both are fantastic. They are rubberized Mackintosh coats — perfect for rain, but on a sunny day they can feel a bit pessimistic. And sometimes even a little silly. Can you just imagine the smart aleck in your 10th grade class asking if you had checked the weather forecast? I can hear him now: “Nice raincoat.” This one works in the rain… but it really is a lightweight coat meant for a little warmth, a little rain repelling, but mostly: STYLE. And for me, a coat is the ultimate stylemaker.
Which brings me to what I really want to talk about in this post. Often it is not just about the coat, or the dress, or the shoes… it’s about how you FEEL in the pieces you’ve put on for the day. The make and the quality of the coat is amazing, and you can read the details about it on the website. But the more important thing to me is the way it makes me feel.
There is a book we adore in my house — in fact we own several copies, which is fortunate because it is out of print. Lisa Eisner is the author, and the title is THE HEIGHT OF FASHION. Her career has had many iterations and she is now a fantastic jewelry designer, but back in the late 90s she had the brilliant idea of asking all her fashion-adjacent friends to send her a meaningful photo of themselves… one in which they felt at their style pinnacle. It is a delight to page through. From the introduction: "It’s a certain kind of ‘wait, where’s my camera’ photography by adoring friends and adoring family who want to capture the moment because they know you look good and feel good. A lot of them have a sense of humor and an intimacy that I love. Most of these pictures are the ones that they have next to their beds, where their most cherished memories are kept.” There are some Halloween pictures of the Santisi sisters… Kevyn Aucoin in a 70s Qiana-style shirt for his junior high school photo in Lafayette, Louisiana… a beautiful picture of Pauline Trigere in her office. Naomi Judd at the CMAs. My old boss Polly Mellen is pictured on a photo shoot in profile with a scarf tied around her head. As much fun as they are to look at, the pictures are about how the wearers felt inside. There are a few prom photos… some bar mitzvahs… so much joy throughout.
(I found this book only because I had met Lisa briefly at a very impressionable time in my life. I was staying on a friend’s couch in his very Woody Allen-ish apartment on the Upper West Side. It was just me and about four guys. I would carefully lug my little duffel bag into the bathroom each morning to go get ready for work at Vogue. Can you imagine? I had just begun working as Polly Mellen's assistant and Lisa had grown up with my friend in Wyoming — the one who was writing the rent checks and kindly allowing me to crash. Lisa knew Polly, and when she stopped by for a visit, she took one long look at me and said: “she is going to eat you alive.” She was a prophetess. And very, very, very cool. But back to her book…)
The book was published in 2000. The first iPhone photos did not happen until 2007. Try to imagine a world in which you would have been able to pinpoint that photo that made you feel a certain way. Now, my own camera roll on my phone is so crowded with junk that it’s hard to even think of one. We take so many photos and yet they all have less meaning. But if I think back to my youth, I know exactly which photo represents my own Height of Fashion. My original moodboard in the Atlanta shop has a photo of me standing in my front yard in Milwaukee on my 11th birthday. I am wearing a wool poncho, even though it’s the end of July and probably 85 degrees outside. I felt the NEED to wear this poncho with my cutoff shorts. Critically, I am also wearing a wig — a fall, in fact. (I had to look up this word to make sure I hadn’t made it up: “an older term for a half or ¾ wig, which is a hairpiece that covers only the top and crown of the head. These are designed to be worn with your own hair at the front, adding volume and length while blending seamlessly with your natural hair.”)
Mine was not quite seamless, but it is hard to describe how amazing I felt in that photo. And on all of our other store moodboards, we have other photos torn out of that book and pinned up. We don’t often get the opportunity to explain why they are up there, but they are important to me and they represent people feeling their very best. Most of the figures are not particularly famous, though some are — our Atlanta board also contains the Carine Roitfeld page, which shows her in a tie-dye caftan on vacation. They are fashion people and their friends when the world of fashion was not as famed… industry people who loved what they did long before everyone could become a fashion editor with the great help of the Internet. I relate to the feeling that all these people had... and I imagine are still having to this day. It is perhaps the reason they went into fashion in the first place. A piece of clothing can change things. Every day isn’t like that. It wouldn’t feel special if it were. But there is nothing better than feeling that extra bit.
I have a photo of myself in Paris that Sid took in 2014. I am standing in front of the Arc de Triomphe wearing a Mackintosh trench coat. My caption for Lisa’s book might be: I am in Paris, wearing a trench, with my husband on the other side of the camera. It isn’t the best picture of me… but boy did I feel amazing. Not quite the poncho and the wig. But nearly. The height of fashion.
I hope this coat can make you feel that way too.
