10 Years Later, I Still Think About This Top
It was the Jean Paul Gaultier mesh of the 2010s, and I recently scored one for under $50.
Beyond the paywall, you can read about the history of the piece (I speak to editors and someone who was on the PS team) and shop it for under $100…enjoy!
I’m in throbbing desperation of color. A flamboyant injection! A searing inoculation against this drab spring. I found my much-needed jolt after revisiting a luxe tie-dye top I wore in 2014 for an article about selfie sticks at Vogue. (That sentence harrowingly ages me.) The top by Proenza Schouler—now vintageish—has stayed with me ever since: It was made from slinky cotton that melted onto my body. Light, yet luscious. Soft as a palm that has never lifted a finger.
Of course, the hues! A tie-dyed blast of lavender and a touch of grasshopper green. Black and white stripes. A gorgeous, contrasting concoction that dripped off my body.
The Proenza tie-dye top stemmed from their resort 2009 collection. “Tie-dye is the perfect left-field
element,” designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez told Vogue in the June 2010 issue. “It has an organic quality, making it an ideal counterbalance to slick fashion.” An accompanying photo showed actor Kristen Stewart in a tie-dye Proenza runway look, and fashion powerhouses Vogue’s Virginia Smith in a wrung black and white top, and then-Teen Vogue’s Amy Astley in a radioactive lime green and black style. The haute psychedelic look was a hit.