LE CATCH

I was invited to a dinner party last night at a dear friend’s home—just a handful of us—gathered for friends in from the Bahamas and New York City. It was the kind of Monday night gathering that felt almost conspiratorial but also mellow and fun. Our host, a style maven and entrepreneurial baller in every sense, confessed (in a voice I can only describe as mock-serious but slightly earnest) that she had been nervous about what to wear because I was coming. I found this absurd. This is a woman who can raise capital before breakfast and source vintage Dries by lunch. If anything, I should have been texting her for guidance. And yet when her door opened and jackets were shrugged off, we all sort of laughed. Because without planning it, we had landed on the same uniform. The unspoken code of women who get dressed a lot: safe but chic. Jeans anchored by a top that does the talking. Which brings me to this morning, scrolling through the just-unveiled collection from Dior in Paris. What stopped me cold was the look, above, built on humble, unfussy jeans and topped with a crazy cool tulle-layered peplum jacket. Drama up top. Ease below. It struck me as the exact same dressing ethos from our Monday night tableau. It’s practical, yes—one less step in the getting-dressed calculus. But it’s also a kind of hall pass. Permission to anchor fantasy with familiarity. I’m all in, especially with options like the below: Apiece Apart scarf cardigan, Modern Citizen balloon-sleeve blouse ($148!), the Hermes-spirited linen blouse, the ruffled Pixie Market, the under $200 scarf jersey t-shirt from The Garment and the on-sale Ulla Johnson cropped camisole (fun styled over a white t-shirt or under an oversized cardigan).

$129, and other stories

Think of it as summer’s blank canvas to dress up or down.

1. And Other Stories cotton dress, $129, stories.com
2. Quince sunglasses, $50, quince.com
3. Sahira enamel malachite ring, $52, sahirajewelry.com
4. Counter Tetrapeptide Supreme Cream, $98, counter.com
5. Lizzie Fortunato bag, $495, modaoperandi.com
6. Chloe jelly sandals, $750, modaoperandi.com

How is it March already? Meanwhile it’s 80 degrees outside and feels like late August. And then the weekend flashed by in a millisecond: Friday night high school volleyball game (my favorite spectator sport), Frieze-ing, a Sunday drive up the coast for a long Malibu beach walk to recalibrate my brain, and a published Substack on Australia—the best coffee spots, bakeries, beaches, what to pack and how to squeeze it all in, the whole jet-lagged travel diary. Throughout it all, I toggled, as usual, between what I want to wear and what I’m actually wearing, which in this weather are two very different wardrobes: a blue Mersea tunic and pleated skirt, above, my beloved Rixo silk coat, below, Jenny Bird and Jenni Kayne on the bleachers, along with this new suede bag to further blend in to the sidelines, a Simkhai maxi try-on, blue ballet flats just because and a cute sequin clutch ($118!), all day, every day! Happy Monday!

$310, netaporter

A paisley sweater that I’d wear more like jacket.

1. Farm Rio jacquard knit sweater, $300, netaporter.com
2. Toteme jeans, $420, mytheresa.com
3. Electric Picks earring set, $135, electricpicks.com
4. Sahira studded cuff, $65, sahirajewelrydesign.com
5. Blue Lagoon Lip Balm, $25, bluelagoon.com
6. Reformation pleated pouch, $228, reformation.com
7. Alex Mill ballet flats, $228, alexmill.com

Yesterday’s Prada parade outside the show was—as usual—a masterclass in styling and nerve. There were nylon rain jackets (above) that look like they were borrowed from someone far more interesting than you. The shackets, too: oversized, slightly rumpled, very Polo Ralph Lauren from the 80s. Naturally, I’ve been thinking: how do I do this within the limits of my own wallet? The answer may be less runway and more rummage—and call it a day. Those Polo Ralph Lauren shirts in large (or even extra large) make for a good stand-in, especially in saturated colors like brown (love), purple (on sale), or green corduroy. Some are even on sale in red and this gorgeous blue. Also Prada pretty (and refreshingly affordable): this low-waist jewel-red mini from Reformation, this workwear jacket from Source Unknown, this pre-layered polo sweater, this high-collared denim jacket (OK, maybe more Isabel Marant-ish!), and this spot on pleated midi skirt (I subbed in this belt in the last picture). Consider it Prada energy—amplified by an unmistakably sleek pair of kitten heels, currently en route!

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.