spinning my cashmere cocoon
my current favorite silhouette is, to no one's surprise, a giant cocoon
Quick update! I’ve decided to shake things up a little and rename this newsletter (formerly “things i probably wrote in caffe aroma”) to more formally pivot into mostly fashion discourse. I also plan to send newsletters weekly and include some more practical shopping info, such as upcoming collabs, big sales, and new brands that I discover. Please comment any feedback you have for this little rebrand/what you’d like to see more of/whatever you feel like sharing because I’d love for the comments to become a little forum and community. We’ll see! No pressure! Thanks so much as always for reading. 🧡
When I was really going through it, I used to describe myself as having a “personality breakout.” Personality pustules. I wanted to be different but I wasn’t yet and so I thought maybe I should just wait to be around anyone until my breakout cleared up, but mood swings are cyclical (just like acne so the metaphor really was apt) and everyone knows you can’t wait until you’re perfect to do anything because you’re never perfect. Rats!
I then became obsessed with the idea of swaddling myself in a cocoon and awaiting a metamorphosis into some beautiful, fully-actualized, new creature. Again, not how it works! But it’s a comforting daydream. Sometimes just envisioning that golden transformation — so bright it’s like the sun exploding — was enough to make me feel just a bit better.
The closest I’ve ever come to living out that daydream is when I’m wearing my cashmere cocoon coat.
First, I just have to get this off my chest: It’s very fancy. So fancy that it makes me uncomfortable because I’m really not a fancy person and I don’t have fancy person money… but I do enjoy fancy things from time to time when I can get a good deal. I was raised in a garage saling/thrifting/garbage picking family, so I know fancy can come at a Target price tag if you search long enough. Alright I’ll spit it out. My coat is from The Row (!!) via The RealReal. TRR photographed it in really unflattering lighting and it just kept getting super discounted and I snatched it up for a teeny tiny itsy bitsy fraction of its retail cost and it’s been mine for a few hot summer months and she’s perfect and honestly now who cares if I’ve got a little pimple or two, I’m in double-face cashmere baby!
So yes, I got a cocoon coat — the next best thing to being a chrysalis — and now I envelop myself in a gorgeous safety blanket. (It’s not the most cocoon coat to ever cocoon. It’s more like a cocoon/cape hybrid and it has a cartoonishly high neck that can be worn up in an avant-garde way or rolled down for practicality.) Here she is:
There’s something undeniably cool about a cocoon’s shapeless profile, like you truly just threw it on, but also like you’re on your way to the opera. It’s both effortless and effortful and that conflict is sexy. The yin and yang of masculine/feminine. Casual/over-the-top. Kinda mysterious.
Cocoons in fashion have been around for a while, so there’s no shortage of them secondhand on the internet (so many good vintage wool cocoon coats on Etsy!) and probably at your local thrift store. They were big recently in the early 2010s — a time period that is definitely experiencing a sartorial resurgence, “recessioncore,” and conveniently also the time period in which I first discovered fashion so maybe its trends will remain cool to me forever — and that’s when my cocoon coat was born (2014).
Cocoons have a place in “quiet luxury,” I guess, though the shape is IMO more interesting than a lot of the trends in the current narrative. More of the attention (not that I’m complaining) seems to go to the sharp and bold tailoring of trousers and blazers, along with the idea of wearing the perfect white tank with the Goldilocks-like, elusive pair of just-right Levi’s. But the inspo girls all wore cocoons! And I have the receipts.
It took me a little while to identify my love of cocoons specifically. Before I would have referred to the shape vaguely as “oversized,” but through making a style collage on Freeform (s/o Jenny Bourn for the idea/tutorial on making a collage on the app, which is a more freestyle Pinterest), I identified the exact silhouette that currently excites me. It’s shapeless and it ends around the hips, or if it’s longer then it curves at the bottom like a bell, and it often includes a high neck that is flowier than a turtleneck but not as drapey as a cowl and it has a distinctive careless feeling to it, wherein the wearer doesn’t look so put-together as one would in a more tailored coat. It’s balanced. Vintage and modern.
A portion of my current Freeform style moodboard. I’m really a one-trick pony! Just drape me in as much fabric as possible and I’ll move through the world like a human clothing rack.
My body shape has become my little secret, but not really on purpose. (Probably partly on purpose.) I’m sure there are a hundred tiny reasons behind my decision to dress like a nun/Hogwarts student/Mary-Kate Olsen but the foremost reason is that I think shapeless, high-necked items are chic and the second reason is that they’re comfortable and the third reason, okay fine, is probably insecurity. No, the third reason is that I really do want to look like Mary-Kate Olsen (not really a nun) and the fourth reason is insecurity. That seems right.
I’m late to the party, or maybe this is a party that never lets up, but I’ve been obsessed with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s style recently like never before. I was also, at one point, early to this party, because when I was around six, I convinced my friends to obsess over Mary-Kate and Ashley with me and form an informal club, The Mary-Kate and Ashley Club. I had their toys and their Walmart clothes and their books and VHS tapes and I loved it all. They went on to design the pinnacle of oversized chic clothing for their brand, The Row, so maybe they influenced me all the way back then? But no, they weren’t wearing turtlenecks back then. It was 2003. They were wearing frilly going-out tops and beachy, halter neck dresses. For a while now, they’ve become the blueprint for the draped-in-the-most-beautiful-fabric-you’ve-ever-seen aesthetic.
The thing about the Olsen twins’ style, or the thing in which I’m most interested, is its ease. The long lines of their coats, their obviously lived-in leather bags and shoes, and their comfortable, oversized clothing all scream ease. Of course, a huge factor in the Olsen twins’ clothing looking as superb as is does is the quality, and often price. But when you can find The Row secondhand on The RealReal for the price of Madewell, and generally shop secondhand online for quality pieces made of natural fibers for a fraction of the cost, then their style becomes a little easier to imitate (never copy).
Back to ease — maybe it’s because I’m getting older, and maybe it’s because of the current trend cycle, and maybe it’s because of my anxiety, but I want my style to convey ease right now. Again, I could be compensating for my nervous personality, but I’m in a phase of wanting my outfits to project maturity, creativity, and ease. I also understand the minimalist, all-black aesthetic more now. If I used to find it boring, now I find it kinda smart.
It was Amy Smilovic, creative director/founder of the clothing brand Tibi, who got me thinking about ease. She speaks a lot about ease during her weekly Instagram live series about the fundamentals of styling. Smilovic always looks effortless, even as she breaks down the meticulous effort that went into designing and styling of all of her clothes. It’s her whole life’s work, yet if you ran into her on the Subway you’d think she just threw her clothes on and ran out the door, because that’s the point. It’s chill. It’s EASY. When your clothes look chill and easy, you look chill and easy. And isn’t that appealing for neurotic and complicated people like me?
That said, you should always add a twist. 🎭
Stuff you should know: Uniqlo drops a new collab at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning (Sept. 15), Uniqlo C, with British designer Clare Waight Keller. (Is C for cocoon?? lol it actually stands for all these things, “casual and chic, city, clarity, connection, capsule, connectivity, creativity” which like, yeah go off!) But there are quite a few half-moon, cocoon-like shapes in the collection, including a faux leather, oversized version of Uniqlo’s classic crescent bag and a lot of drop shoulders and curved sleeves. Standouts for me include a double-face cashmere wrap coat, a chiffon, drop-waist dress in a few good colors/patterns (they’ve styled it in a way that could weasel its way onto my Freeform board!), these boots that probably aren’t the best quality? (I don’t know though. They’re fake leather. It’s Uniqlo’s first time doing shoes.) but are an unbeatable price, and that bag. I do like that bag. Also, Target’s recent collab with Instagram darling Reese Blutstein (@double3exposure, a favorite follow for sure) is gooood for Target. Especially impressed with the gray high-neck sweater that zips both ways (pictured below) and the brown saddle pants that I got. More items are dropping Sept. 17 and at least once again before Halloween. This satin slip dress would be nice to have on hand for styling various outfits if you’ve managed to make it to fall 2023 without already buying one, plus it comes in a very in-season butter yellow. (More on collabs coming in the next newsletter ;)
Happy fall! xx, Francesca
Love the idea of how when your clothes look chill and easy, you look chill and easy!! I need more of that! I love this!!!
i am SO excited about this direction for the newsletter!! Many of the conversations we've had have been so impactful in how i think about fashion as an industry but also on a very personal level. You have a wealth of knowledge and I'm so excited to DRINK IT UP