LE CATCH

There’s something wonderfully subversive about what Prada unveiled this morning in Milan: clothes that impart everyday but hum with intent. Fall 2026 is, at first glance, about layering. The kind you might chalk up to practicality. A crewneck over a button-down. A leather jacket tossed on top. Real life. But not! The silhouettes were familiar, almost pedestrian. Crewneck knits. Cigarette pants. But then came the cuffs: extending decisively from beneath crewnecks and leather jackets, exaggerated, color deployed like punctuation. Yes, a replay of the house’s men’s show back in January, which I wrote about here. And now? It feels less like a moment, more like a mandate. Olympia Gayot, below, of J.Crew is already on it; So is Jamie Haller. I’ll be experimenting with more Prada-like layering with Pixie Market ($175 lace dress, below!) and & Other Stories, while also dreaming about the ultimate made-for-layering red Prada coat, last pic.

$75, h&m

Manifesting spring and sunshine.

1. H&M fringe knit dress, $75, hm.com
2. Varley sunglasses, $198, varley.com
3. Jenny Bird earrings, $158, jennybird.com
4. Fara Homidi Essential Lip Compact Refill in Red 1, $48, violetgrey.com
5. Aquazurra sandals, $755, mytheresa.com

I’m in the thick of writing this weekend’s Substack, a Sydney dispatch, and I have a small programming note: there will be surprisingly little where-to-shop content. I know. But the truth is, in Sydney, I spent most of my time in the ocean. Or on a bike. Or walking 18,000 steps a day, without even getting tired. When I did look around, I was hunting for the Aussie equivalent of Reformation, J.Crew or Sezane—that sweet spot of affordable, trend-aware, not trying too hard. I couldn’t quite find it. (Don’t get me wrong, I love Alemais, Posse, and other Down Under-based brands, but I didn’t want to drop lots of $$$.) Plus, everything in stores was fall, given the time of year. I currently have only spring on my brain. Ironically, now that I am back, I’ve found what I was looking for—surprise, surprise!—special pieces without a steep price. Take, for example, the Marni-esque tulip bags from Banana Republic, above and below, the abstract gem ring ($70) and bucket hat. The t-shirts also hit the mark. Also very good: a mock cashmere knit with lace shorts from Reformation, Le Bop’s bandana set, Cadet’s cuuuute fringe terry skirt ($88), Farm Rio’s (Valentino-red) floral applique dress and mesh Beek flats.

It’s taking 13 hours and one minute to fly back from the future. My plane pushed back from Sydney at 11:30AM on Tuesday and is touching down in Los Angeles at 6AM… also Tuesday. There is something wonderfully disorienting about flying over deep sea trenches, crossing the invisible seam of the International Date Line and skipping over the Equator as if it were a silk ribbon laid across the sea. At wing level, a blood-red crescent moon is keeping pace with us. I came prepared. A journal for the delirious thoughts that only arrive mid-air. A novel I’ve been savoring. February and March issues of Australian Vogue—thick, glossy, impossible to rush. The comfiest traveling shoes known to woman. Stretchy jeans that forgive the second bag of potato chips. And, as usual, bags within bags within bags, new precious Australian cargo (this and this), along with cute PJ’s and slippers to wear on the plane inside! There is a peculiar luxury in being unreachable yet entirely connected. Hours to roam the worldwide web without apology. To fall down rabbit holes. To bookmark, screenshot, archive. Here’s what I discovered along the way back to reality: High Sport’s new printastic pants in grain moire and scroll, the sunglasses seen everywhere in Sydney (very spot on CBK too), this Paris Georgia beaded top, everything Celine-inspired at And Other Stories (wow!), and these cute and easy flip flops for more south-of-the-equator adventures.

It is not lost on me, the stinging, cinematic irony of being quite literally on the other side of the world. Another hemisphere. Another season. Another everything. My phone has been lighting up with photos from home: the driveway swallowed whole, cedar shingles barely peeking out, trees entombed. Twenty-five inches in Westhampton Beach. 9 to 15 inches in New York. The kind of snow that muffles the world into a snow globe and strands you in it. And here I am. In Sydney, Australia. Bare legs. Salt in my hair. My $24 lace H&M shorts, which, against all odds, have emerged as the true hero of my suitcase, along with a few sheer blouses (long sleeve H&M, last pic, and yellow button-down, above), catching the sea breeze. It feels almost illicit. And yet in just a few hours I’ll be folding these sun-warmed things back into my suitcase and flying headlong back to LA reality. So right now I am lapping it up. Every last golden, salt-tinged second. Another iced coffee. I am storing it all away like a squirrel with sunshine, ready to unpack it on the other side of the world. I’ll share everything when I’m back: the long coastal walks, the Bondi Beach finds, the light, the feeling of being deliciously misplaced in the calendar. For now, I remain your IG correspondent from summer, reporting live from the upside down.

This morning I was maybe an hour or two too late to RSVP and snag the earliest shopping slot at Doen’s Private Warehouse Sale in March—which gives me pause about RSVP’ing at all. Because all the one-of-a-kinds be immediately swooped up—and then some. But that’s just one more reason to now go crazy at Tory Burch’s Private Sale, launching today, no RSVP needed (just your email address). What’s good? The print wrap skirt, above, actually, the whole outfit, the one-shoulder dress, below, along with this red right-now V-neck knit. And, oh, tons of chic Tory Sport and stuff. Also ready to be snapped up: Xu Zhi’s fringe halter and Dorothy Schumacher’s barn jacket with a detachable woven collar. Happy weekend!

Sitting next to Vogue and Vanity Fair contributor Rachel Marlowe at the Reformation dinner last night felt a bit like landing in the best possible seat for fashion-media water cooler talk. Between courses, I interrogated her for Condé Nast intel—Chloe Malle, Anna Wintour, the Oscar party—and was rewarded with an off-the-record download that made me wish dinners lasted two hours longer. But while those stories stay in the vault, I am here today to share other news. First up: Natalie Martin’s new spring collection, which somehow still gives me the same feeling it did when I first started wearing her dresses almost a decade ago—easy but glamorous without trying too hard. I actually met Natalie through my sister; they each had kids the same age, and then years ago on vacation in Mexico, Gwyneth Paltrow stopped me to ask where my dress was from. I told her about Natalie, and not long after the dresses showed up on GOOP and promptly sold out. One of those moments you can’t plan but feel oddly proud of in a low-key way, mostly because good things find their audience when they deserve to. And here we are again with this new collection, and I’m just as enamored. See the dress and cape(!), below. Also very much into the latest at J.Crew right now, the colored knits (purple, please!), chartruese and sparkles. And Madewell’s limited-edition jeans just launched, created with denim wizard Benjamin Tally Smith (who also consults and designs jeans for Khaite, Ulla Johnson, Re/Done, etc and known for seriously flattering denim), might be some of the best fits on the market at the moment. I am jumping on the mid-rise straight leg pair, below, with the fringe-y hem. And finally, Uniqlo’s newest collection, designed by Clare Waight Keller, the British designer known for her beautifully tailored, modern work at Chloé and Givenchy. The zip-up cardigans ($69), last pic, in spot-on shades are clean, chic, and destined to disappear from shelves pretty much immediately.

Spring is 31 days away, though you wouldn’t know it from the cold and stormy weather here in LA. But inside the shops—and in my closet—things are starting to warm up. Even if just mood wise. All the new arrivals, above (hello, fringed wrap skirt!) and below, justify spring outfit planning this very minute: Chan Luu’s feather trimmed coat, mirror-embellished mini skirt (both en route to me!), sequin scarf, bustle dress, feather-lined tunic (cute as a dress too), Aritzia’s bow-tie linen top, the statement-making fringe camisole from Sea, Slone’s shell-accented halter dress, Maude’s drop-waist mini dress (love the price too!), ALC’s lace trimmed shorts, and yes, to sleek white pumps!

My latest Substack is live—covering New York Fashion Week. I was meant to be there in person, and the new post explains why plans changed, plus everything you need to catch up on from (future) trend spotting, current covetables (plaid parka, above), homebound fair isle appreciation (below), along with LA’s must-try croissants and life-changing smoothies. As it turns out, the overflow of newness doesn’t stop, because there’s even more to share today! Come sit on the couch with me (and my slipper-like slides, below) and check out the following: Topshop’s tortoise shell bucket bag (spring break, here I come for $79!), embellished kicks for under $150, fringe galore (last pic), Cos’ tie-front blouse, Mango’s gathered-waist denim parka, the spot-on pocket belt from Free People and Prada’s bound-to-sell-out summer sneakers in all kinds of chic shades (the real deal here).

If yesterday’s post was about the punctuation marks at New York Fashion Week—the cinches, swings, and hardware that make an outfit talk—then today is about the grammar that carries the meaning. NYFW isn’t just a series of shows; it’s a continual reminder that the small things don’t merely complement—they dictate. There’s something radical about a sleeve that stands, a lapel that drapes, or a pocket that lives somewhere between utility and unconformity. Jackets have been the much-needed, heat-trapping protagonists this go-around, especially the ones that finesse a stylish layering scheme. One recurring star was the classic jean jacket, above, on J.Crew’s Olympia Gayot, but then also at Ossou’s Fall 2026 presentation, below. I love Veronica Beard’s fresh take with a peplum. The wallet-friendly, outfit-making jackets from We Wore What and Gap, last pics, make the cut, too. Also prevalent: leopard print in the wild—yes (forever and ever) and yes (on sale), plus pow-wow pops of color in the form of string belts and snoods, pictured below. I love the idea of wearing this around my neck and the assortment of colors here.