LE CATCH

Shorts look poised to be bigger than ever this summer, if only because they’re already impossible to ignore, currently dominating the spring racks, from crisp little tailored pairs to longer, loose-fitting styles. Both feel like no-brainer easy, though each can still read surprisingly dressed. Even Reformation, reliable barometer of what people will soon be wearing everywhere, seems to have committed fully, with “micro” shorts, above, bubble shorts, and Bermudas, both below. Quince makes a linen pair in myriad shades for $32—hard to beat! News Flash: NYC-based fashion bellwether Leandra Cohen going short-short with a floral Chloe mini—another fun option.

$99, steve madden

Let them think they’re Gucci.

1. Alemais dress
2. Quince sunglasses
3. Prada enamel bracelet
4. RMS Beauty Lip Lights Cream Lip Gloss
5. Loewe raffia striped bag (borrow it with my code MARLIEN to get your first month of membership on me at vivrelle.com)
6. Steve Madden bamboo sandals

The drive to Beverly Hills last night took no time at all, which in Los Angeles is its own kind of announcement: spring break, a quasi-exodus, the roads briefly behaving like a place with less Teslas. By the time I arrived, that same feeling had carried into the room—a little less urgency, a little more ease. Spring fever in the air. This morning I opened my laptop and still felt the lingering effects of it all: 28 tabs, almost all skirts, dresses, all angled toward a getaway. My favorites here: the Tory Burch bodysuit (can I please have all three colors??) and low-waist skirt, the drop-waist J.Crew (clearly next season’s silhouette!) and white fluttery skirt, Pepa Pombo polka dot peplum top (say that three times!), the strapless Acler bombshell (on sale for $250!), Tory Burch sandals, Cos satin skirt, the side cut-out dress (use the code SPRING20 for 20% off at Shopbop—last day!) and the asymmetrical Asos mini skirt.

I am not, nor was I was ever, the ruthless sort of spring cleaner—the stripping, the purging, the annual inventory of drawers. That being said, I do like a good sweep in service of the months ahead, every quarter or so. In a mostly furnished post-fire rental, cleaning/editing is less about denuding than about enhancing—working with what is here, and then asking what makes it feel like ours for next season. A chair pulled closer to the window because the afternoon light is too beautiful to miss. A sculptural floor lamp introduced where there wasn’t one before. An iced-coffee machine to ritualize lived-in joys. The sort of changes that do not announce themselves immediately, but alter how a room receives you. That is how I found myself lingering over Table Two Studio’s hand-illustrated paper plates and gorgeous linens. They possess that rare quality of making a table look elegant without suggesting effort was expended to get there. Everything is designed to layer easily, to mix without overthinking, to invite a little spontaneity—the kind of thing that could persuade me that dinner for 12 is last-minute manageable! The appeal is that these are objects that remove friction rather than add occasion. They make gathering feel possible on ordinary days, which is often when I most want it. (They’re so pretty, however, I’d be reluctant to throw them away post-party!) Seems like my version of spring cleaning this year is preparing the house to be lived in with the windows open, the doors rarely shut, and the table always one small excuse away from being set. An extra chic light (last pic) taking command in one corner could not hurt either!

Reading Monica Ainley de La Villardière’s Substack this morning, I learned that nearly everyone in France uses a bank debit card, not a credit card to make purchases. And suddenly something about French style became much clearer to me. Perhaps the elusive je ne sais quoi is not purely aesthetic after all, but behavioral: buying what you can pay for now, pausing before adding something new, expecting clothes to justify their long-term place. This all explains why Sézane feels so perfectly calibrated to me. Nothing too dramatic, nothing too disposable—just enough chic to justify itself, and enough familiarity to be worn on repeat. A few new spring pieces in rotation (that have already finessed a trip to Austin and back!): the perfectly-fitting blazer, above, leopard print pants (they’re slightly stretchy and super comfy!), and black t-shirt. On deck for this week: this new tie-waist blouse and this little black (sexy) dress. Check out the spring collection here.

A mom from my son’s volleyball team—the kind of woman who somehow looks composed at 8:12 a.m. in a school parking lot, coffee in one hand, impossibly clean white sneakers in the other—recently asked me whether I prefer shopping in real life or online. The question landed like a personality test, because the honest answer is both: I enjoy the serendipity of discovering something on a rack, but I also want the ruthless efficiency of a browser tab open at 24/7, twenty-seven things bookmarked, no hovering sales assistant involved. And yet there are moments when online shopping becomes not merely convenient but categorically superior, when the scale of what’s available could never be replicated in person, not even by the most heroic department store. Today’s Shopbop spring sale is exactly that kind of moment: so deep in stock, so unusually abundant that it almost feels implausible, as though someone forgot to limit access before opening the doors. This is not the tired end-of-season clearing of odd sizes and questionable leftovers. The surprise is that so much of it is current—things I’ve actually been eyeing, pieces poised to be in summer circulation, not relics from six months ago. My favorites include this statement red top (inspired by above), so much Alemais gorgeousness, like the dress, below, Staud staples, jeans, and the most flattering swimsuits my abs could ask for. P.S. Here is a tight and compelling edit of the entire sale. Enjoy!

Touched down in Austin with an entirely new mood board: bolos, waist chains, sun-faded cotton, along with the general belief that getting dressed should feel different than LA, but not too much. It’s 88 degrees outside, which means the threshold for effort shifts: fewer layers, more punctuation! On the agenda: this gorgeous new Dorsey necklace, below, layered with this Carolina Bucci, I’d love to attempt the above waist chain on my jeans and hoping some vintage shopping here will facilitate! Also this linen dress, lace and Dries ruffles. Have a great weekend, y’all!

A late afternoon dash to Century City’s mall to replace my son’s stolen prom suit (a sentence that still feels vaguely absurd) kicked off with urgency and focus. But, of course malls, in spring have other ideas. Somehow I drifted, as one does, into that shop-happy mindset where everything suddenly looks useful if it’s striped, airy, or made of cotton. What was supposed to be one blue suit became the following: the asymmetric tunic, above, the tassel cord belt, below, the lace slip dress, the sequin handbag, the straw beret, the crochet statement skirt, the metal clutch bag, and the striped Zara shirtdress. Suit restored. Spring sprung.

There are certain things friendship asks of you, and if you are lucky, they are specific and easy to fulfill. A school pickup. A last-minute opinion on a text message. A strong no on a questionable cosmetic procedure. Recently, it was a request to swap luggage in Nashville. My friend on her way to Barcelona asked if we could swap suitcases: my civilized “Bigger” carry-on for her oversized, albeit chic yet check-in-only Rimowa. All so she could glide through international travel lightly, while I sherpaed the aluminum biggie back to Los Angeles. Of course I said yes, because this is what friendship is: agreeing first, then discovering the true scope of the assignment later, as in the auxiliary cargo that came with. Her cowboy boots, for one. A Celine big buckle belt (yes, that one). Great fringe. Various Nashville artifacts destined to stay west of Greenwich Mean Time. If I were negotiating terms, I might have asked for one small reciprocal favor: let me pack the carry-on she took instead. Because I derive an almost unreasonable amount of pleasure from packing for other people, especially when the destination is better than mine. My ideal contribution to my Barcelona-bound friend would be: the Tory Burch on-sale look, below, for a sexy dinner out, this polished, goes-with-everything Favorite Daughter t-shirt (second pic, below), this tapas-friendly fringed Asos skirt, this Isabel Marant statement necklace, this peptide-rich Goop moisturizer (key to a post-arrival glow), a few J.Crew linen button downs (white, french blue, for sure, all 40% off now!), a fun Clare V bag charm, the pinstriped Amanda Uprichard dress, silver bangles from Sezane, my skirt that comes with a belt to cinch other clothes, and the red Farm Rio ooolala too! PLUS: a Vee bag, above, is essential: carry-on in spirit, deceptively roomy in practice, and exactly what she’ll need for the inevitable Spain acquisitions heading back to L.A. (preferably without deputizing another friend to haul them home!). Adios!

There are emails you expect, and then there are the ones that make you reread the subject line twice just to make sure you’re not hallucinating. Mine came from the team at Few Moda: would I be interested in designing a collection—with complete creative license? It had the surreal energy of being the unexpected lucky caller to a radio show, the one who somehow gets through on the first ring and wins the prize you never actually imagine winning. The answer, obviously, was yes. What ensued: an eight-piece spring capsule, inspired by the dependable heroes in my closet that earn their keep season after season, the ones that somehow always make the carry-on no matter where I’m headed. I started with instinct: what do I actually reach for when I want to feel pulled together without overthinking it? What survives real life, real travel, real mornings? The collection moves from an office-ready pinstriped blazer—the kind of piece that instantly sharpens whatever is underneath—to a tassel-trimmed tunic with Malibu-bound ease. In between: the pieces that bridge those moods, because that’s how I actually dress. A little structure (a belted skirt), a little softness (a lace tunic-meets-mini dress), a bit of both (red bralette dress)—a little borrowed-from-one-place and worn-in-another. At first glance, the line-up may look a bit disparate—tailored here, relaxed there—but I swear the magic is in the layering. The blazer over the lace tunic—yes! Or sub in the button-down shirt! The idea was never to create eight isolated items, but eight pieces that speak to each other and trade places. Which, to me, is always the goal: clothes that work in endless ways and always look good. Period. I hope you wear these pieces as much as I will. Please check out the entire collection here.

Of course, I test-drove the samples on the road to verify their stamina and versatility! See below. All passed with flying colors!