This past weekend Ben and I spent a few days upstate at the Pocketbook Hotel in Hudson, which is “housed in a renovated 19th-century pocketbook factory that was originally a textile mill,” reported by Vogue. We got to experience two different rooms, one more intimately sized and the other a quite substantial duplex, but what each room shared was the Industrialist interiors with the stainless steel finishes and dimmed lighting.
What really piqued my interested about the hotel was the onsite bathhouse that sit below the actual hotel in it’s own little factory building. I booked massages for our second day there, but Ben and I couldn’t wait to experience the baths, so once we had gone into town for lunch and a quick shopping reprieve at Jamestown (I got the Dosa slip dress of my dreams, on sale no less! As well as hotel silver coasters, a match holder, and French linen napkins from a vintage store I can’t remember the name of, but it is on Warren Street not that far from Jamestown), we chucked on our swimsuits and bathrobes and headed down and spent a little over an hour soaking and plunging and doing it all over again before we got dressed for dinner at the hotel restaurant Ambos.
Hudson, and upstate in general, truly rivals New York in the realm of shopping and food, which is something I learned quickly from my brief stint in the Catskills. If you are finding it hard to shop in NYC, there is most likely a newish store or boutique opening its doors upstate, like Routine Pleasure in Woodstock (I sadly didn’t make it over on this trip). If you are longing for well-done simple food where the prices are no less high but you somewhat justify handing over $40 for a fillet of fish, you have Stissing House (home of the best coconut cake I HAVE EVER HAD!!!!). And to be honest even if you can’t fathom renting a car and bopping from Hudson to Woodstock to Kingston, and perhaps venturing to Massachusetts to Brimfield, all in the pursuit of finding things, staying at Pocketbook allows you to do all the pursuing you expect to do upstate without leaving your hotel. On each floor of the hotel there are shops, with the one on the third floor focusing on interiors (I finally got my hands on a Wilhelm Kåge vase that was not an arm and a leg). On the second floor is Kasuri, which from my understanding has relocated into the hotel and stepped away from their brick-and-motor shop (there’s also a tattoo parlor in the back of Kasuri, which is for sure a first for me), and in the basement is a concept shop that sales a bit of everything: clothes, vintage magazines, fresh produce, kitchenware, and etc. Needless, to say, I helped stimulate the Hudson economy this weekend!
Today’s send-out is much more RTW-focused than it has been for the past few issues. Fall is beginning to trickle in, and whatever clothing fatigue that crept in at the beginning of the month is staring to dissipate, with Meryll Rogge’s Marni starting to land in stores, as well as the fact that I actually found a sizable hole in my closet which we will discussed in today’s newsletter!
My skin drinks up moisturizer like no one’s business, so I am always on the hunt for a good moisturizer that will keep the dryness at bay. I’m trying out a few products from the brand Aunu, which uses Comvita™ Medihoney® medical-grade Mānuka honey in all their products. I’ve been applying this moisturizer right before I go to bed, and I wake up feeling plump and refreshed, and it smells great too!
I’m really a sucker for a good slip dress, and Doen is, in many ways, the queen of not only fantastic slip dresses but skirts as well. This powdery blue number is from their latest fall drop, and I fell in love with it because of the decorative peplum ruffles at the waist. I wore it this weekend with my apron (which I can’t get enough of!) and my Prada crisscross sandals, which really provide a needed ease to any look.
It takes a lot for me to go gaga for a bag, with the last time in recorded history being a month or so ago when I swooned over this basket from Tory Burch. Though I, like anyone else, love a good bag, when I think about the pieces that I am more willing to spend money on, it usually goes towards shoes or jewelry, and I tend to just use the same bags over and over again. I saw this bag on Instagram somehow (the algorithm really knows my taste!), and I adored it for the simple fact that it’s raffia (just like I’m a sucker for a slip dress, show me a raffia bag and I’m sold). Also, it’s extremely versatile, with there being four sets of hooks for you to attach the strap, so you can wear it almost like a feedbag, or you can hook the straps in the middle and slump the top over, and you have yourself a messenger bag… which is primed for a comeback.
One of the stores that was on my list of places I had to visit while in Hudson was B Sides, which opened up on Warren Street, funny enough, in a building I was in last year where I bought a pair of metal candle holders that I’m currently trying to get rid of, but I digress. I went in because I wanted to try on these pants that reminded me of the French work pants I have but updated ever so slightly (spoiler alert: they actually looked better on Ben than myself), but I was also curious about these T-shirts I had seen on their website that reminded me of the double T-shirts I saw in the Niceness showroom this summer. The T-shirts cling to the body, which is something I usually don’t gravitate towards, but there was something about this particular hue of blue and the way it did hug and accentuate my body that really made me want to start wearing tighter clothes. It’s the type of T-shirt I imagine all the guys in Andrew Holleran’s Dancer from the Dance would wear.
$240 at B Sides | $240 at Shopbop
On the topic of tighter fits, I’ve been thinking a lot about a slim-fitting denim jacket to really channel more of a late ’70s rocker look and feel. I really like this one from Jeanerica, mainly because it doesn’t feel like your run-of-the-mill denim jacket, with the slanted pockets and the top flap pockets, which have more of a military feel to me. I like the idea of wearing this with a slim-fitting flannel and a white skirt.
I remember hearing about God’s True Cashmere when I was first at Saks, and at the time of their launch, as the name implies, they were only offering cashmere pieces, mostly flannels that were quite beautiful with rich, colorful plaids, but the price was and is quite steep. When I saw the brand while I was in Paris, I was gobsmacked by their linen shirts, which offered the same look and feel of their cashmere flannels but rendered in a different fabric and, the best part, at a fraction of the price. However, what really stopped me in my tracks were the gemstone buttons that are a part of all the pieces, and it just feels like you are wearing a piece of jewelry without having to necessarily put anything on but your top.
$990 at MyTheresa | $990 at Mr. Porter
For the past few weeks, when I have been getting dressed or packing for a quick trip, the thing I keep searching for and realizing I don’t have, and kicking myself for not having, is a nice pair of pleated khaki shorts. To be fair, I did buy a pair of vintage pleated Chaps a few years ago, but I mutilated them and cut them too short to the point I looked like a park ranger, and that’s not the look for me, at least. I now want to reenter the ring, but it’s all a matter of what’s the right pair? I have a few contenders:
Land’s End 9” Pleated Front Chino Short [47.97]- What I like about this pair: the grey coloring and the straight leg.
Banana Republic Archive Reissue 8” Pleated Short [$69]- This is the pair that I will most likely go with. It’s the quintessential take on the short, from the coloring to the pleats and the fact that it will hit just above the knee.
Gap 6” Mid Rise Twill Pleated Trouser Shorts [$49]- These are the shortest in the bunch, which I quite like, and I find the additional front flap quite adorable, and it feels quite vintage.
Tune in this Friday for another one of my more styling-forward posts (like such), where we will discuss the cummerbund, yay or nay?
That’s all from moi, talk soon!
JJ
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