Rando Report: A Tory Burch Video, a Killer Flat, Scary Basement TikTok Bros, and More
Also, Emilia Petrarca's full audio interview.
Today on #NEVERWORNS is somewhat of a media recap…can I call it that? Anyways, some fun things with Tory Burch that I did for spring that I’m releasing in the lead-up to the next show, as well as a mention in Financial Times about these Claire flats and a link in Lauren Sherman’s Puck about…the DKNY/NYC book piece! Stay tuned for Closet Psyche this coming Friday with a delicious British friend and the saga around a breakup buy.
#1 Tory Burchified….Above is a long belated video for Tory Burch spring 2024 where I go around and interview people at the show in the mammoth Gilder Center of The Museum of Natural History. Those I tapped included my former boss Chioma Nnadi who is now the Head of Editorial Content at British Vogue and former Vogue Creative Digital Director Sally Singer who is now the president of Art + Commerce. They understand clothes; they understand women! There is writer Lynn Yaeger, Washington Post’s Rachel Tashjian, and watch connoisseur Brynn Wallner of Dimepiece. My birthday twin singer Kilo Kish is here…we did a shopping story for Vogue in 2021 together! Emily Ratajkowski is also present…but I’m unsure how we left that conversation? Jokes aside…it was such a fun time.
At this point, I’d been watching a lot of old videos from fashion journalist Lauren Ezersky of Behind the Velvet Ropes who I wrote about for Vogue in 2022, and also Elsa Klensch’s in-depth series for CNN. This Tory video is more a one-off show coverage release but I like that visual brain David Vo and I dig a bit deeper than only the clothes on the runway. You can really see the guests. I have an interview series with Tory herself, too, which I will drop before the show on February 12th.
On the Claire flat…
If you look closely in the backstage video, you’ll see I’m wearing the Tory Burch Claire flats. I wear them with everything. The Claire flat, which is an updated version of the Reva flat, is one of those wardrobe staples that we have the power to transform into whatever we want it to be. The shoe is like a classic Chanel bag; a tabula rasa accessory. It’s up to you how you want to define the piece. Note: Chantal Fernandez wrote a piece on Tory Burch for The Financial Times and quoted the whole “bury-me-in-these-flats” moment.
So just how far can we push the Tory Burch Claire flat? One day, I went to a MadeMe shoot for the label’s babelicious yearbook project. MadeMe is by Erin Magee who is also at Supreme. She boasts a killer buzz cut, has a three-piece Jean Paul Gaultier pantsuit from her early New York days, and can probably beat me arm wrestling. She’s also the coolest mom. I love the clothes, too: I have a pair of light-as-a-feather, wire-rimmed sunglasses by MadeMe that I wear all the time. MadeMe has been branded as streetwear for girls but in my mind, I’d say it’s really bitchy, bold, and ferociously gives its wearers a smoldering don’t-test-me effect: Great zip-up hoodies that read “Psychotic State”, cropped denim jackets with tiered O-ring details up the sleeves, and a sassy little logo T-shirts.
Anyways, a few months ago, I had just finished with a Tory Burch project across the street from where Erin was holding the shoot I was supposed to be in. When I got there, Erin told me to keep my Claire flats on for the shoot…and I wore the medallion flats with the slouchiest, nastiest pair of Madame stonewashed carpenter jeans. The next day, I sported the flats with a pair of vintage python print Tom Ford-era Gucci pants from spring 2000. The shoe has long been the Midtown flat du jour for corporate ladder-climbing women but I love that I have the power to subvert the footwear’s cubicle-core associations and inject some freak into them, whether that is by way of a pair of peel-them-off animal print flares or XXL wide-leg jeans. The Tory Burch flat is the most fluid shoe! Go for it.
#2
UNCENSORED. The full NEVERWORNS x Emilia Petrarca chat is here if you’d like to take a listen. We did about one hour of shooting the actual #NEVERWORNS episode, which you can watch for 20 minutes but I also decided to keep our lavalier microphones on and record the whole interview sans major cuts for audio. I loved to learn about Emilia because I know her from mainly from her work and seeing her at events. In the audio, you can hear more about her career trajectory, those massive Prada clown shoes, the uniform influence of her Brooklyn prep school, and more. Listen right below…#3 Remember Max? The single, carrot-engulfing man who stole the internet’s heart? The soft-spoken handsome ex-online poker player who had too many SSENSE sale items and lived in Chicago? Where I traveled to and cleansed his closet? Rummaged through hundreds of his Einstein t-shirts, Beta Carotene-themed merch, and Loro Piana cashmere sweaters? Sure ya do! Oh yeah, then we drove over 800 miles from Chicago to New York to put on a sale of all of his #NEVERWORNS at Colbo.
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The story just keeps…going. Anyways, I put one of our interactions up on TikTok. Mind you, I’ve known Max for quite some time…we are friends. While diving into one of his clothes piles, I found a Doublet College Shibori Hoodie (it’s selling for $1,300 on Grailed) that he had never wore and had gotten it over year ago. Tag.Still.On. In the video, I told him to part with it. I was immediately attacked by thousands of men who thought I was his wife/girlfriend and they didn’t appreciate how I was speaking to Max. My tone was a little…dry? Little did they know…Max and I are not dating and he was egging me on. Try explaining that to a zillion outraged bros! TikTok is weird in the sense in that it can feel more difficult to tell a story, or perhaps the audience can become way more random very quickly than on Instagram. Kind of scary?! The Doublet is still safe though and we will be selling it here, too.
#4 Research is fun. Thank you Lauren Sherman of Puck for mentioning the piece on Donna Karan’s DKNY/NYC book from 1994. I love Substack because I can get freaky with writing about random things that I’m into…but that’s why we all came here…right?!
#5 A great #NEVERWORNS episode is coming. It’s about a hardcore collector of a certain brand…you might have seen a sneak peak on my Instagram. The person is parting with their archive and it will be for sale on here…so stay tuned. Peep the hint in the photo below.
That’s all till Friday!
those Tory Burch flats are proof of what we all knew in the late 00s-early 2010s i.e. there is so much freak potential in a good won't-shock-your-granny shoe.
and yeah, Tiktok. I can't say I'm surprised lol people do get like that and context isn't always a strong suit. But Max's Doublet shibori hoodie is amazing, it looks like a wearable durian and I hope it goes to a home where it'll finally lose that #neverworn status! Looking forward to listening to the full audio of Emilia's episode too <3
TikTok is a special place
https://nypost.com/2023/08/09/tiktok-influencers-claim-carrots-are-a-skin-hack-to-get-tan/