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Thoughts on American Love Story, the culotte renaissance, and a sale at A.W.A.K.E. Mode. Welcome to The HALO Report — HALOSCOPE’s new weekly digest, an of-the-moment mix of news items, opinion pieces, and sale announcements designed to keep you posted on the nitty-gritty of the fashion world and all of its tangents without having to keep a constant eye on your feed.  This week, we will not let Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy rest (apparently), big movements on the bedding front, Morticia Addams beachwear, and the ultimate summer bloomers are on sale, and more. The latest long-ish reads from the brightest minds in fashion. “ Elements of Style: Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy ” by Vogue ’s Hannah Jackson is a great read for anyone befuddled as to why the sneak peeks of Ryan Murphy’s new CBK-focused series are drawing such ire for their flimsy sartorial showings, and a solid primer on the impacts the woman herself continues to have on the quiet luxury side of the fashion world, for better or worse.  Brain Matter ’s Gabriella Karefa-Johnson weighs in with “ The Bessette-Kennedy Betrayal ,” offering even more specific insight as to why the show’s wardrobe has disappointed viewers months before its official release.  On the other hand, Brynn Wallner from The Dimepiece Dispatch  has much to say about how “ Timex and I revived a watch from the '90s ,” JFK Jr.’s to be exact — an interesting look at the kind of granular detail that goes into making a tribute outfit brimming with je ne sais quoi as opposed to a paltry cosplay.  Unsurprisingly, following the capri resurgence, Vogue  proclaims “ Culottes Are Back! 5 Modern Ways to Wear the Nostalgic Trend ” in an article by Cortne Bonilla. Somehow, seersucker enters the chat.  The Vogue mastermind Laia Garcia-Furtado answers an age-old quandary with “ Addressed: How to Dress When It’s Hot Outside and Freezing in Your Office .” Hint: Look to the ‘80s for inspiration.  What to keep in mind — and look forward to — in the past and coming weeks. Tigra Tigra breaks into home ware with a new collection  of delightfully dotty quilts and shams, all characteristically quirky as per the brand’s clothing ethos and all hewn in its signature silk mashroo.  Also on the home front, Tekla shakes up its skater-surfer-sleeper formula with more feminine broderie anglaise bedding  featuring delicate eyelet and ruffle detailing.  Extreme Cashmere has come to Maimoun , serving up prime summer knits in the form of tiny tops with huge statement hems and sumptuous skirts that gather at the hips.   Baserange gives us a peek into the coming seasons with its new autumn collection , featuring plaid poplin, silky cheetah print, cornflower blue satin, and more in forms ranging from underwear to formalwear.  A teensy collab between Palorosa x Pura Utz  results in what could be named the carabiners of the season, delicately woven and beaded by hand.    Less about impulse buys — and more about tracking discounts on the pieces already on your wishlist.  Find high heels that look like flotation devices, strapless tops hewn from torn-up football jerseys, trompe l’oeil T-shirts, and more from under-the-radar brands like Fey Fey Worldwide and Renata Brenha, all for deep discounts, in the Two Two summer sale.  The A.W.A.K.E. Mode summer sale  is potentially the best place on the internet to pick up a last-minute wedding guest dress at a discount, if you’re freaky enough to pick a drapey chartreuse number or a Morticia Addams-goes-to-the-beach-type crocheted gown. There are even a few white dresses that would make incredible elopement or City Hall bridalwear for sub-$400.  Use LUTZSUMMERSALES25 to access the sitewide Lutz Huelle 40% off summer sale , offering batty businesswear and gently bizarre going-out tops alike.  Grab a summer’s worth of cotton bloomers and other cutesy Copenhagen-based loungewear in the Odd Existence archive sale.  On the more masculine side of things, the A-COLD-WALL* seasonal sale  offers deconstructed athleisure, techy outerwear, and perfectly androgynous (and sporty) tote/purse hybrids at a discount. 🌀 Em Seely-Katz is the creator of the fashion blog Esque, the News Editor of HALOSCOPE, and a writer, stylist, and anime-watcher about town. You can usually find them writing copy for niche perfume houses or making awful collages at @that.esque on Instagram.

“I wasted two whole days on our vacation pursuing this bag that I probably never was gonna get in the first place.” “The Hermès game is literally so embarrassing,” says influencer Hannah Chody  in  a TikTok video during a trip to Paris.  “I just walked into a boutique for, like, the sixth time in three days asking them to take my money. I am literally begging them, at this point.”  Six months later, now with an etoupe Birkin 25 in hand, Chody sat down to divulge all the details of how she finally scored her dream bag in Milan to her 200K followers. “That's the tea,” she says with a smile. “What should I put on my wishlist next, guys?”  Chody isn’t the only creator pulling back the curtain on shopping at Hermès, the French luxury brand well-known for making its customers jump through hoops to spend tens of thousands of dollars. In another video  with over 7 million views, influencer Audrey Peters  documents what it’s like to be offered a Hermès Kelly, recording inside a private room while the bag, a vert criquet Kelly 25, is unboxed by a gloved sales associate. “Wait so you just can’t walk into a store and buy something?” writes one commenter. “Sorry I’m poor haha.”  40 years since the Birkin’s debut and close to 100 since the Kelly’s, these purses have evolved from mere handbags into the ultimate status signifiers, signaling that the person wearing them has achieved the ultimate prize (and seemingly spent a large amount of money and time at Hermès in pursuit of it). They’ve stopped by boutiques to chat with their sales associate, bought copious amounts of Oran sandals and enamel bangles and even a piece of Ready-to-Wear or two, all of which finally amounted to the offer. Because you can’t just walk into a boutique and buy a Birkin or a Kelly – they have to be offered to you.  While this exclusivity has always been a mainstay of the bag's appeal, TikTok has now transformed the once elusive purchasing process into a famed game — one that everyone wants to know how to win. Because, as Syracuse University Assistant Professor Faren Karimkhan  says, “Hermès specifically used to be if-you-know-you-know type products. But now they are everywhere, and everybody knows about them, whether you can afford one or not.”  As the story goes, the original Hermès Birkin was created for – and named after – British actress and model Jane Birkin in 1984 after telling then-Hermès director Jean-Louis Dumas that she couldn’t find a bag big enough for daily use. But it wasn’t until the late ‘90s that the bag evolved into the prestige marker we know it as today (The often-referenced Sex and the City   Birkin episode , “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda,” aired in 2001).  On the other hand, the Kelly was first introduced as the Sac à Dépêches in the 1930s by Robert Dumas. Infamous for maintaining control over everything from their manufacturing to their design to their distribution model, Hermès notoriously restricts how many Birkins and Kellys (otherwise known as quota bags) are produced each year in order to maintain their value. “There is, in fact, a limited supply of product,” explains Professor Thomaï Serdari . Because of this, the clients who are the most devoted to — and have spent the most money with — the brand are often the ones prioritized for bag offers.  L-R: Jane Birkin with her eponymous bags. Subsequently, brand devotees and casual shoppers alike have taken to the Internet to learn – and document – how to play what has become known as the Hermès game, or the rules to follow to achieve the elusive bag offer. This includes maintaining a 1:1 spend ratio on “Birkin bait” and only shopping with one specific sales associate at one specific store (preferably, a less competitive one; Dublin is apparently a good option, if you want to hop overseas). Even within the hierarchy there are hierarchies; purchasing Ready-to-Wear gets you to the top of the list quicker than home goods would, allegedly.  Now, all of this information and more can be found in seconds with a TikTok search or a quick scroll through Reddit. “In a pre-social media time period, you would just show up at the store and someone would explain to you, ‘No, sorry, this [Birkin] is here only for show, we have a long list,” says Serdari. “It was very well known in the industry that it was the same challenge for someone to get their hands on that particular type of bag, but it wasn't [known on] social media.” Now, creators are the ones doing the explaining, bringing along their followers for every meticulously documented trip, disappointing offer, post-leather appointment storytime, and highly anticipated unboxing. Self-proclaimed “Birkin woman” Tania Antonenkova  (who believes the game is “one thousand percent real”) has even built a following from teaching Hermès strategy to those willing to purchase her $49 guidebooks, which promise to help people spend less money and time on scoring a bag. “When I was starting to shop [Hermès], nobody was really talking online about how to buy bags,” says Antonenkova. “I mean, there were hints and jokes, but there was no ‘You need to do X, Y, and Z'.” For prospective bag owners not wanting to shell out for advice, there is a near-endless supply of free options online to build up your Hermès knowledge; just search the brand on any social platform. Hermès content often performs extremely well, even amongst scrollers not in the market for a Birkin. Vogue  fashion writer Christian Allaire even penned an entire piece  about his love of watching strangers buy the bags for the site. Of course, there is the simple joy that comes from someone else spending their money (“Now, can I afford a luxurious Hermès Birkin? [...] Absolutely not,” writes Allaire), coupled with the visual appeal and known exclusivity of the product. Personally, TikTok is the closest I’m getting to a quota bag anytime soon, which is why I’m often intrigued when I see the iconic orange box.  And as fun as these videos are to watch, Karimkhan explains that this exposure often increases viewers' desire to create that lifestyle for themselves, “...which often happens through consumption.” As one user on  r/TheHermesGame  writes, “For me, [social media] certainly made Hermès seem a bit more within reach. Prior to all the content creators posting about it, I had the impression Hermès bags were really truly unattainable and only within reach for the ultra wealthy.” Another user writes, “Social media has also made shopping at Hermes a little miserable, in my opinion. Every store is ‘competitive’ because of ‘unprecedented demand.’ It did not used to be like this.” While there is some truth to these rules, Serdari doesn’t believe Hermès has any true gaming intentions. Rather, people’s obsession with mastering them – and their accessibility – has shifted the online idea of who the brand’s clientele truly is. Because while anyone can learn the rules to play the game, only Hermès has the final say, meaning you could spend thousands for nothing. “There is some truth to all of this,” explains Serdari, “But it's not a rule… there is no law that says you have to spend $10,000 here with this associate.” She also points out that these sought-after quota bags are not even the brand’s most expensive item; on the Hermès website, one could take their pick from a $13,500 coat, a $13,200 suitcase, a $25,100 watch, and $40,100 earrings. “Imagine someone who is buying a watch for himself and a watch for his wife and the jackets every winter,” says Serdari. “These are easily hundreds of thousands of dollars. How, then, can the young woman [complain] on TikTok that she's buying this and this and the other and she's still not on the list?” But those clients are not the ones posting their luxury hauls on TikTok or teaching others how they got a Birkin, because they are not playing any game — they are simply shopping.  That’s exactly why Lucy Jones , the Head of Operations at an influencer marketing company in Los Angeles, removed herself from the Hermès game. After being bitten by the luxury bug and learning about the Hermès rules on Reddit threads, blogs, and TikTok, she began purchasing sandals, homeware, and scarves in pursuit of her dream bag: a mini Kelly. “It was almost like a personal accomplishment for me to be able to have one of those bags and not just buy it off the retail market, but to be offered one from a sales associate,” says Jones. And while she was following all the supposed rules, rude treatment in stores and a “painfully unsuccessful” last-ditch effort in France this past summer made her decide the game wasn’t worth playing anymore.  “I truly spent probably two full days just trying to play the Hermès game in Paris, and afterwards on the plane home, I was like, I need to look inward,” says Jones. “I wasted two whole days on our vacation pursuing this bag that I probably never was gonna get in the first place.”  🌀 Payton Turkeltaub is a freelance writer and current graduate student at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Previously, she has written for Screenshot Media, V Magazine, and Bedford + Bowery.

Thoughts on NBA tunnel style, why not all LGBTQ merch is created equal, and a sale at Carhartt. Welcome to The HALO Report — HALOSCOPE’s new weekly digest, an of-the-moment mix of news items, opinion pieces, and sale announcements designed to keep you posted on the nitty-gritty of the fashion world and all of its tangents without having to keep a constant eye on your feed.  This week, Cole Escola’s chest hair won the Tonys, spring dressing is about bikini tops and tartan skirts, a Seattle-based upcycling workshop to punctuate your weekend, freaky-but-appropriate wedding guest dresses, heavy-hitting sales on legendary designers’ work, and more. The latest long-ish reads from the brightest minds in fashion. Vogue’s “ Tony Awards 2025 Red Carpet Fashion: See Every Outfit Here ” highlights the many moving looks that graced the Broadway award show’s red carpet this past week, most notably nonbinary icon Cole Escola, whose waist-snatching Wiederhoeft gown paid homage to an iconic Bernadette Peters costume she happened to be wearing when she won her own Tony in 1999. Escola’s artfully arranged chest hairs and eerily realistic curly wig clinched them the top spot on the night’s Best Dressed list. People who ravaged their Met Gala look are sounding reaaaaaaal quiet this week.  “ tunnel fit finals ” by Rabbit Fur Coat ’s Eleanor applauds the stylings of NBA players such as Tyrese Haliburton, whose Prada Buckle bag rewearing makes him a candidate for MVP of the fashion set, not just the Pacers. I love analyses of men’s streetwear, and the crossover of the sports and style worlds is fertile soil for fit inspiration, no matter your gender.  Christian Allaire writes “ Why Is It So Hard to Find Good (Non Cash-Grab) Pride Merch? ” for Vogue , a much-needed follow-up to the Connor Ives “Protect the Dolls” T-shirt bonanza to remind us that not all LGBTQ merch is created equal.  Not to toot my own horn, but I’m proud of the recommendations I make on my own blog, and I know they’re good because of instances like Big Undies’ Corinne Fay testing out and approving of the FoxFibre socks that changed my feet forever in this week’s “ What I Bought in May ,” alongside tons of other recs that though I can’t personally vouch for, I trust Corinne’s savvy enough to add to my wish list.  “ Deliciously Chaotic Outfits You Can Only Wear Right Now ” by Yeehawt ’s MacKinley Jade is an easy-to-implement ode to spring dressing, extolling the virtues of wearing bikini tops in water-free scenarios, employing wool tartan outside of the winter months, and more ingenious sartorial strategies.  What to keep in mind — and look forward to — in the past and coming weeks. If you’re in Seattle, WA, join the JRAT Wiggle Room Workshops  this weekend to donate clothing and scraps you no longer have use for, learn how to weave them into gorgeous new fabrics, and learn more about the transformative potential of garment reuse.   A drawing of the tarot card “The Lovers” was the jumping off point for the Gabriela Hearst Resort ‘26 collection, now available for preorder in a Moda Operandi trunk show . Deep blue and hazy pink suede collide with whisper-thin pointelle and romantic chain embellishments in a wardrobe that could easily serve past the summer season (though the prices are wildly inaccessible—it’s a good source of inspiration, at least!).  On June 11, beachy brand Éliou links up with Euro-casual label Ciao Lucia  for a capsule of summer accessories like necklaces adorned with glass fish, plus crocheted beachwear and more.  The latest J. Kim offerings for SS25  contain both some of the label’s most sculptural pieces (think a bustier with an illusion of a woven basket built in, spilling out fabric flowers) and some of its most compulsively wearable, including a few excellent options for freaky-but-appropriate wedding guest dresses to consider this season.  Pardo Hats teams up with Antik Batik  to create an accessory capsule using the latter’s richly printed fabrics and the former’s sharp, summer-y sensibilities to make belts hung heavy with starfish and stones, sun-proof hats and coy, shady hoods, and more.  Less about impulse buys — and more about tracking discounts on the pieces already on your wishlist.  JW Anderson offers up to 50% off in its seasonal sale , with sailor-style jackets, the brand’s famed bumper bags, sequinned minidresses, and more taking the cut. Now’s a great time to invest in a Jonathan Anderson piece—who knows what will happen to the label as the designer transitions to his new role as Creative Director of Dior? JUNE20LG gets you 20% off the already-on-sale pieces at La Garconne , with brands available ranging from classics like Yohji Yamamoto to super-contemporary newcomers such as Camiel Fortgens.  Take up to 50% off in the Proenza Schouler summer sale , offering everything from potential It bags to walking shoes to officewear to warm-weather formals.  Both the men’s and womenswear sections of Kiko Kostadinov are 40% off  with EARLY40, a discount especially welcome for the past seasons’ brilliant footwear innovations.  Padded vests, well-cut overalls, and hardy sweatshirts are among the basics to stock up on at 50% off in the Carhartt WIP sale  with FIRST50. 🌀 Em Seely-Katz is the creator of the fashion blog Esque, the News Editor of HALOSCOPE, and a writer, stylist, and anime-watcher about town. You can usually find them writing copy for niche perfume houses or making awful collages at @that.esque on Instagram.

The young designer's work is a refreshing take on tactile design — inspired by growing up in Nebraska, traditional Vietnamese design, and a stint at Proenza Schouler. We’ve all felt the thrill of chasing the latest trends on social media. One day, it’s shopping for nostalgic Y2K layered necklaces; the next, it’s picking statement charms for a vintage Coach or Fendi baguette; the next, it’s browsing maxi skirts for the perfect summer casual wear. Gen Z’s digital fluency fuels a constant style evolution that fashion brands are racing to decode.  Unlike past generations, their path to purchase  is more relational and largely takes place online. According to Archrival, 56% of Zoomers  seek new style inspo weekly, with many relying on social media and algorithms  to do it. Despite the eventual trend burnout, Zoomers readily join style crazes as they appear — giving them a paradoxical reputation among brands trying to decipher their unpredictable buying habits. As Harper Bazaar ’s Ella Sangster wrote , “My generation is a paradox… We adore vintage clothing and are adamant that our clothing be sustainable, but [we] indulge in microtrends and love fast fashion. As we hit adulthood, fashion wants to know how to get our attention. To do that, they have to define us.”  With their diverse fashion tastes, Zoomers are sometimes considered trendsetters and other times trend followers . A recent New York Post  article   covered the viral backlash from Millennials and Gen Xers over a TikTok video showing a group of twenty-somethings all wearing the same minimalist look. “They’ve got copy paste taste,” wrote reporter Asia Grace. “Rather than being seen as fashionably unique, they’ve all conformed to the overdone ‘Gen Z uniform’.” The post,  shared by Manhattan content creator Christian Zubidi, quickly amassed 1.3M views and drew comments calling the outfits “boring” or “the Zara parade”. Even Zubidi himself remarked on how many of the girls were wearing nearly identical outfits. It raises the question of public opinion: Have Zoomers lost their curiosity to the all-powerful FYP? Are they lacking intentionality? One Gen Z designer, Cindy Vo, thinks not.  Based in New York, Vo’s work is a refreshing take on tactile design, utilizing meticulously chosen fabrics to craft movement and blur the boundaries between form and fit. This is partly achieved through her technical expertise, which she refined while interning at Proenza Schouler. During her time there, she contributed to the Spring 2025 Ready-to-Wear collection  — most notably on looks 29 and 47 — where she reimagined bust seam lines on pleated fabric and layered fringe elements for dynamic skirt construction. She also assisted with pattern mockups, fabric sourcing, garment construction, and pre-show preparations.  Vo’s desire to use design as a way of exploring the layered intersections of cultural identity, influence, and memory is integral to her work. That interest, in many ways, traces back to her earliest experiences.  Raised in Nebraska, Vo found inspiration in the unexpected contrast between her surroundings and her heritage. The soft, rolling hills of the Midwest sharpened her attention to subtlety, while at home, the ornate textiles and ceremonial elegance of traditional Vietnamese garments like the áo dài  developed her appreciation for fashion’s ability to communicate culture and history.  “Growing up, I was fascinated by how clothing can transform not just appearances, but also identity,” she said. “My experiences and heritage have taught me the importance of inclusivity and storytelling in fashion design. I want my collections to reflect a multicultural narrative that innovates while still honoring traditions.” Vo’s cross-cultural lens is central to her latest collection, Eternal Merge . A study in precision and restraint, the collection serves as a “quiet rebellion” against the assumptions that Gen Z is unfocused or even monolithic by focusing on touch as a centering, almost meditative force.  “ Eternal Merge  feels like a quiet rebellion against the overstimulation Gen Z is often associated with. While we’re known for maximalism and digital fluency, there’s also a growing desire among many of us for intentionality—less noise, more substance,” she said. “The collection taps into a craving for grounding, for pieces that hold presence without shouting. There’s still self-expression, but it’s quieter, more precise. The tailored silhouettes echo a sense of maturity, while the minimalism reflects a deeper understanding of design and restraint.” The collection is defined by tailored suit jackets that harmonize sharp lapels and transparent, flowing sleeves; billowing blouses that shapeshift into slim silhouettes via form-defining buttons and waist ties. These chameleon styles create a gentle visual tension that reimagines what’s possible through intentional, tactile design. To achieve this, Vo utilized advanced pattern-making techniques to merge structure and fluidity. She also used a unique fabric board composed of wool, Lycra, and polyester chiffon variations to develop custom patterns for asymmetric draping, layered cutouts, and extended silhouettes.  "Many looks started with flat patterns, which I then manipulated on the form — adding darts, pivoting seams, or slashing and spreading to create organic shapes. I also integrated built-in understructures to support sheer outer layers, ensuring they moved freely while maintaining form,” she said. “I really wanted to incorporate both tailoring and drapery into my collection. Peter Do’s Spring/Summer 2023 collection was a key inspiration here.” In addition to an inspired fabric board, Eternal Merge  features a cool, minimalist color palette to enhance each outfit’s visual structure and lightness. Bold bursts of blue draw the eye along crisp hemlines, inviting audiences to investigate further, emphasizing Vo’s tactile focus as a powerful design tool.  “With Eternal Merge , I’m not rejecting Gen Z fashion—I’m reframing it,” Vo says. “The collection doesn’t rely on irony, excess, or fast novelty. Instead, it invites stillness, touch, and emotional weight. Where many collections speak loudly, mine whispers. It challenges the assumption that Gen Z fashion must be performative or hyper-online by offering something sensory and inward.” What distinguishes Eternal Merge , even from designers Vo admires, like Peter Do, is its commitment to identity as an ongoing negotiation. “The collection visualizes the merging of self: cultural, emotional, and physical,” she said. “Through layered transparencies, exposed seams, and hybrid construction, the garments express what words can’t. I use fabric not just as a material, but as a memory-keeper.” Shifting to mindful stillness isn’t unfamiliar to Gen Z, but it’s rare to see it performed with such poetic insight as in Eternal Merge . Vo is in tune with the zeitgeist, as emphasizing stillness is becoming a new way for major brands to connect with a generation fatigued by digital noise. Coach’s “On Your Own Time” Spring 2025 campaign   champions the idea of “setting your own pace,” featuring Elle Fanning and Nazha meandering through slow-motion city scenes after realizing their independence with their tasteful Coach bags and confident smiles. There’s also Kate Spade’s Spring/Summer 2025 campaign   “To the Ones Who Carry Us”   that similarly positions slow moments and personal connection as aspirational, casting Ice Spice and Charli D’Amelio in celebrated vignettes of friendship, quiet glamour, and communal pause. As Kate Spade’s CEO and Brand President, Eva Erdmann put it , “In a world where digital interactions often overshadow genuine connections, the profound bond of friendship becomes, more than ever, an indispensable anchor.” Vo’s Eternal Merge  taps into this budding cultural shift that values sincerity over spectacle. It embraces Gen Z’s aesthetic duality not as a contradiction but as a necessary lens for exploring identity, especially for young people, in an ever-evolving world. In other words: it’s OK to do your own thing. “Eternal Merge feels like a quiet rebellion against the overstimulation Gen Z is often reduced to,” Vo said. “This collection recognizes that we’re not a monolith. We can live in dualities. It inspires others to slow down, to feel more deeply, to see beauty in raw, unfinished edges. It’s about honoring the in-between moments, the parts of ourselves that are still evolving. It reminds people that fashion can be an archive of feeling, identity, and connection — not just an aesthetic choice.” Since graduating from Moore College of Art and Design in May, Vo has been focused on deepening her technical expertise — sharpening her skills in sewing and purposeful design. She plans to work for another high-end fashion brand like Proenza Schouler in New York City, where she can grow as a designer and continue to develop her artistry.  “I’m looking to deepen my skills in construction, patternmaking, and development while contributing to a team that values innovation and craftsmanship,” she said. “Long term, I want to create work that blends emotional storytelling with refined techniques — designs that feel both conceptually rich and beautifully executed.” As with Eternal Merge , Vo hopes to continue to challenge expectations, reminding audiences how styling, craft, and touch can build communal belonging. Regardless of trend cycles, public opinions, or the latest marketing ad, the most important style is the one that fosters growth, community, and celebrates feeling. In this ever-changing world, it’s something worth remembering. 🌀 Amara Johnson  is a writer based in Philadelphia, PA. When she’s not writing, she’s reading or scrolling through Pinterest for style inspo. She loves finding the story in everything.

Thoughts on dressing sexy, Pride Month, Jonathan Anderson at Dior, and a sale at LN-CC. Welcome to The HALO Report — HALOSCOPE’s new weekly digest, an of-the-moment mix of news items, opinion pieces, and sale announcements designed to keep you posted on the nitty-gritty of the fashion world and all of its tangents without having to keep a constant eye on your feed.  This week, a big happy Pride to all our queer readers, a momentous changing of the guards at Dior, Labubu nation is more fashionable than we might have thought, The Met’s renaissance paintings birth a new line of fine jewelry, sales on everything from elevated boat and totes to greek goddess dresses abound, and more. The latest long-ish reads from the brightest minds in fashion. Though she was largely dismissed for a run that didn’t feel radical, “ Vogue Editors Discuss Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Dior Tenure ” by Laia Garcia-Furtado for Vogue  is a welcome reminder that Chiuri’s feminist sensibilities and elegant execution will go down as an important chapter in the fabled brand’s history.  “ And They Call It Plushie Love: Fashionable People on Their Labubu Obsession ” by Lara Johnson-Wheeler for Vogue  is a refreshing look at the Labubu craze that reframes the tchotchkes as genuine accessories, not out of place on the bags of the likes of fashion writer Ruby Redstone or i-D editor Alex Kessler.  “Legacy” substack Blackbird Spyplane ’s latest post is “ The real you ,” inspiring me to pair a suit with sandals sometime this summer.  True Style ’s Lakyn Carlton “ Make It Sexy ” is a smart meditation on how personal “sexiness” is and how to think about it when getting dressed—not a one-size-fits-all situation.  For new parents, “ What to Wear Postpartum: Outfits To Embrace Your Body After Baby ” by Marina Khorosh for Vogue  is a pragmatic but supremely stylish primer for dressing a fluctuating body. What to keep in mind — and look forward to — in the past and coming weeks. After much speculation, Jonathan Anderson is in as Creative Director at Dior  for both its men’s and women’s lines (the first time the two sides of the coin have been under united leadership since Christian Dior himself). This is the best possible move for the struggling, stuffy brand, but we have to hope that Anderson won’t lose any of his trademark spark in the fray of the LVMH machine.  Happy Pride! As a nonbinary person myself, I dedicate this week’s news to all my queer fashion kinfolk. Brands are celebrating with sales, like Carne Bollente  (a notoriously cheeky, sex-positive, overtly queer brand you need to check out) taking 25% off its entire site this week with CARNEPRIDE25, and special giveaways, like Hereu (random!) offering limited edition postcards  with all June orders. Get early access to Mr. Larkin’s High Summer capsule , featuring some crisp cotton separates and several lacy white statement pieces that would work perfectly as a summer bride’s bachelorette or rehearsal togs.  J. Hannah partners once again with The Met  on “Petals of Fortune,” a collection of opulent baubles centering around the quatrefoil , a four-leaf-clover design prominent in Gothic and Renaissance architecture. Inspired by specific paintings housed at The Met, J. Hannah’s always-beautiful work garners depth and historicity with this collaboration.  My beloved Pardo Hats partners with Moda Operandi  on an exclusive headwear capsule including a chic jersey turban, crocheted skullcaps, and more inspired summer chapeaus.  Less about impulse buys — and more about tracking discounts on the pieces already on your wishlist.  Cawley Studio offers 30% off its ready-to-ship pieces  for newsletter subscribers with SUMMERSALE at checkout—plenty of quirked-up boat and tote-style bags, airy cotton shorts, and more sweet summer statement pieces are still up for grabs.  Take 40% off a preview of the minimalist gems in Toteme’s summer sale  with TOTEMEPRIVATESALE. Christopher Esber’s surrealist Greek goddess dresses and sets are on sale  for up to 30% off, just in time for peak swimsuit cover-up season.  The elegant but erudite BDSM ballerina collection by Ludovic de Saint Sernin is still on private sale  with hundreds of dollars taken off laced-up leather dresses, cleavage-contoured mermaid gowns, and more timeless but contemporary formal freakwear.  Brands like Diesel, Chloé, and Dries van Noten take up to 50% off their wares in the expansive LN-CC private sale .  🌀 Em Seely-Katz is the creator of the fashion blog Esque, the News Editor of HALOSCOPE, and a writer, stylist, and anime-watcher about town. You can usually find them writing copy for niche perfume houses or making awful collages at @that.esque on Instagram.

That is if you want to stay on trend. As we scroll through runways, sit front row IRL, and deep-dive through the latest Instagram posts from fashion It Girls (and It Boys), we can’t help but do an involuntary shiver of excitement: spring 2025 shoes are good . Like, “Make you want to actually leave the house” good. While mainstream fashion has gotten increasingly conservative , personal style is still stomping down runways with a wink and a lot of personality. Sure, our feeds may have us convinced we’re all being pulled into the gravitational force of  Ibiza Summer/Halley Kate-core  (translation: shoes with flowers on them — if you’re not chronically on TikTok, congrats). But don’t let the florals fool you: this season’s footwear doesn’t require you to sacrifice style for comfort. The ever-loved '70s clog makes a strong showing alongside some truly unbothered granny loafers that look like they walked straight out of an eccentric heiress’ estate sale. Sneakers had their moment too — think slim soles, thoughtful details, less "dad at Disney" and more "Celine at school drop-off." And then there were the shoes that felt like wearable art — detailed, sculptural, the ones we dreamed about as little girls. The kind you stare at in a shop window, then stare at some more in your closet before finally deciding you will  wear them to dinner and be the best-dressed person ordering fries and a burger. See? Something for everyone. At least the runway’s still inclusive. Sneaking Around  Sneakers are never truly out — they’re the perennial go-to for fashion girls everywhere. The versatile staple can be dressed up, down, and sideways, depending on your vibe (and how far you’re willing to walk). And when it comes to comfort? No competition. A good sneaker is basically the fashion girl’s emotional support shoe. But this season, it looks like even our favorite shoes have gotten prescribed Ozempic. Gone are the chunky, orthopedic soles of seasons past — and, in their place, slimmer silhouettes with a sleeker, more tailored energy. Just take a look at Dries Van Noten’s refined take, Loewe’s sleek reinterpretations, or Miu Miu’s sport-meets-soft looks. These sneakers aren’t shouting — they’re whispering, and that’s what makes them chic. Consider: These silver Dries Van Noten sneakers ($535) These retro-inspired Loewe sneakers ($790) These pink suede Miu Miu sneakers ($895) Or, as an affordable option, these mint green platform Adidas Sambas ($110) A ‘70s Fantasy Boho is back, but if you’re reading this, you probably already know that. From Daisy Edgar-Jones to Suki Waterhouse, fashion’s reigning it-girls are embracing '70s chic like Daisy Jones & The Six  just dropped on Prime yesterday. On the runways, from Hermès to Ulla Johnson, that means one thing: the wooden clog is officially having a(nother) moment. The chunky silhouette of these shoes is the perfect counterpoint to the slimmed-down sneakers and sophisticated loafers currently flooding your saved folder. And that’s exactly what makes them so delicious. Even after half a century, they still manage to feel playful, powerful, and — dare we say — fresh? Modernized with sleek leathers, fun hardware, and the occasional platform sole, this season’s clogs are less "farmers’ market" and more "fashion-girl fantasy." Consider: These wooden calfskin Hermès clogs ($1,200) These black-and-gold Ulla Johnson clog heels ($575) These black Isabel Marant clog loafers ($490) Or, as an affordable option, these denim Madewall clog heels ($198) The Estate Sale Loafer Once relegated to the closets of elderly aunts and prep school professors, loafers have officially had their fashion redemption arc. Over the past five years, these understated staples have quietly climbed the ranks, and now, they’re the shoes you’re begging to borrow. In the 2010s, loafers felt old and outdated. Now? That’s exactly  the point. Their slim, ladylike silhouette hits the sweet spot of “old money chic,” the kind of shoe that practically whispers, How CBK of you. But don’t get it twisted — these aren’t stiff or stuffy. Today’s loafers come in soft, buttery leathers (the Italians are doing it best, obviously) with just the right amount of polish. For inspo, look no further than Prada and Miu Miu, who’ve styled them with sheer tights, mini skirts, and just the right amount of insouciance. Consider: These classic black patent leather Prada loafers ($1,250) These slouchy black lambskin Miu Miu loafers ($771) These deep burgundy Gabriela Hearst loafers ($990) Or, as an affordable option, these classic black leather Sam Edelman loafers ($90) Detailed Heels Now this  is the Halley Kate-core meets Ibiza Summer trend that’s been dominating your FYP. Think bold, sculptural, unapologetically extra — the kind of shoe that demands a moment (or at least a close-up on Stories). While we’re not talking classic Manolos topped with orchids or roses — no shade, but Manolo, it’s time to trade some of those showroom appointments for a runway show or two — the detailed heels of Spring 2025 are for the maximalists, the bold dressers, the fashion romantics who like their shoes with a side of drama. Dries Van Noten, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton all served up heels that feel like little objets d’art : unexpected shapes, playful embellishments, and statement-making silhouettes that are anything but quiet. And if you still want that flirty, floral nod? Just toss on a flower clip from Amazon and call it DIY couture. Consider: These green asymmetrical Dries Van Noten heels ($770) These platform suede horsebit Gucci heels ($1,420) These white mesh Louis Vuitton slingback heels ($1,150) Or, as an affordable option, these denim L'Agence mule heels ($295) Making It Lacy Balletcore refuses to take a bow. Even as trends come and go, this ultra-feminine aesthetic continues to pirouette through Spring/Summer collections. And this season? It's all about the laces. Laces are everywhere  right now, crisscrossing across ankles and tying the whole look together (literally). Proenza Schouler leaned into the ballet motif with a more minimalist, modernist hand, while Dior and Chloé went full-on center stage , offering corset-inspired, ballerina-adjacent shoes that feel like they belong in a Sofia Coppola daydream. Consider: These patent leather ankle-lace Repetto ballet flats ($470) These black mesh Dior ballet flats ($843) These leather-studded Chloé ballet flats ($595) Or, as an affordable option, these lace, pointed-toe Dr. Martens ($130) If you're looking to stand out, you might just have to tie yourself in. These dainty, delicate styles may look light as air, but their staying power? Solid as a pointe shoe. 🌀 Sydney Yeager  is a fashion writer and content creator who explores luxury fashion and trends with the gaze of how it can be accessible to the everyday consumer. As much as she adores avant-garde fashion, elegant and feminine looks will always have her heart, this is seen in both her writing and on her Instagram @sydselegantfinds.

Thoughts on Cannes' nudity ban, summer perfume recs, and a sale at Nanushka. Welcome to The HALO Report — HALOSCOPE’s new weekly digest, an of-the-moment mix of news items, opinion pieces, and sale announcements designed to keep you posted on the nitty-gritty of the fashion world and all of its tangents without having to keep a constant eye on your feed.  This week, a leopard head is worn as a chest piece, neckties go nuts, the perfect summer knit is now available, a Palestinian brand with gorgeously embroidered garments offers a generous sale, and more. The latest long-ish reads from the brightest minds in fashion. Responding to Cannes’ retrograde nudity ban, Vogue ’s Most Dressed at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival  by Hannah Jackson calls out everyone from Kristen Stewart to Isabelle Huppert to South Sudanese model Mitchell Akat Maruko Raan, who wore a realistic leopard head protruding from her chest. Most dressed, indeed.  Rabbit Fur Coat’ s Eleanor argues that “ the perfect beach outfit exists ” and involves pleated shorts, plastic sandals, a Youswim suit, and more specific finds to inspire your sandy sartorial choices.  Call HR! I’m Obsessed With Wacky Work Ties  by Christian Allaire for Vogue  is less of a spotted trend and more of a personal proclivity that I’m glad was shared with the world. Some ties, most by artisans and tiny businesses, are truly breathtaking.  For genuinely interesting summer fragrances, The Dry Down Diaries’ “ Summer Perfume Recs ” by Christina Loff featuring several of her most scent-savvy friends cannot be beat. Clue’s “The Point,” recommended by Loff’s friend Jennifer, is an especially poignant pick.  Kari Koty’s Passage Keeper offers up “ The Vintage Lover’s Handbook: Stains and Smells ,” an invaluable resource for thrifters whose biggest enemies are yellowed armpits and stubborn stenches. What to keep in mind — and look forward to — in the past and coming weeks. Tove’s SS25 collection  has some of the first truly unique beachwear I’ve seen in years, with elegantly shredded slides, lacy balloon-silhouette dresses, and more to outfit a vacation or special event.  The Hades Sabi knit  is perfect for summer with its thin weft and off-kilter asymmetry. Sweaters are underrated companions to swimsuits, and if you’re looking for something unique, this is a beautiful option.  Good Squish will launch a bridal collection  in September, previewing a veil that walks the line between graceful and goofy with aplomb, as do the brand’s other offerings, namely its oversized scrunchies.  Stine Goya x Umbro’s collab is coming soon  with pieces inspired by sportswear and refined through the lens of Copenhagen style, ready to elevate an athleisure-oriented wardrobe this summer.  Another athleisure coup is the Adidas x Wales Bonner sequin sneaker, accessible via the HighSnobiety app  and sure to make the street style rounds within the next month or so.  Less about impulse buys — and more about tracking discounts on the pieces already on your wishlist.  Palestinian outfitter Nol Collective offers 25% off with SUMMER —plenty of gorgeously embroidered tops, brilliant knits, and hardy accessories are available under the umbrella of this sitewide discount.  Beaufille’s end-of-season sale  takes up to 50% off the brand’s delicate-but-not-precious semi-formals, with going-out tops and wedding guest dresses abounding.  Take 40% off a selection of Nanushka pieces in its seasonal sale , with Eastern European charm meeting down-to-earth, contemporary sensibilities in pieces like day dresses and funky sunglasses.  Studio Nicholson offers up to 30% off last season in its private sale , and you know the drill—tailored-looking minimalist togs with smart design sensibilities.  Hereu’s  30% off sale   makes it hard to ignore the brand’s flawless summer accessories as the season draws ever-nearer.  🌀 Em Seely-Katz is the creator of the fashion blog Esque, the News Editor of HALOSCOPE, and a writer, stylist, and anime-watcher about town. You can usually find them writing copy for niche perfume houses or making awful collages at @that.esque on Instagram.

Sandy Liang and the specter of working motherhood in the trend cycle of women's fashion. I first started to notice counterculture turn on Flushing-raised designer Sandy Liang  at the release of her SS24 collection . Gallery openings boasted fewer and fewer feet clad in distinctive pink satin flats, people started to become weary of cheaply made dupes, and girls’ boyfriends seemed less and less likely to endorse the purchase of a hundred and seventy-dollar bow headband accessory. By September of 2024, when leaked show notes for her SS25 collection  were railed for sounding vapid and poorly edited, with bylines like “being a princess is a job, just like being a spy girl is a job” — it seemed like the women who built up Liang’s countercultural credentials had moved on from trying to dress like schoolgirls, and wanted something with more substance. The issue of course, being, these critics of self-infantilization had a history with the habit that was storied to say the least, and most of their criticism of what was clearly an intentional affectation hinged on the conceit that you could flirt with twirling your hair and saying you’re just a girl in your twenties, but once you hit 30, it’s time to cut that shit out .  As someone who goes hiking in Mary Janes and has been thrifting Catholic school uniform maxi skirts for the better part of my adult life, I consider myself considerably attuned to the ebbs and flows of how terms like “Lolita,” “balletcore,” “ office siren ,” and “ coquette ” influence the world of contemporary fashion, and moreover, I feel qualified to judge the very touchy boundaries between just criticism of intra-female self-infantilization and mutually enforced misogyny. This is to say, I do not think all of Liang’s current detractors just hate to see women aging, and I also do not think all of her biggest fans are doing restorative feminist praxis by upcharging her often phoned-in sponsored collaborations with Beats , Salomon , Target , and BAGGU  on Depop. Like most divisive issues in contemporary fashion, the situation is nuanced. Something I have rarely seen brought up in the frequent and infinitely retweetable discourse about Liang’s pink ribbon empire, however, is that in 2024, she and her husband, Dorian Booth, had a beautiful baby boy named Rainer . To be honest, this changes a lot for me. As the needlepoint of culture slowly creeps past the innate profitability of slapping a bow on something, I’ve found Liang’s continued efforts to raise a family while carving out a niche for herself in women’s Ready-to-Wear more and more endearing. Her designs, clearly drawn from her on-the-ground experience as a bystander and participant in Flushing and NYC’s vast immigrant culture, seem so much more pointed when the basis for them is no longer imaginative. Put plainly, I find the whole coquette schoolgirl maxi skirt schtick far more compelling from someone who is actively raising a child. I was struck by Liang’s lucidity in her recent Interview  conversation with Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast  — another artist I adore, who knows a thing or two about balancing petty girlish sentimentality with out-of-body maturity. MICHELLE ZAUNER: You didn’t have anxiety about your work suffering? My friend, who just got pregnant, is a painter and we were talking about it and she was like, “Are you more worried about not being a good mother or not being a good artist?” Which I thought was such a horrifying question. SANDY LIANG: I think about that stuff under the surface, but I try to not let myself get wrapped up in it because you’re going to live the answer. “What will my career look like once I have a baby?” If I really thought about that question, it might’ve stopped me. I’m at the point in my life where I’m going to do what I want, and if my work suffers a little bit because of that, then that’s just going to be a part of my journey. This answer seems incredibly liberatory to me. I think of someone like Paul McCartney, whose departure from The Beatles and solo career marked the birth of his daughter Heather and trail-blazed the creation of the “dad rock” microgenre in the singer-songwriter tradition. In these retrospective mythologies, men are not only allowed to have children, but can plumb the depths of fatherhood for artistic inspiration. In this sense, their fall from the annals of greatness is not so much a loss but a transition to something new. How wonderful it must feel as a female working artist to fall off and start a family, to let your work grow more austere or less appealing as you funnel your creative energy into cultivating new life — perhaps the greatest act of artistic creation in history. How chic, as a woman, to actually pursue the great summit of “having it all” — while acknowledging that the choice between an artistic career and a family is so rarely expected of your male counterparts. Better yet, to allow your work to reflect this yearning towards the child — retrofitting the oft-touted idea of yearning for some sort of imagined girlhood into the more meaningful practice of nurturing a real childhood future. I don’t care that Liang’s child is a boy, I’m excited to see how she dresses him — the care and motherly devotion she puts into making his little loafers or frilly little button-up shirts. Danish Rijksakademie-trained artist Lise Haller Baggesen ’s book Mothernism  is an endlessly beautiful assertion of the working mother’s place in contemporary art. In it, she grapples through epistolary dispatches to her sister, mother, and daughter with issues like rape culture, phallogocentrism, and the variability of emotion contained within the enterprise of bringing up a real live human being from your body. She responds to Kristeva’s short but incisive essay “ Motherhood Today ,” in which the seminal post-structural feminist theorist, who, like Liang, had one baby boy, asserts: What we lack is a reflection on maternal passion. After Freud and with Lacan, psychoanalysis has largely been preoccupied with the ‘paternal function’ — its need, its failures, its substitutes and so on and so forth. Philosophers and psychoanalysts seem less inspired by the ‘maternal function,’ perhaps because it is not a function but more precisely, a passion. The term ‘a good enough mother’, coined by Winnicott, who took this theme further than Freud, nevertheless runs the risk of playing down the passionate violence of the maternal experience. In this respect, Baggesen argues for not only the recognition of motherhood’s inevitability in the life of the creative, but also its unique and vibrant socio-psychological point of view: Beginning with the old feminist premise of the female as “the second sex,” and lesbianism as a third, I suggest that motherhood is a fourth  … and hell, who knows? Maybe menopause is a fifth and so on  … Because if we can accept motherhood as one sex among many, we can perhaps relieve the inevitable burden of motherhood perceived as a stagnant destination. Perhaps we can instead introduce it into a conversation opened up by queer theory, in which categories of gender are more fluid, moving and bleeding into each other. To have a true plurality of discourse, we need a conversation, not of motherhood as “myth” or “destiny” but as lived reality, inside (as well as outside) the “hallowed halls” of art and academia.” You might think this is a lot to reconcile with a fashion house whose most recent FW25 collection  included a giant first place ribbon dress appliqué, but with looks including a Toys-R-Us baby tee rework of her brand name, paired with a laminated bright pink Frutiger Aero-adjacent calendar skirt seemingly at home plastered on the wall of a takeout restaurant, I don’t think its impossible to connect the dots. If anything, I’ve actually found Liang’s most recent work to bear a certain self-assured maturity to it, collaging together vibrant colors and Polly Pocket-like dollishness into something that feels quite literally marketed to 10-year-olds. I love that. There’s a photoset that Liang posted to her Instagram recently , in which a friend’s child is swimming in her ballet slingbacks. I think this is the best possible future for her brand identity, one that responds to accusations of problematic infantilization from 23-year-old Substack bloggers old enough to be her nieces with a resounding: “Sorry, I have to make it to daycare in Midtown while still looking fab.” At her best, I see Liang as a sort of zillennial Mary Cassatt, posting pictures of her face smushed up against her child’s in a way that asserts she can occupy the social roles of cool girl, creative, and mom at the same time. Making clothes not only for her own inner child, but for her actual children. There is a quote from Sarah Spellings’ Vogue  Runway review  in which, talking about her SS24 collection, she mentioned she is often inspired by groups of women who are matching — intentionally or not. “They don’t realize how beautiful they are when they’re standing together,” she says. Her work to me has always been this one specific image — a fascination with a group of schoolgirls walking home in Queens. It seems like from this one image, imagined or not, an entire brand identity emerges. This harmony is itself a sort of maternal instinct: to have matching mommy-son outfits, to see your child as a beautiful part of a transcendent whole, picking him up at carpool, one minnow in a school of fish. While talking with Zauner, the elephant in the room is raised: how do women artists who want kids reconcile a rigid creative perfectionism with the often overwhelming burdens of motherhood? Is there a middle path between not losing yourself in the role of homemaker and also holding space for the creative energy one will eventually exert and deplete in the cultivation and curation of a child? If anything, this would be my thesis: that this question is only ever asked of women, and that there is a real and true artistic beauty in becoming more inaccessible and even unsuccessful in the name of bringing up a family — not sacrificing your career, but letting it mold to the contours of your holistic identity as both a woman and a mother. Some may not get it, and that’s fine. But love is not something to be afraid of, and it certainly is not something that diminishes the voice of an artist. Motherhood, in all its psychic intermingling of the woman’s identity with her child’s, demands a sort of fiery creative ego death, one that inevitably impacts the nature of one’s work. If I meet the right person in my 30s, fall deeply for them, and find myself at the precipice of starting a family like Zauner and Liang, how terrifying and how lovely it must be to face these questions. It truly brings me to tears imagining it, how sickeningly sweet it must feel to lose part of your audience, and to look in the eyes of my child and see a whole crowd of adoring fans. ZAUNER: [...] I’ve been doing Japanese Breakfast for nine years. This will be my fourth album, and I would say that every single record I’ve made has been more successful than the last, and I live in constant fear and anticipation of, “When will I plateau and when will I begin to decline?” I don’t want to say this in an interview, but I keep thinking this is this one. LIANG: I completely understand. ZAUNER: And I think in some ways, when I arrive at that plateau, it will be both devastating and completely liberating. 🌀 Audrey Robinovitz is a multidisciplinary artist, scholar, and self-professed perfume critic. Her work intersects with the continued traditions of fiber and olfactory arts, post-structural feminism, and media studies. At this very moment, she is most likely either smelling perfume or taking pictures of flowers.

Boy Smells minimalist, androgynous candles and fragrances decorated everyone’s desks, coffee tables, and vanities. Then came the rebrand. Above: Boy Smells' 2025 packaging rebrand. Of the design, Dirt CEO and co-founder Daisy Alioto coined it "... pearlescent Elf Bars for influencers to tap their nails against.” Boy Smells  burst onto the fragrance scene in 2020 with promises of androgyny and subversion. Early reviewers were drawn to the quirky, oblong cap design, the dissonance of the name, and the brand’s Glossier-pink labels. Boy Smells, owned by “real-life and business partners” Matthew Herman and David Kien, was founded as the pair rejected   the “normative ‘genderless’ caption to beauty and wellness products” in the mid-2010s. Boy Smells’ early scents trended towards androgyny, which is different from that “normative ‘genderlessness’” in that it is marked by the presence of dual masculine and feminine signifiers, instead of a lack of any gendered signifiers at all (think blank-slate scents like Byredo’s Blanche). Its popular scents combine floral and leather notes, cardamom and cedarwood, and marijuana and hazelnut. Boy Smells is, as their marketing copy will not let you forget, not genderless, but gender ful . This positioning as a queer-owned niche brand intent on subverting commercialized queerness has come back to bite. In April, the brand rolled out Boy Smells 2.0., a rebrand that included discontinuing old fragrances, releasing a handful of new ones, and changing the packaging design to a smooth bottle with an orb-shaped cap, which went into effect in mid-April. This rebrand came after a period of commercial struggle and was intended to inject the brand with a much-needed capital boost.  When faced with the new basic flourmands and Rhode-esque bottle redesign, fans of the brand took to social media to express their dismay  and disappointment . The brand that built its consumer base on a message of transgression is now selling run-of-the-mill flourmands and sugary lactonics in bottles that look right at home in a Glow House Sephora haul. Words like “ watered-down ” and “ Gen Z-algospeak ” abound. Despite such intense online backlash that the brand sent out an ersatz Notes app apology via email , Boy Smells seems to be doing just fine — more than fine, in fact. A brand representative told Glossy  that the rebrand wrought Boy Smells’ best sales week in four years. This dissonance might stem from the fact that the rebrand’s target audience is not quite of thinkpiece-writing, Twitter-thread-authoring age. The rounded bottle caps and blown-up logo size are trends popular among tweenage Drunk Elephant enthusiasts, as reported by Beauty Independent  and Puck .  The email, however, is littered with language designed to pacify elder Gen Z’s and younger millennials, featuring vocabulary like “self-expression” and “queer-led.” The website copy reads: “Identity isn't static. And neither are we.” The loss of faith, it seems, was among the thinkpiece age group, disappointed with the brand’s abandonment of its androgynous scents like Suede Pony for tooth-rotting marshmallow scents a la Sol de Jainero. The backlash was significant enough to warrant damage control. Beyond complaints about the new scent profiles — the house of Boy Smells has fallen to the great flourmand influx! — the redesigned packaging is a particularly sore spot. Dirt Media  CEO Daisy Alioto called  the new packaging “pearlescent Elf Bars for influencers to tap their nails against.” Artist and perfumehead Daphne Villanueva told HALOSCOPE: “I know the original packaging was fairly controversial in that people hated the oversized cap, but it felt deco-minimalist to me.” Above: Boy Smells' pre-2025 packaging design The Boy Smells packaging redesign situates the brand in what Jane Song describes as the “pebble-dagger” dichotomy. As Song points out, 2020s beauty products and interior design display an inclination towards what she calls the pebble, and what I will here call the blobform. From Rhode’s pocket blushes to EOS chapsticks, the dagger-like shape of preceding lip products and eyeliners has been abandoned in favor of a rounded, non-threatening, blob-like product design. Song writes : “[The] pebble represents a sense of absolution from overconsumption.” What harm could be wrought by a bubblegum pink blob? Notably, as Song and Alioto point out, the cosmetic blobform runs parallel to the design of disposable vapes. A GeekBar, a Rhode blush, a Glossier solid perfume — your hand curls around the blob as if you were a baby instinctively grasping a finger. As suggested by Rhode’s phone case designed to carry its popular lip gloss, the blobform is something you are never meant to put down. The hot pink Flum Pebble is antithetical to the sharp, phallic image of the cigarette. It is addiction — overconsumption — rendered harmless. This design trend is reminiscent of the humanoid blobforms of Corporate Memphis . You’ve probably seen this art style on Facebook’s login page or in the IBM ads that have littered this basketball season. The Corporate Memphis art style is unnerving in its genderlessness, its race-blindness. It is a half-hearted hand wave towards the human body, exhausted by post-Obama cries for inclusivity in advertising. Here , it says dejectedly as it presents the viewer with sexless purple homunculi rendered in scalable vectors. Fine . This regression to an aesthetic means of blobforms neutralizes any potential for aesthetic or political subversion. Song walks this out in her piece, as does Cassidy Bensko in her piece  on Canva’s dilution of radical aesthetics. The blobform humanoid has no ethnic history, no ostensible sexuality. The pebble blush begs you to forget that “tools of glamour contain power and danger conferred to the user.” Corporate Memphis’ genderless simulacra of the human form, the Flum Pebble, Rare Beauty’s concealers — they all represent a commercial harmlessness. Apropos of nothing, Jia Tolentino’s research into the creative style book of Cocomelon revealed that animators are not allowed to include objects with sharp corners. It is a world where every edge is rounded — it’s a world that cannot hurt you. Is the rounded redesign of Boysmell’s packaging so significant? So politically fraught? It’s not like Boy Smells has never pushed the envelope. Last Pride Month,  the brand released a poppers-themed candle, releasing a Zoom screenshot  of the entire marketing team trying poppers as part of its development. In light of the Trump administration’s raids on poppers factories  across the U.S., this is a substantively transgressive act, one that Boy Smells’ consumers loved. The brand fell back on this goodwill in the rebrand apology email: “We’re still the same team that brought you poppers-inspired Citrush .” The brand has been upfront about the commercial motivations for the rebrand while gripping white-knuckled to their philosophy of gendered transgression. The brand told Beauty Independent  that they were acquired by a “group of gay investors” in early 2024 to bolster capital. Puck calls the rebrand  a “Sephora pet-project” in light of Boy Smells strengthening their partnership with the retailer. The apology email and website copy for the rebrand engage in a complicated balancing act between transgression and profit: “The brand had to evolve in order to survive […] All we ask is that you stick with us throughout this next chapter.” The brand is still, self-professedly, “rooted in genderfulness.” I hesitate to throw around fighting words like “rainbow capitalism,” even as the phrase “gay investors” readily invites it. The point of a business is to make money, and it is perhaps misguided to source your gendered transgression from the Sephora fragrance aisle, sandwiched in between $100 anti-aging serums and endless iterations of YSL’s Black Opium. Whether or not the rebrand represents a departure from the brand’s nominally transgressive philosophy, it might not be the philosophical implications that have put people off from the rebrand — the new Boy Smells might just not be very good.  Old is the adage of a decrease in product quality following a new round of investors or a venture capital acquisition. Euphemisms like “capital infusion” and “overhead” do little to obscure the reality that profits are higher when a product is cheaper to make. As Alioto told HALOSCOPE, her qualm with the rebrand “[Wasn’t] that they seemed to stray from their stated values, it just looks bad and cheap… look at influencers showing the bottles, the line in the colorblocking isn't clean.” The blobform, it would seem, is the physicalization of cut corners. 🌀 Caelan Reeves is a writer from Chicago. You can find her fragrance writing in HALOSCOPE and High Country News .

Thoughts on Pierpaolo Piccioli's Balenciaga appointment, dressing better without trying harder, and a sale at Marc Jacobs. Welcome to The HALO Report — HALOSCOPE’s new weekly digest, an of-the-moment mix of news items, opinion pieces, and sale announcements designed to keep you posted on the nitty-gritty of the fashion world and all of its tangents without having to keep a constant eye on your feed.  This week, a modern Black Dandy teaches us how to journal, speedrun converting your boyfriend to style-cognizant, Balenciaga has a new CD—do we care?, looser, more relevant-feeling labels succeed Sandy Liang and Gauntlett Cheng, sales abound from big-name accessories brands to tiny family operations, and more. The latest long-ish reads from the brightest minds in fashion. As per usual, Viv Chen topped the charts of my internet time this week with “ this is what 80 looks like ” for The Molehill . Chatting with style icon Raymond Holbert, who has kept a journal for over half a century and is the epitome of a modern Black Dandy (I loved Chen’s comparison of his outfits to the looks featured in the Frog and Toad  picture books). The friends touch upon Holbert’s journaling practice and much more—it’s an inspiring, adorable, and stylish read all around.  I recently started dating someone with no interest in fashion, but if I put the YouTube video “ Dress better without trying harder ” by Speeed on 1.75x speed, perhaps he will be compelled by its straightforward, pragmatic, easy-to-implement style tips.  “ Is It That Hard to Design Gucci? ” by Amy Odell for Back Row is a fascinating, incisive questioning into what has become an almost mythological speed bump in the fashion industry: why have so many Gucci Creative Directors been, by all accounts, flops? “ Plumpgasm Nudegasm ” by Jessica DeFino for The Review of Beauty  touches upon the uncanny and the hyperreal of the beauty choices debuted at the Met Gala, from Walton Goggins’ Moroccanoil collab to Doja Cat’s Betty Boop-like mug.  The Wardrobe Edit ’s latest, “ The Style Edit: Going Out Tops, Summer Jewellery & NAP Sale Picks ,” is an easy dose of shoppable inspiration for your burgeoning summer wardrobe.   What to keep in mind — and look forward to — in the past and coming weeks. Pierpaolo Piccioli is the new creative director for Balenciaga , and the crowd… is ambivalent? A choice that seems to pull its punches, Piccioli (yet another white man crowding the upper echelons of the runway sphere) seems to prioritize legacy over innovation, stating, “I don’t want to cancel what has been, because a house is made by lots of people.” Oversized, floppy flowers, colorful knit stripes, and loose, louche silhouettes define Stine Goya’s PF25 —a great alternative for feminine dressers who find the Sandy Liang side of the industry a bit too stuffy and contrived. These pieces feel like the kind you would only think to buy on vacation—a little cheesy, a little brash—but then you’d find yourself reaching for them long past your travels, having embedded themselves in your conception of summer.  Young label Lucille Thièvre has arrived at Maimoun  with slinky, siren-like shirred sets and ornamented cut-out tops—its energy is similar to pre-COVID Gauntlett Cheng, before that label started courting Red Scare hosts and similar types in earnest.  Seeing as the label has started to elicit whispers of criticism from the most forward-thinking fashion minds on the internet, expect to see more collabs like the Easter-coded Tory Burch x Bon Bon  while the former tries to maintain its hard-won relevance.  Ever an under-the-radar label, Clarks collaborates with another IYKYK brand, Engineered Garments , on a capsule of loafers and Clarks’ signature Wallabees decked in fringe and suede charms.  Less about impulse buys — and more about tracking discounts on the pieces already on your wishlist.  Given its past few runway successes and red carpet cameos on the likes of Sarah Paulson, now might be a good time to check out the Marc Jacobs 50% off private summer sale  and consider investing in the brand’s upswing.  Take up to 30% off a collection of richly-hued cardigans, V-necks, and knit accessories like bandanas and socks in a rainbow assortment of colors during the &Daughter Seasonal Sale . Mansur Gavriel’s 60% off summer sale  offers bags, shoes, and wallets in supple, summer-colored leather.  From Saturday, May 31 to Sunday, June 1, check out the no-holds-barred Vaquera sample sale  on Walker Street in NYC, including not only archival and deeply discounted pieces, but also vintage gems from the designer’s own collection.  Since production has slowed after the designers had a baby, Ijji’s hiatus sale  offers 50% off the slim (but incredible) pickings of remaining stock still on the website. 🌀 Em Seely-Katz is the creator of the fashion blog Esque, the News Editor of HALOSCOPE, and a writer, stylist, and anime-watcher about town. You can usually find them writing copy for niche perfume houses or making awful collages at @that.esque on Instagram.

" Our waitress was very clearly pilled out of her mind, our food took forever to arrive, it was perfect." I met my husband the old-fashioned way: online. He was living in Richmond, and I was, at the time, temporarily decamped about an hour away in the mountains of Charlottesville. We matched, hit it off, and he began the intensive process of sweeping me off my feet. He drove four-hour round-trips to take me on dates in the city, ate dinner with me every Sunday (which inspired our first dance song: Etta James’ “Sunday Kind of Love”), and flooded my townhome with bouquets — my maid of honor, Willow, described it in her speech as “...looking like a straight up funeral home. Every surface was covered with flowers, all addressed to her.”  Three months later, I moved to Richmond. Then, three years later, he popped the question. We were staying up at the Lazy Bear Lodge in Luray, Virginia — a cozy log cabin deep in the mountains — and he led me outside under the guise of “taking a video of the fire he built”. I cried, he cried, and then I pulled out the extensive wedding planning spreadsheet I had been working on for the past couple of months. Of course, I knew he was going to propose. Sure, he didn’t outright tell me —  but that isn’t the type of thing that usually comes as a surprise (especially when he texts you asking for the link to the ring you like). I also knew that, because Mitchell is a twin and because his twin had just gotten married in a big, traditional ceremony, I had the clearance to get what I wanted: a smaller, more intimate, and unconventional ceremony. Thus began our Vegas plans.  We knew we couldn’t have everyone  we wanted to celebrate with us in Vegas. So we started with a small “wedding party” in Richmond at a historic venue called Old City Bar. It was gorgeous: all wood interior; low, warm lighting; fabulous ostrich feather centerpieces made by my grandmother-in-law, Gayle. We also had a giant paper moon photo booth that was fully designed and fabricated by my father-in-law, Billy, who is a very talented working artist. It was one of the most beautiful and romantic nights of my life. I don’t think I’ve ever cried harder. The night before, my lovely family hosted a glamorous welcome dinner at Fogo de Chão . My mom and Nonie (maternal grandmother) are two of the most elegant, design-focused people in the world, so you know they delivered.   We had a gorgeously decorated private room, the tables laden with multiple seafood towers and endless delicious meats — and, to top it all off, at the end of the night, our friends surprised us with a brand new Ooni pizza oven  in the parking lot. What more could you want? Now, onto the main event (which actually occurred about five months after the “wedding party”). VEGAS: DAY ONE We took an early morning direct flight (thank you, Breeze!) and landed a little before noon. I had downloaded 16 episodes of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills  to watch on the flight and heard Camille Grammer say, “Well! NOW we’ve said it!” just as we hit rough turbulence. When I tell you chills   up my spine , I mean it. We stayed at the Conrad  in Resorts World, which, from the looks of it, is an accommodation geared towards Fear of God hypebeasts and cool girlfriends. Resorts World is the newest hotel on the Strip, and you can definitely tell: funky, sorta-sexual modern art sits right beside giant F1 racecars advertising the Grand Prix happening just a couple of days after our wedding. Jumping nightclub beats bounced through the palatial lobby. I’ve never felt more podunk in my life. But jokes aside, the lovely people at the Conrad treated us very well, and our giant suite was both glamorous and perfectly clean. Thanks guys! They also provided the comfiest hotel robes I have ever slipped onto my body. If you ever stay at the Conrad in Resorts World, don’t make the same mistake as I — buy the robe from the hotel. It is nearly impossible to find online. After much research, I discovered that they order the robes from a brand called Sobel Westex. However, the type of robe (a plush interior with a smooth outer shell) is not one that they sell to the general public, only to hotels. Believe me, I tried everything. I even found the distributor’s direct email address and sent him a message. No dice.  Later that night, we went to Fremont Street and saw old Vegas: the Golden Nugget, Heart Attack Grill’s “Over 350 eat for free” scale, exhausted girls wearing showgirl feathers, and even that giant praying mantis that spits fire and sings AI Johnny Cash Barbie songs. My parents, ever the party animals, stayed out late into the night. I, on the other hand, headed back to the room to take the most relaxing, luxuriating bath ever in the Conrad's giant tub. Maybe one more episode of Real Housewives  before bed… DAY TWO Early that morning, Mitchell and I picked up our marriage license. On the way there, we heard the “Vegas is like a bunch of islands” speech for the first time from our Uber driver —  a safety warning that we would hear many more times before our vacation was over. Apparently, Uber drivers really want you to know it’s unsafe to walk from place to place in Vegas, guys! I personally never had any trouble. I felt it was no different than any other big city; just be aware of your surroundings. We picked up our marriage license without incident — along with some little “Just Married in Vegas!” stickers — and headed back to the room, eyes swimming with the love we share. Then, that afternoon, the Bachelorette Party began. Now, I don’t drink, and I don’t really party, so the traditional “club and male strippers” bachelorette experience just wasn’t going to be in the cards for me. I decided instead to splash some cash around for me and Willow to have the full Gwyneth Paltrow-esque relaxation experience at Awana Spa . Reader, if you take one thing away from this wedding diary, let it be this: book yourself a treatment at Awana. My god.  It legitimately feels like you enter into another world: a giant stone room filled with multiple pools at different temperatures; the most comfortable heated loungers you’ve ever sat on; sauna; steam room; and eucalyptus room (which I actually didn’t love, but it was cool!) all attached to this incredibly tricked out locker room outfitted with hair and beauty products, hot tools, and Byredo bath soaps  — you’re never going to want to leave. I sure didn’t! The lovely ladies working the front desk at Awana kindly upgraded our services to include a 60-minute full-body massage. Do I even need to say it? Obviously incredible. There’s a reason why Vegas remains a premier destination for luxury. After the service, Willow and I spent five hours lounging around the different rooms, munching on the elegant snacks provided, and taking multiple showers. Then it was time for the main event of the day: Vanderpump à Paris . Former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Vanderpump owns multiple restaurants in Vegas — most notably, in my opinion, her restaurant and bar in the Paris hotel. I dragged my entire family over there, most of whom had never even heard of Lisa Vanderpump — let alone Giggy, whose portrait we were sitting right beside (R.I.P.).  What can I say about Vanderpump a Paris? Glamorous, Elegant, Over-the-top…. expensive.  Our waitress was very clearly pilled out of her mind, our food took forever to arrive, it was perfect. DAY THREE: WEDDING DAY! You hear all the time about how frantic your wedding day is going to be — how hurried and rushed and stressful the whole affair is. I didn’t experience that. I felt incredibly peaceful the whole day, secure in my choice to marry Mitchell. I never had any doubts. Willow and I slowly spent the afternoon getting ready together in the suite. Afterward, Mitchell’s Grandpa, Jim, took photos of everyone in their Sunday best, and we headed to the chapel. THE LOOK The dress was designed by Lilya Korenman of Couture by LK Design . It was inspired by the gown Ginger Rogers wore in It Had to Be You.   This was, bar none, the best custom garment experience I have ever had. Lilya is an incredibly talented and very experienced designer. I would highly recommend reaching out to her atelier for your next event. Florals were courtesy of Michael’s Craft Store (lol!). A week or so before we flew out to Vegas, I dragged Mitchell to Michael’s and made him stand there as I agonized over which fake flowers to stuff in my suitcase. I knew I wanted red (it's my favorite color), and I was very inspired by the scale of the bouquet Chloë Sevigny  carried during her nuptials to Siniša Mačković — so I knew I wanted very long stems and a big ribbon. I think we pulled it together in the end. I wore matching shoes with my mother — little silver rhinestone peep-toe mules that we unfortunately did not get any photos of (no free feet!). It was an incredibly sentimental moment for the two of us. The ceremony was an intimate affair at Little Church of the West . My father and I walked down the same aisle that saw the likes of Zsa Zsa Gabor, Judy Garland, and Angelina Jolie. The pews were filled with our closest family members, my best friend, and his twin brother at our sides. There was palpable love in the room. Candlelight glittered in everyone’s tearful eyes. It was the exact kind of moment you dream of. After the ceremony, my Nonie booked us a private room at a restaurant called Bootleggers — the perfect little, old-school Italian restaurant to suit my “Stars of the Silver Screen” theme. We broke bread, we shared speeches, we laughed, we cried, we ate cannolis, and then we went home. DAY FOUR For our honeymoon, Mitchell rented a car and we drove out to Red Rock Canyon. We stayed at a very swanky hotel by the same name . If Resorts World is for Fear of God hypebeasts and cool girlfriends, Red Rocks is for mega-rich silver foxes and inappropriately young female companions. I felt like a glamorous high-roller walking under the massive crystal chandelier in their red velvet lobby. That afternoon, Mitchell treated us to another spa day. I’ll say this: Vegas knows how to do a spa. It’s an all-day, transformative experience, the likes of which I had never even known existed. I will try fruitlessly for the rest of my days to replicate it at home. Gorgeous hotel and spa aside, my biggest recommendation for those traveling to the Red Rock Resort and Casino in Las Vegas would be T-Bones Steakhouse. God damn, is it good! I had the poke; Mitchell had the Wagyu steak. The hostess sat us in front of this giant wall of fire, where we just giggled and held hands the entire night. Can’t recommend it enough! DAY FIVE Here’s where things get crazy… My lovely and sweet husband booked us a self-guided tour of Red Rock Canyon. If you’ve never been, you gotta go. It is truly breathtaking out there. It feels like you’re on the surface of Mars.  We took some photos together on the cliff face and then decided to go on one of the hiking trails through the canyon. There was a “children’s hike” marked right ahead of us, so we figured: Hey, easy enough,  and went down it. We walked for about twenty minutes, reached the end, and as we were about to turn around… SNAP! I slipped off a rock and landed on my ankle at a 90° angle. It was such a surprising sensation — sharp pain immediately followed by the chilling humiliation that I might need help getting back to the car…. from the children’s  hike… Through the sheer power of pride alone, I hobbled back to the car, where we took the scenic route back to the hotel. Mitchell called downstairs for an ice bucket — we’re still waiting on it to this day. DAY SIX I woke up at 1 AM crying, my ankle as big as a baseball bat. Mitchell, taking the vows of “in sickness and in health” incredibly seriously, rushed to the closest CVS to buy me some crutches and painkillers. He then, kudos to him, packed up all SIX of our bags and lugged them single-handedly out of the hotel and to the car, then to the airport shuttle, then through the airport, then from baggage claim to the Uber, then home. All while I slowly limped along behind him. Thanks, baby! It was just as nice as I hoped and dreamed it would be. 🌀 Kaitlin Owens  is the Archival Editor of HALOSCOPE and the Editor in Chief of DILETTANTE. For a closer look at her portfolio, please visit her site here .

What took the designer so long to embrace change? We all know the Tory Burch sandals — the large, ornate “T” logo smack in the middle of the foot of the preppy corporate women.  Of course, Tory Burch isn’t just for the corporate gal or the Southern mom, but that seemed to be the audience it has long been reaching best. Old Tory Burch was casual luxury that could be considered preppy style. Tory Burch fell into the category of brands common for people in the South to wear because of the notable logo and high price tag, like Lilly Pulitzer or the aptly named Simply Southern. It also presented itself as “corporate girl” to me. (Of course, I’m talking about a 2012 corporate girl and not today’s “office siren”  girl.)  After a career in designer public relations, Tory Burch started her brand in 2004, resulting in 20 years of her eponymous label. The Tory Burch brand has been a notable player in the industry and hasn’t fallen off the face of the fashion world — though it might’ve seemed that way for a period of time.  There’s no one specific reason why Tory Burch seemed to fall out of the fashion scene, but there are a couple of contributing factors. Oversaturation and lack of evolution might be the key determinants as to why we all forgot about Tory Burch for a bit. Fashion critic Luke Meagher said this  about Burch’s stagnant phase: “ While the brand certainly never went away, it did feel like it became just a cog in the American fashion machine alongside the other more commercially-focused brands, rather than experimenting and innovating.” The Tory Burch brand, in essence, was becoming too mass, offering démodé silhouettes and heavily logo-patterned garments. Similar to the popular Gucci logo belt, heavily logoed items began falling from favor as the 2010s gained momentum. The brand overall didn’t feel as desired as other labels that were continuing to evolve and focus on market appeal, like Michael Kors. In 2018, Kors unveiled a new collection to reestablish the brand as relevant and elevated, to shy away from the Michael Kors designs we frequently see at TJ Maxx. However, according to a November 2024 post  by databutmakeitfashion, a favorite account of mine, Tory Burch found increased popularity — 226%, in fact — through online posts and searches about the brand.  For many people, it seemed like Burch had been randomly awoken from the crypt. But Burch had long-measured plans for her brand, dating all the way back to the pandemic. In an interview for Wallpaper , Burch stated that the COVID-19 pandemic allowed her to pause and reexamine the brand codes she established 20 years prior. “It was a palate cleanser and a restart, to take a step back and think about the essence of where we were, and who I am,” Burch said. It’s a big risk to completely rebrand your already iconic label, but that risk definitely paid off. According to WWD, Tory Bruch took first place in social engagement  during 2025 Fall/Winter New York Fashion Week with an engagement score of 3.2 million, which was a 39% increase from last fall. Influencer marketing and social engagement, too, have played a massive role in re-inducting Tory Burch into the fashion world and promoting Tory Burch to a wider variety of consumers. In a quote to NYLON , influencer Alix Earle said, “Tory has undeniably evolved. I love that Tory Burch is making collections for the modern woman who wants to look cool, chic, and confident. The looks lately feel elevated, nodding to different women over different eras, like the coats we saw on this last runway, but yet the looks are still strong and a bit sexy, without being too revealing or try-hard.” Both on and offline, Burch is reaching new audiences that help claim the brand as an “it-girl” or “cool girl” brand. Emily Ratajkowski and Hailey Bieber have worn and promoted Tory Burch throughout the past couple of years. Ratajkowski and Bieber’s model off-duty styles are effortless, simplistic, and deeply contrasting. Ratajkowski pairs a fitted blazer with a wiry bralette or a white cotton dress with cherry-red shoes; Bieber’s style is similar, with fitted cardigans paired with baggy jeans or the addition of a leather jacket over linen pants to create an unusual edge.  Like many other luxury brands, creative directors do not just shift between decades or seasons — they shift between full styles, altering the brand’s DNA. Olivier Rousteing became the creative director of Balmain in 2011 and helped propel the brand back to popularity. Maria Grazia Chiuri became the creative director of Dior Paris and brought back the iconic saddle bag. Jamie Mizrahi debuted the first-ever Juicy Couture dress at the Met Gala in 2018 as Juicy’s creative director.  One of the first big steps in changing the Tory Burch brand was removing Tory Burch herself as CEO, passing the title to Pierre-Yves Russell, who happens to be Burch’s husband (Russell was previously the chairman and CEO of LVMH). With the CEO switch, Burch could go back to focusing heavily on creative direction and design rather than working on the business-heavy side of the brand. “People ask me if it was hard to give up the CEO title. It was the easiest thing I’ve ever done,” Burch told the Washington Post . Another notable move in the Burch game plan was the addition of Brian Molloy — a notable fashion stylist whose work you can probably recognize via Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson’s effortlessly chic style — who now works at Tory Burch as a fashion editor, putting together looks for runway shows, photoshoots, and campaigns. “I don’t think it was a concerted effort on everyone’s part to be like, ‘Let’s scrap this and start fresh. I think it was like, ‘OK, what do we have to say here? What do we want to say?’” Molly stated to the New York Times . The SS21 Ready-to-Wear collection is what clued the rest of us in on what was going on with Tory Burch. The new collection was minimalist clothing meant for layering and living in — a far cry from the strappy sandals and office-approved pencil skirts of the 2000s. Comfortable cottons and wools manipulated in functional and versatile silhouettes, like a white cotton dress with an exaggerated collar and baggy yet fitted beige trousers, were modeled against a countryside setting. An article  from Business of Fashion described the collection as “shaking off the global-traveller glam that defined her brand’s ethos for over a decade” and going back to the basics: modern, elevated, and sophisticated, better fit for the minimalism of the 2020s than the excess of the 2000s. But don't worry — the shoes that were a staple of Burch’s brand are still around. L-R: Suki Waterhouse, Emily Ratajkowski, Bella Hadid The true secret to this massive rebrand? Handing over the power. Tory Burch was able to take back her creative leadership to get back into the space of what she is most passionate about. “I’ve learned over the past five years that that’s really my passion: women and women’s bodies. How to really make women feel confident. That’s the biggest thing I think about is: How do you make women feel beautiful and confident, like they can tackle a lot of the hard issues that we’re all facing in the world?” said Burch to the Washington Post . Burch’s success is a case study in what it means to give higher creative control to designers, thinkers, and creative directors. Even in today’s diverse creative landscape, according to Vogue Business , only 8 out of the 33 creative directors in the Vogue Index are female. 1 Granary  lists the statistic of female creative directors in fashion at 12%. Not only did Burch take a big risk with her business with her as CEO, she put herself in the minority of being part of the 12% of female creative directors — and it paid off. One thing’s for sure: Tory Burch is back on my fashion radar – not just for her new elevated designs but for her dedication to herself as a creative. I think we can all take a thing or two out of Tory’s book.  🌀 Macy Berendsen is a writer based in Chicago. She can be found online at @macyberendsen .