226/ What I'm Wearing no. 78

Dear readers,

Buongiorno from Sardinia, where I’m away with my sister. It’s rare for me to return to the same holiday destination, yet this is my third visit in four years. I can’t get enough of her aura and I’ll share why next week. (In the meantime, you can revisit my 2023 and 2024 visits.)

Fresh off another Paris market, menswear and couture season, I reread what I wrote in my 2023 post, and it feels just as true today:

Somehow all of the hype surrounding fashion week makes us feel like we should care, that it’s all relevant information that we, as followers of fashion, need be filing away in our mental fashion compendium lest we fall behind, become irrelevant, invisible, and die sad and alone. Ah, the power of marketing.

As a professional in this industry, I’ve asked myself what proportion of this information do I really need to retain to not only be effective at my job, but also to satisfy my own curiosity about a craft and medium I genuinely love. I’ve also asked myself, at what point are we producing too much, and too often?

Yesterday, I walked into the Prada at Porto Cervo and got up close and personal with two of the most photographed and wanted pieces of the AW23 collection. Now, this was a mere six hours after the SS24 show, as the photos were rolling in on WWD and Vogue, and as the reels of the new collection and its celebrity audience were excitedly being uploaded onto Instagram.

And I wondered, have these two gorgeous and intensively constructed garments — which made up countless editorial spreads, Instagram pixels, and inspired spin-offs (see again: Mango’s latest drop) — already been forgotten in favour of what just walked down the runway? All of the above noted (wo)man-power to making these two skirts happen — how much of it matters just six months later?

Here’s what I wore during the second half of Paris market week. (You can find the first half here). After a much-needed wash, I returned to my plan of wearing the same chino bermudas every day:

They lasted two wears before requiring another wash in the midst of the longest canicule France has ever recorded. Instead, I found a new way to wear this Elenareva dress by gathering the fabric at the waist and securing it with my new Bevza brooch.

As always, What I’m Wearing is free for all readers. To continue reading my round-up of Paris market week, become a paid subscriber today.