Photo: Splash News

Written By:  LIANA SATENSTEIN

Kelsey Lu is always one to experiment with the textures and shapes of the idiosyncratic pieces that make up her wardrobe. With the help of stylist Mindy Le Brock, Lu has had quite the fashionable past few months: She’s danced on the deck of a ship in a voluminous orange tulle Molly Goddard gown in her “Shades of Blue” music video and she’s performed onstage in an expansive, origami-like Zhuxuan jumpsuit at a music festival in Arizona.

But even when she’s lounging in a hotel room in a comparatively casual ensemble, Lu still finds ways to challenge conventional ways of dressing—just yesterday, she posted a photo to Instagram that depicted her posing in a loose-fitting No Vacancy Inn T-shirt, a tall pair of cowskin Jeffrey Campbell boots, and a Telfarjacket that she ingeniously wore atop her head. It seems like even when she’s not trying, Lu is setting the fashion industry’s eccentric trends to come—at this rate, look out for jackets-as-headwear on the runways this upcoming fall.

Written By: RACHEL HAHN

Prisca Franchetti’s turquoise slip dress and trousers from last season nearly matched the water they’re submerged in.

Photo: Courtesy of Priscavera

What’s the perfect thing to wear on an unbearably humid, 90 degree day in New York? No really, I’m asking. In late July and August, when the pavement begins to actually sizzle, you can’t walk more than a few blocks without breaking a sweat—not exactly the time to wear your long-sleeved prairie frock or rigid jeans. Naturally, it makes getting dressed for the office (or, dare we say, running around New York Fashion Week) feel rather difficult. How can you possibly look “put together” when you’re overheating, your cheeks are flushed, your hair is frizzing, and you’re starting to glisten? Anything relatively complicated, layered, or strict is out of the question. The word breezy comes to mind; you want something that catches the breeze and lets in some air. But is there something even more refreshing than a crisp breeze? Like . . . being underwater?

Honestly, the only place this kind of heat makes sense is a pool or beach—so why not re-create that feeling with your clothes (and jewelry and beauty products)? It’s in the air, literally: Humidity is water vapor suspended in air. But we mean that figuratively, too. Consider the omnipresent summer slip dress: It’s weightless, it’s cool to the touch, and it flows over your body, sort of like water. There’s a reason we use adjectives like fluid and liquid to describe that shiny, nearly reflective satin. It’s oddly satisfying to imagine yourself in a “liquid silk” dress, isn’t it? Or a silk jumpsuit, silk pajama set, or anything really, as long as it’s aqueous from head to toe. In a recent email newsletter, AYR wrote that its new silk Blush Pant “feels like a refreshing dip in a plunge pool.” Priscavera’s Prisca Franchetti took it a step further and shot her Tahitian-blue silk slip dress and matching trousers in the actual ocean. Nili Lotan, Khaite’s Catherine Holstein, Nanushka’s Sandra Sandor, Attico’s Giorgia Tordini and Gilda Ambrosio, and Lemaire’s Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran have a way with fluid slip dresses, too. In her review of Lemaire’s Spring 2018 collection, Vogue’s Nicole Phelps described the opening look—a simple ivory satin dress—as “luminous,” like moonlight reflecting the ocean. Sold.

Our water-seeking tendencies are turning up in jewelry, too. Jane D’Arensbourg is known for her blown-glass necklaces and earrings, which look like ice dangling from your ears. Jess Hannah’s cut-crystal earrings are called Glacé, or “ice” in French, and Lizzie Fortunato’s Arc cuff is like a frosted ice sculpture for your wrist. As for where to store all of your cool new jewels, Me&Ro’s Robin Renzi is making jewelry holders out of giant conch and scallop shells, which she painted with real silver. (We can picture them on the vanities of the “mermaids” working at Weeki Wachee Springs, who captured our fascination last summer.)

 

Kate Moss pulled off wet-look hair like no one else back in 1994.

Photographed by Herb Ritts, Vogue, April 1994

Like most trends in 2018, this goes beyond fashion. In fact, it really started with beauty. How long have we been on this quest for “dewy” skin? Most women I know use some kind of rosewater spray, and a few even carry it in their bag on extra-hot days so they can spritz their flushed cheeks on the hour. Another friend of mine swears by  gel stick, which is made with seawater and marine minerals and feels like portable AC. Lip gloss is making a comeback, from ’s “cushiony, crystal clear” gloss to Winky Lux’swith tiny flowers floating inside. And wet, slicked-back hair is also having a moment—see Alexander Wang, Prada, The Row, Prabal Gurung, or any number of ’90s-era Kate Moss photos you’ve scrolled past on Instagram. You might recall that slip dresses were big in the ’90s, too. So does this trend even qualify as “new”? From a lifestyle perspective, yes. Today’s women in liquid-silk dresses, wet hair, and “glass skin” probably aren’t smoking cigarettes—sorry, Kate!—they’re eating kale, using sheet masks, downloading meditation apps, and drinking two liters of water a day, preferably from an amethyst glass bottle. The fashion may have come first, but it’s when clothes intersect with bigger cultural shifts—in this case, our obsession with wellness—that a trend starts to feel like real news.

Written By: EMILY FARRA

Photographed by: Graham Walzer

John Stamos walked into a shuttered Sports Authority in Sherman Oaks, California, on Sunday afternoon, wearing a sky blue button-down, navy slacks, gold bracelets, and a red belt his wife bought just for the occasion. Most people would have seen a dapper sitcom star. But those who had lined up in 97-degree heat to preview “That’s From Disneyland! A Pop-Up Exhibit and Auction” saw someone else: Genie from the 1992 animated film Aladdin. The likeness was easier to spot when he stood alongside his family: Actress Caitlin McHugh—whom he proposed to at Disneyland—channeled Princess Jasmine in a long red dress, belly chain, and no shoes; their infant son, Billy, clad in a tiny vest and fez his mother sewed, came in character as Abu, Aladdin’s pet monkey.

McHugh cohosted the event and introduced Stamos to “Disneybounding,” a concept Leslie Kay, a Canadian Disney style enthusiast, coined eight years ago on her website (and Stamos discussed in a March 2017 appearance on The View). While planning a trip to Disney World, Kay began putting together colorful, contemporary looks inspired by the theme park’s most recognizable inhabitants such as Ariel and Rapunzel. Her closet and mall supplied each item. Within a week, the site’s following surged from 300 to 10,000 readers; DisneyBound now has almost 500,000 followers across all social media platforms, many of them adults looking to circumvent the parks’ rule forbidding costumes for those over 13 (which Kay, who set up her site shortly after graduating college, learned about from her readers). Kay, who came dressed as a Clueless-era Cinderella, said although people often “confuse” Disneybounding with the “amazing work” of cosplayers, “I don’t want to pretend that going out and buying a dress from Forever 21 is what they do.” According to McHugh, the fashion subculture is “a cool way to celebrate love for Disney that’s sort of incognito.”

To them, Disney is not the corporate behemoth poised to buy Fox for $71.3 billion. “I love the magic,” said Kay, as well as the knowledge that the movies, parks, and how they continue to shape our culture “was just some guy’s idea.” Such sentiments led Richard Kraft—the agent for composers Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas), Danny Elfman (The Nightmare Before Christmas, 2019’s Dumbo), and Richard M. Sherman (Mary Poppins, “It’s A Small World”), who also directs and produces Disney concerts at the Hollywood Bowl—to spend the past 25 years assembling the largest personal collection of Disneyland memorabilia, much of which is in the exhibition. The possessions not in storage decorated his Encino home, from concept art predating the park’s 1955 opening to posters, ride vehicles, and even a 48-foot-long animatronic sea serpent that once abutted his pool. In late August, after the public beholds his wares for free, Kraft will sell everything, including a restored, animatronic José bird from the Enchanted Tiki Room of Disney’s Magic Kingdom theme park that’s expected to fetch somewhere between $50,000 to $75,000. His 4-year-old daughter, Daisy, has a genetic disorder that causes physical and developmental delays, and a portion of the proceeds will be split between its namesake Coffin-Siris Syndrome Foundation and her school, the Chime Institute. Disneyland Resort president Josh D’Amaro toured and praised the display the night before the preview.

The event had a ’90s theme, and guests in overalls, platforms, backward hats, tiny butterfly clips, fanny packs, flannel shirts tied around the waist, elastic chokers, and winged eyeliner danced to Chumbawamba and Hanson. Couple Sarah Sterling and Leo Camacho, bounders since 2012, dressed as Woody and Buzz from Toy Story (“She’s Alex Mack–inspired; I’m Will Smith–inspired,” he said). Other guests went more obscure: Bedecked in a pink gown and a bun full of gumdrops, Stephenie Pashkowsky explained, “I’m bounding as the cake castle from Walt Disney World in 1996.”

Written By: JENNA MAROTTA

Dua Lipa seems capable of pulling just about anything off—she can don a bold monochrome suit with just as much ease as she can a two-piece Vaquera set that looks like it was made from your grandmother’s curtains. If there’s one thing you can always expect from the British pop star’s wardrobe, though, it’s a chic crop top, whether she is taking in the New York City skyline or on stage in a ruffled miniskirt.

Lipa’s latest take on the youthful style finds her putting a ’90s-inspired spin on the contemporary cut. Lipa paired a Pretty Woman crop top—Richard Gere and Julia Roberts are essentially smizing from the tiny T-shirt—with some Y2K-era sunglasses. And while Lipa’s look is quite a throwback, she finished it all off with a timeless accessory: an adorable little dog that’s nestled on her shoulder. Roberts would undoubtedly approve.

Written By: RACHEL HAHN

Photo: Getty Images

Written By: CHRISTIAN ALLAIRE

Photo: Getty Images

Written By: CHRISTIAN ALLAIRE

Photo: Backgrid

Written By: CHRISTIAN ALLAIRE

In 2016, Kanye West took to his (then active) Instagram account and posted an image of his matte silver Mercedes-Maybach, and matching Rolls-Royce vehicles. While the post seemed to present the opulence of West’s lifestyle, it was a message in how the artist views fashion—and last night, the musician did it again with wife Kim Kardashian West, where he matched her wardrobe with his vehicles in Los Angeles. As the duo enjoyed a kids-free evening, Kardashian West matched their ride, the matte silver Rolls-Royce, like a futuristic Barbarella in a liquid silver skirt.

Kardashian West has often stepped out in sultry, futuristic ensembles—the blingy Balmain she wore to the 2016 Met Gala, or teasing out pieces from her husband’s Yeezy line in Calabasas and Tokyo—but last night’s approach married a directional touch with practical silhouettes. Kardashian West topped her ensemble with a pearlescent, body-skimming bodysuit for subtle shimmer, while the chainmail skirt (reminiscent of the Vetements dress she wore while twinning with daughter North in 2016) was a daring foil. Amping up the date night flavor was an Angelina Jolie-esque slit, while bi-color, ankle-strap stilettos grounded the look with a leg-lengthening effect. Exaggerated The Matrix-style shades finished it off with a fresh alternative to the micro sunglasses trend.

As for West? He was his own canvas and kept things simple in a dad T-shirt, which was offset by paint-splattered jeans. Combat boots of his own design finished the father of three’s outfit with a comfy and tactical approach to low-key date night style.

Written By: EDWARD BARSAMIAN