Today I’m wearing a sweatshirt in a color that perfectly mixes our autumn palette’sKingfisher and Marine Navy, with a hint of Peacock.
Some might say it’s just turquoise.
I say it’s a vintage 90s deep teal, and it may as well be covered in tears. I picked up this used sweatshirt from Etsy in a whirlwind of purchases after I learned (too late) that my beloved Fila has closed its U.S. operations. Fila was my go-to late-night shopping indulgence, my yearly birthday shoes, my dye bases, my every sweatpant short. I own three Grant Hills. What do I do now?!
Fila’s U.S. website says they’re “taking a break,” but I don’t trust they’ll be back any time soon.
So, what’s your favorite fashion brand these days?
Love,
Em
P.S. Also… do you have any recommendations for a nostalgic, sporty streetwear brand with cloud-comfort, ostentatious shoes and any hope of purchasing in the U.S.?
After over a year, I’m still figuring out how to best navigate life as a Soft Autumn.
Muted earth tones are very hard to find outside of a sandy beach. Like, when picturing a brown shirt, you may think of a deep, rich chocolate or a warm, sophisticated cinnamon. Now take that clean top off the hanger and throw it directly in the middle of any beach. Let the elements and wildlife take hold: sun bleaching, sand muck, various species of urine, “accidents.” After a year, this once brown garment will arrive at a shade of dusky filth that’ll make my olive skin glow. Soft Autumn is the post-apocalyptic glamour.
Thankfully, the lovely folks at Pantone have removed these extra, unsanitary steps by releasing their 2025 Color of the Year: Mocha Mousse 17-1230. I feel seen.
Pantone recently announced their color of the year: PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz. It’s not simply Peach, not Warm Blush, not 1980’s Shell, not even Tawny Sunset. It’s Peach_Fuzz. That load-bearing space between Peach and Fuzz does nothing to make me forget KMD’s “Peachfuzz.”
To me,Peachfuzz (or, I guess, Peach Fuzz) can only ever be the insult used for teasing someone who can’t yet grow in their hair. Period.
The thing is, this Pantone color, this particular shade of peach, is pretty.
It deserves a name that doesn’t conjure up playground ribbing. If you absolutely can’t just call a color of the year by its singular name, Peach, then I suggest:
#1: PANTONE 13-1023 Cherie Wins Miss Adorable Dress
I guess I just prefer the name of a color to conjure up thoughts of Mr. Andy Gibb pairing a sequin blazer with red leather pants, while crowning the clear winner of Miss Adorable. Margaux’s “I’m strictly a female female” be damned.
What do you think? Will you wear Peach Fuzz this year? If you do and if you feel compelled to rub your chin, think of Cherie winning Miss Adorable in that fabulous dress and your posture may become regal.
Spooky season is in the air, and I’m here for it. Through the recent years, my Halloween costumes were usually decided by two factors: 1) What does my hair currently look like, and 2) What was I wearing when someone said to me, “You look like so-and-so in that outfit.” Then, any Halloween costume purchasing just boiled down to some accessories, but mostly shopping my own closet.
After someone told me my summer dress reminded them of The Wizard of Oz, I couldn’t unsee it. Then, a couple years ago, Halloween fell on the same night as a local event, “Witches Night Out,” an evening where folks visit the downtown shops dressed as witches. I dressed as Dorothy Gale.
This is me as Miss Frizzle, wearing my outer space sweatshirt with a Valentino-inspired print that cannot be worn with a skirt. Wearing this sweatshirt with a skirt means I will be getting Magic School Bus comments all day. In addition to a skirt, I paired this Halloween costume with school bus socks, a Liz, and curled hair, using the tiniest curling iron I could find on the open market.
This is me as a background actor in Midsommar. Evil. Pure evil. The costume idea started with the floral head wreath, which I picked up at a Renaissance fair. Did you clock the pin?
I thought I was getting quite the deal, purchasing this tan Tory Burch dress from Poshmark, but I soon realized my error when I received a couple Troop Beverly Hills comments. Harrumph. I admittedly used this scout leader costume a couple times. I was never a Girl Scout growing up, so I had to guess at the patches and pins to put on my sash: Bert and Ernie, shoes, tarot cards, rainbow, eyes, death.
I won a costume contest with this Moira Rose look. I think reciting her wine commercial helped. This was a costume I actively chose to compile and had most of the necessary pieces, including the necklace. I did get the wig, lipstick, and matching lip pencil especially.
Top (Brooks Brothers) | Dress (Modern Citizen) | Wig (Amazon) | Lipstick and Lip Pencil in “Ruby Woo” (MAC) | Necklace (a gift from Pete from a shop in Milwaukee that’s no longer around)
This was a last-minute costume. I’m The Sun tarot card; complete with curling-iron-burned forehead. I initially got the headband for the Moira costume, but then found I didn’t need it. For this look, I just pulled everything I owned that was yellow or gold.
For this year, in the brief moments of platinum hair, I made plans to be Principal Weems from Wednesday: grey all-business dress, broach, chignon, disdain. Now that I’m back to mostly brunette, I switched to Holly Hobbie: patchwork dress (which sparked the idea), 70’s colors, bonnet, pride pin. If only I could be as cool as this:
Do you have plans for a costume this year?
Love,
Em
P.S. To get in the spooky mood, Pete and I are watching Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone and Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone. I hope I don’t wake up one day to realize that I’m actually a statue or a turnip or something. Although, those would make good Halloween costumes.
It’s hot; I’m hot; we’re hot, so indoor reading is the theme of my late summer days. I like to simultaneously read a mix of books; a variety that harmonizes or enchantingly conflicts with each other. Here’s my current list.
Chapterhouse: Dune
I recently read Chapterhouse: Dune, the sixth book in Frank Herbert’s Dune series, and now I’m listening to it on Audiobook. Characters are often equal parts hero and villain; human and other. It’s a wonderful, open ending to a complex world that Frank was unable to finish in a planned seventh book before his passing. I’ve dipped into his son, Brian Herbert’s, sequels, and I’m attempting to appreciate them for what they are: plot-focused fan fiction or a dramatization of an outline. Brian’s books may answer questions, but they’re just not the same as Frank’s contemplations.
The Friendship Breakup
Annie Cathryn’s novel, The Friendship Breakup, is delightful “why-aren’t-you-texting-me-back” realness and its depictions of chocolate make me want to add “candy isle” to my grocery list. Full discloser: I met the author, a fellow Chicagoland writer, and she’s lovely. After finishing The Friendship Breakup, it will also be consumed via Audiobook.
The Artist’s Way
Energized by a recent Huge Witch moon reading, I’m building discipline in my creative pursuits, starting with practicing Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. A friend gave me this book a while back, and its whispers of “read me” have slowly increased to an unignorable “READ ME ALREADY!”. The first (and consistently present) assignment—Morning Pages—include hand writing three pages first thing in the morning. When my alarm goes off, I think, “Bring me… blue pages;” Myst’s Achenar “must have… the blue pages.” I’m in.
Next on the list is The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G. K. Chesterton, a “metaphysical thriller” just in time for spooky season. As a side note, for Halloween this year I plan to be my version of Holly Hobby: bonnet, patchwork dress, 70’s color story, pride flag pin.
Are you reading anything interesting while avoiding the sun? Will the copy of Modellandthat I sent you make the short list?
The first time I dyed the sweatshirt, I didn’t know what I was doing. I reused a dye mix from a batch earlier that day, just let it soak for half the time, only added half the bottle, and didn’t use a dye fixative. You must use a dye fixative unless you want the color (and your hard work) to ooze out. For a short while, I tried to convince myself that the dyed sweatshirt looked like an artisanal tea neutral, but soon realized that it too closely resembled my pale skin tone; I felt like I was in a Cronenberg body horror where I finally became one with Fila. It’ll happen someday. After the second, more deliberate, attempt, the sweatshirt is now a true dark brown.
Using dark brown again, I changed this beloved THE KIT top from “smokey lilac” to a brownish, smokier lilac. The Potato Professor background is also still beloved and continues to make an appearance.
As another win (and maybe the favorite), I dyed my Thakoon for Target dress a Sage green. The original print thankfully still comes through.
My foray into non-brown or green colors has proven less successful in my attempts to autumn-up my wardrobe. The swatches below show a dress’s fabric turned from a black/white/brown print to an intended deep eggplant (but now fuchsia).
Do you know any Clear Winters who need a flowy summer dress? Fuchsia / haute pink is all the rage.
Love,
Em
P.S. A lot of my Fila love comes from my switch to ostentatious flats after my first MS attack and the need for the comfiest fashion shoes ever. Disease Is a Mirror, my lyric memoir about diagnosis, publishes as an eBook on October 3, 2023 and includes excerpts from our DorEm Answers shenanigans. Save the date.
DorEm Answers 