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Okay, yes, sure, you love your family, your friends, and who doesn’t like a party? But at this point, isn’t enough very nearly enough? All around you, everyone you know—gay and straight, rich or poor, young or not so—is taking their vows, planning ceremonies on beaches, mountaintops, gold-plated banquet halls, picturesque shanties. And you, their dear friend, are in the pews, in the sand, in the weeds, guaranteed to weep as you always do at the first chords of the organ, or the first reedy notes from the lone guitarist—the bride’s cousin!—strumming the wedding march. Don’t let those tears make a return appearance when you get this month’s credit card bill. You want these wonderful weddings to be occasions of pure joy, not the gateway to personal bankruptcy. Then again, you do want to wear something festive, something gorgeous to these myriad affairs. Plus, all your friends know one another; you don’t want to show up in the same flimsy ensemble, again and again. Which is why, as our special midsummer gift to you, we have prepared this guide to wedding dressing on a budget: everything from charming dotted frocks to emerald satin slippers to gossamer feather earrings to sparkle-clasped clutches you will want to have and to hold from this day forth and forever.
Millions of travelers flock to Italy each year, often with one dish in mind: pasta. While true pasta fanatics would be wise to make a pilgrimage to Bologna for soul food tortellini in brodo and to Rome for its rich carbonara, if you find yourself in Florence, there are pasta treasures to be had. Tuscany (of which Florence is a part) is generally famous for panzanella, peasant soups like ribollita, game such as wild boar and guinea fowl, seafood tomato stews, tripe, and Florentine steaks. But there are plenty of fantastic restaurants serving up delectable bowls of pici, maccheroni, gnudi, tortelli, spaghetti, and pappardelle. So if you're craving a bowl of noodles, head to one of these seven spots, all conveniently located in the city's historical center:
Aralda Vintage wasn’t built on wheels. The shop’s founder, former model Brynn Jones, always imagined she’d be able to drive around the country selling her collection of long-forgotten ’90s Prada and ’70s Givenchy out of a refurbished food truck. Then in September of last year, reality hit. She realized she didn’t want to be away from home, from her boyfriend and her dog, traveling like a nomad with a car full of clothes. So, she partnered with her friend Lily Kaizer and started planning to open a proper brick-and-mortar vintage store in L.A. Kaizer found a space next to her bridal salon inside the famous 1950s-era shopping center Crossroads of the World in Hollywood. “A few months later, I got the keys to the space,” Jones explains. And just like that, Aralda found a permanent home. The whole concept actually began a few years back. “I really honed my thrifting skills when I was living in Hawaii as a penny-pinching college drop-out,” Jones says. “But Aralda started about two and a half years ago—after booking a couple of high-paying commercial jobs while modeling, I decided that I was going to use the money I made and put it toward this back-burner idea I’d toyed with since high school.” She started collecting vintage pieces and having them photographed on her peers; then she’d sell via email through her website. In April, Jones opened the official Aralda space and appointed her friend Lauren Hanawalt as CFO. Aside from the dreamy stock, which currently includes pieces like a No Doubt band tee, a red Bill Blass suit, magenta Prada slides, and a silk Halston blouse decorated with a telephone print, the space itself is something special too. “Lauren would meet me at the shop and we’d spend our weekends drinking beers and painting the walls,” Jones remembers. “I wanted it to be welcoming and beautiful, but not too serious—to be visually stimulating with a lot of gold!” Locally produced artwork hangs on the walls, and most of it is for sale. There are old Penthouse and I-D magazines on the shelves; vintage jewelry dotting the counters and inside the bathroom; “an all-purple ode to Princess Diana, stocked with tampons, floss, mints, hair ties, ring pops, and perfume).” As for the name of Jones’s passion project, “I thought of myself driving around the country solo in my vintage truck, and then I thought of my grandpa Aralda Jones.” She adds, “He lives in a trailer in the middle of a ghost town in Eureka, Utah. Every day he wears railroad stripe overalls, a polo shirt, and a navy blue bucket hat with slip-on sneakers. He’s the most interesting man I know, and I decided that Aralda Vintage was the perfect ode to the man who marches to the beat of his own drum.”
Chanel is known to take its brand around the globe—with some recent shows in Cuba and Tokyo—so it’s no surprise that the brand tapped Lucia Pica and her California travels as the inspiration for the brand’s latest makeup collection for the Fall. Last night, guests such as Amber Valletta, Yara Shahidi and Rowan Blanchard (who dawned an effortlessly smudged mix of eyeshadows not unlike the complexity of a California sunset) gathered with artists, designers, and the coolest set that Los Angeles has to offer at Capo in Santa Monica to toast Pica and Chanel’s latest beauty collection. Once guests arrived inside, the vaulted wooden ceiling and French bistro chairs created a scene that felt very Chanel-Goes-West, combining the California cool of the beachside locale with the iconically French brand. Laura Mulleavy, Max Farago, and Tali Lennox were among those who gathered to celebrate Pica, Chanel’s Global Creative Makeup and Color Designer, who created a palette of unexpected textures and shades to evoke the essence of California after being inspired by a recent visit to the Golden State. According to Pica, “makeup should never be used as a mask, only to enhance what is there,” which is the ethos that most California women embody when they choose their own day to day makeup looks.
Playing fair and square has taken on new meaning in yet another instance of fashion tapping a source without transparency. Look at the two images and it would be impossible to deny the near-identical resemblance; one features a photo from a series by artist Brad Troemel; the other, patchwork knit sweaters by Vika Gazinskaya from her Spring 2018 collection. Since Troemel posted the comparison to his Instagram on Sunday, there’s been no shortage of commentary—frankly, some quite hostile towards Gazinskaya—addressing an issue that seems to happen with surprising frequency, given how easy it is to trace, identify, and credit source material today. In the midst of the situation, and given that I had written the review, it seemed fair to approach both of them for their version of what happened, posing the same questions to each of them to remain as balanced as possible. But before proceeding, a little background on the concept behind Troemel’s series, Freecaching, which he exhibited at the Tomorrow Gallery (now Downs & Ross) in November, 2016. Upon realizing that he could no longer afford his studio in New York, he buried the contents in Central Park—but only after taking photos of the pieces and recording their exact locations. As a “certificate of authenticity” he created magnetized puzzles, with each side of each block featuring a randomized color, the geolocation of the buried piece, and an image of the artwork prior to burial, or a contract for ownership. What he exhibited were the jumbled versions—like a hanging version of an unsolved Rubik’s Cube. Ostensibly, collectors could choose to solve the puzzle and dig up the buried work; or they could leave the works stored in the ground and simply appreciate the puzzle for its striking visual impact.
Late last month, Saint Louis Fashion Incubator executive director Eric Johnson and Fashion Fund chair Susan Sherman hosted an intimate dinner with André Leon Talley following a discussion with the iconic figure on the state of design and the future of the industry. And this past weekend saw Talley return to the South for the Fashion Fund’s latest endeavor, a fashion show focused on gender-fluid dressing inspired by the Saint Louis Art Museum’s exhibition “Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear, 1715–2015.” Also taking in the show were Alexandra Kotur, while fashion-forward news journalist Tamron Hall swapped out her front row seat for a prime spot on the catwalk.
While summer undoubtedly calls for sandals, there are other alternatives that can better dress up off-duty attire. Just look to Martha Hunt to guide the way: When the Victoria’s Secret Angel stepped out to take her dog, Bear, for a walk in New York yesterday, she moved casual denim cutoffs and a tank top into polished new territory thanks to her simple ballet flats. This isn’t the first time Hunt has made the daily chore look cooler than usual. Last spring, she stepped out in equally classic Converse and jeans, and her latest outfit felt like an abbreviated version of the original. Hunt tucked a silky spaghetti strap top into denim shorts for a chic combination. She was smart to tote a cross-body bag with a playful tassel, leaving her hands free to hold onto her dog’s brown suede leash, which tied in nicely with Hunt’s own purse. Oversize hoop earrings were an eye-catching addition, while a bouquet of fresh sunflowers provided the ultimate summer finish.
New Mexico is having a moment. Its capital, Santa Fe, has long been known for its desert spas and rich Native American culture, but the city has lately become a destination for urban dwellers craving a little peace, solitude, and otherworldly scenery. Visvim’s Hiroki Nakamura and his wife, Kelsi, visit Santa Fe once a year—their friend Jed Foutz owns the gallery and store Shiprock Santa Fe—and when a Victorian house down the street became available, they felt it was the perfect setting for their first women’s-only Visvim store (also known as WMV Visvim). An unlikely location? Yes. But, as Nakamura says matter-of-factly: “We always like to do things differently.” Fans of the label might say that’s an understatement. While the duo’s peers may have leaned into the streetwear craze or over-the-top runway shows, Hiroki and Kelsi are as focused as ever on fabric development and artisanal techniques like hand-painted washi skirts, rare natural dyes, and other time-intensive crafts. Fittingly, the new Santa Fe store opened on the same weekend as the city’s annual International Folk Art Market festival, which brings artists and makers from around the world together to show and sell their work. “Our products have a connection to the culture in Santa Fe,” Nakamura says. “People here have an appreciation for crafts and things made by hand, so Jed suggested we open the store during the festival, when everyone is in town. Bigger cities like New York and Tokyo are more commercial [in terms of fashion], but here, it’s really culture- and art-oriented.” That translates to women’s fashion tastes, too. There’s a big demand for vintage clothes and casual, desert-friendly pieces—think lots of denim and breezy cotton. The light-filled store houses racks of the new WMV collection, as well as antique furniture and Japanese art, which is a first for the label. Much of the artwork dates back to the ’40s or ’50s and comes from Okinawa, an island in southern Japan, and the antique furniture is available to buy, as well. “All of the pieces have the same feeling [as our clothes], so we wanted to try showing them together,” Hiroki says. Adds Kelsi: “They’re just pieces we love.” It also speaks to Visvim’s core tenets: Japanese techniques and classic Americana—think jeans, moccasins, and leather jackets tweaked with artisanal details and crafts you can only find in Japan. Usually, the American vibes are more Western than East Coast, too; flip through the label’s recent men’s and women’s collections on Vogue Runway, and it’s easy to picture it all in Santa Fe. The Nakamuras have several stores in Japan, but this might be the most “Visvim” one yet, and you can expect more experimental retail concepts from them in the future.
Republicans have finally given up on voting on a bill to repeal President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. On Monday night, after weeks of failing to drum up enough support in the Senate to pass a Mitch McConnell–helmed legislative effort that promised to strip 22 million Americans of their health care in the name of a tax cut for the wealthy, the BCRA officially became DOA, when two Republican senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas, publicly declared they could not back the bill. The two joined Kentucky’s Rand Paul and Maine’s Susan Collins, who had already declared themselves against the bill as well. The two most recent defections, which effectively tanked any possibility of the bill’s passing, apparently happened as President Trump was hosting a dinner for some senators in the hopes of swaying them to his side. According to Politico, Trump told his guests: “We have the Senate, House, and White House, and we have to do it or we’re going to look terrible.” Before the dinner ended, Lee and Moran released their statements against the bill, and McConnell was forced to withdraw it. After news of their defections spread, Trump took to Twitter to weigh in on the failed effort. “Republicans should just REPEAL failing Obamacare now and work on a new health-care plan that will start from a clean slate,” he wrote on Monday night. He added this morning: “As I have always said, let Obamacare fail and then come together and do a great health-care plan. Stay tuned.” While the bill’s failure in the Senate is certainly a victory for those in support of the Affordable Care Act (and for the millions of Americans who get to keep their health insurance), McConnell has given no indication that he is ready to fully surrender. On Monday night, he announced his latest strategy: Instead of repeal and replace, the Senate majority leader is going to try to pass a full repeal and figure out the replacement aspect later on. In a statement drafted yesterday, McConnell promised a vote “in the coming days” on a 2015 House bill that called for a repeal of Obamacare (which President Obama then vetoed), with “a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period to a patient-centered health-care system that gives Americans access to quality, affordable care.” But experts warn that fully repealing the ACA without an alternative would leave millions without insurance overnight (back in 2015, the Congressional Budget Office predicted around 32 million people would lose their health care and premiums would go up 100 percent) and that a repeal-only bill could cause insurance markets to collapse—an option that is unlikely to gain favor among skeptical Republican senators. It’s left to see which road McConnell will try to go down. For now, the ACA remains in place, but if Trump’s tweets are anything to go by, his effort to dismantle Obama’s health-care legacy remains a priority—despite all indications that even his own party isn’t sold on the idea. “We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans,” he wrote. “Most Republicans were loyal, terrific, and worked really hard. We will return!”
Ah, summer. The much-anticipated time of year when it’s acceptable to kick off thigh-grazing boots and shimmy back into teeny-tiny tube tops. But of course, the season (and the skin-baring) doesn’t come without perils—namely in the form of a sunburn, which has been known to wreak havoc on even the most diligent of SPF appliers. So just how do you take care of your skin without sacrificing any time in the great outdoors? For answers, we turned to a handful of perfectly poreless It girls from South Korea—a country that’s practically become synonymous with skin care thanks to Koreans’ devotion to innovative products paired with equally innovative application methods. (Ever heard of the “7 Skin Method”?) Here, from unique layering techniques to a mattifying Korean sunscreen, a bevy of tips and tricks to keep burns at bay all year long.
