I’m the first person to jokingly say that my “signature style” is really more of an absence of style. (Ironically, my twin sister is an extremely gifted fashion designer — I’d gladly let her pick out all my clothes for the rest of my life.) It’s not that I don’t love shopping; my style has just always been very minimal and functional, so anything with bells and whistles has never been my jam. I happily thrive in the land of neutrals and denim. Summer dressing for me usually involves a uniform of plain white tees and high-waist shorts.
That said, I loved that AllSaints had items that spoke my style language in addition to layer-able pieces like an oversize linen blazer to dress things up a bit. (Last touch: a logo visor to keep my face protected from the sun.) During a recent work trip to sunny Los Angeles, I packed my AllSaints haul and planned my outfits around Golden Hour’s pieces: For an alfresco poolside dinner, I wore a silk navy cami and denim skirt with the Sammie Linen Blazer, an airy, oatmeal-hued layer that is making me a “summer blazer” person. The next day, I spent time biking from Santa Monica to Venice and back clad in the (very apropos) beach-printed Solis tee paired with the mid-thigh Alfie denim shorts. To top it all off, the Oppose Visor was the real MVP during high noon — and didn’t leave me with dreaded hat hair.
Seventy-five dollars for a tee (not to mention $135 for shorts) is a splurge, but trust me when I tell you that these are not your basic basics. (Also like, AllSaints for my angel, amirite?) Whether you wear each item solo or styled together for a head-to-toe drip, I’m making this summer my most stylish one yet, thanks to these key pieces.
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Today’s trends are anything but straightforward, with platforms heels, opera gloves, and micro mini skirts all making waves. Ensuring that your wardrobe is up to date can often mean searching for shoppable items in a sea of puzzling options. Our column Sourced answers all your market-related questions, as well as offers you an endless source of styles that will make snagging today’s top trends easy, so you can spend your precious time learning about the next wave of trends.
The footwear motto this summer is “The higher, the better.” And to aid with this, the biggest shoe trend of the summer, the platform heel, is here.
Thanks to the resurgence of Y2K styles and Bratz fashion, sky-high shoes — of any kind — are back in fashion. Brands like Marc Jacobs (top photo), Versace, and Valentino are leading the trend on the runways, as are celebrities like Olivia Rodrigo and Doja Cat on the red carpet. Actress Nicola Peltz even chose chunky platforms for her wedding day to Brooklyn Beckham in April, sporting a pair of white satin platform pumps by Versace.
According to global shopping platform Lyst, the Naked Wolfe platform boots are among the top products of 2022’s first quarter, alongside an ankle-strap pair from Valentino. Meanwhile, the Versace Medusa Aevitas platform pumps have already become one of the hottest accessories of the year, with Google Trends showing an increase in searches of 750% for the double-stacked pumps despite the hefty $1,500 price tag.
It’s more than fair that after two years of athleisure, sneakers, nap dresses, the world is ready to, just like Carrie Bradshaw says, put on the big gal shoes. Along with party dresses, micro mini skirts, feathers, and opera gloves, the platform craze is just another example of how trends are inviting us all to exude main character energy all summer long.
Ahead, 24 options to try now.
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Ankle-strap Platforms
From fancy dinner dates to a night out dancing, ankle-strap platforms are probably one of the most secure ways to wear this trend, with the strap working overtime for you. Tip: Go with a pair that has a bedazzled strap that can double as an anklet, another big summer comeback trend.
Platform Sandals
If the over-the-top nature of platforms pumps doesn’t work for your lifestyle or the cobblestone streets you’re surrounded with, casual sandals are also everywhere this season, from furry, slipper-like flatforms to colorful slip-ons.
Platform Boots
They may seem more fitting for the Bratz dolls stage than real life but, trust us when we say, platform boots are simple, fun, and easy to walk in for all those summer nights when the vibes are high enough to need some comfy shoes to guide your path.
Platform Sneakers
Of course, some want to retain the levels of comfort we’ve all reached over the past two years, and platform sneakers — whether they’re beach-friendly espadrilles or skateboarding-ready numbers — are the best option. Still, don’t run too much in these.
Platform Mules & Clogs
Yet another way to hold on to comfort, mules and clogs have become synonymous with the stylish, casual bunch. From bright yellow clogs to simple black mules, there’s a platform to match your clomping taste.
Platform Flip-Flops
If the Y2K comeback wasn’t apparent enough, welcome back platform flip-flops, whether you’re spending a day by the pool or shopping for bikinis. The silver lining is, years later, the platform flip-flops are more stylish and less… foamy.
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Question everything: This was the motto of the late fashion designer Virgil Abloh. It was also the thought running through my head as I walked through the Brooklyn Museum’s “Virgil Abloh: ‘Figures of Speech’” exhibit, prompted by a hanging flag expressing this sentiment. In 2019, I visited the first iteration of the show, dedicated to the work of the designer-architect-DJ-photographer who flipped conventions in every industry he entered, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. But, while browsing through the 100-plus items, ranging from design prototypes and clothing to art installations exhibited at their new home, I started to question what I had previously seen.
Partially this was because of the different layout of the Brooklyn exhibit. It doesn’t follow the multihyphenate’s career chronologically like the one in Chicago did; the show begins by displaying pieces like the Louis Vuitton Keepall travel bag, that Abloh reimagined after he became the heritage house’s first Black artistic director in 2018, and a clear suitcase from Off-White’s collaboration with Rimowa, one of the many partnerships that he helmed.
Partially it was because I first saw “Figures of Speech” in the Before Times. Before the pandemic. Before Abloh died from a rare form of cancer in November 2021. (While the exhibit debuted posthumously, Abloh was involved in its planning until his death; his design studio, Alaska Alaska, in tandem with Mahfuz Sultan, collaborated with the museum “to ensure that the artist’s vision was fulfilled,” according to the exhibit notes.)
The show — loosely broken into sections like architecture, music, design, and fashion — still holds the clothing racks full of pieces from Abloh’s first fashion venture, Pyrex Vision, and the Milan-based label that he founded in 2013, Off-White. There is still the striped dress Abloh created for Beyoncé’s 2018 Vogue cover shoot (it didn’t appear in the magazine). There is still the Nike shoe display from when the sportswear giant enlisted the multidisciplinary creative to redesign 10 of its most famous footwear styles in 2017. Yet, unlike typical exhibits, there is barely any signage accompanying the pieces, as if inviting viewers to be a “tourist or a purist,” a point of view that Abloh employed during his design process. Depending on how much you know about Abloh, or whether you want to consult the brochure the museum hands you upon entry or make your own assumptions about the items displayed, you can land in either of the camps.
Some of the most memorable additions to the exhibit include full looks from the recent Louis Vuitton seasons, as well as the Social Sculpture, a large wooden house in the center of the exhibit that Abloh imagined as a space for aspiring designers, artists, architects, and others to come together to collaborate and learn from more-established creatives. The sign around the entrance of the sculpture reads: “Abloh considered the sculpture a representation of Black space, a living monument that holds the potential, through the exchange of ideas, to inspire the creation of more Black space.” To honor Abloh’s legacy of making room for others and championing youth, the Brooklyn Museum will use the room to host a rotating lineup of public programs and workshops. The structure itself, which invites people to enter and explore the “art,” rather than view it from a distance, is in line with Abloh’s tradition of challenging establishment norms.
The “purist” Abloh fans will no doubt spend the longest time at the long tables featuring the multifaceted creative’s various contributions to art, fashion, design, architecture, and music via sketches, prototypes, and finished works, which, as the brochure says, were “informed by the late artist’s understanding of all things as prototypes or works in progress.” As the notes go on to explain, “The relentless process of making, testing, remaking, and retesting is part of the fashion industry and was central to Abloh’s way of working across disciplines.” A reminder that art is never complete, that Abloh will live on.
Just when you think the exhibition is over, after watching a selection of videos from Off-White’s and Louis Vuitton’s runway shows, there is a final reminder of how often Abloh turned established norms on their head. A sign outside the gift shop, where you can buy everything from graphic T-shirts and sweatshirts (a nod to Abloh’s beginnings when he screen-printed images onto store-bought apparel) to coffee table books and exhibit memorabilia, reads the following:
“Recognizing that capitalism and consumption are inevitably present in the invention and creation of objects, Abloh, in his practice, questioned whether there is truly a difference between the commercial and the artistic. For him, the store, where objects displayed can be purchased, is as much part of the exhibition as are the other works on view.”
A gift shop that is an extension of an exhibit? Question everything.
