Sandals/Scents/Skirts/Sales
What it says on the tin.
Hiii! The past few weeks have been saturated with piecemeal gigs I’ve cobbled into a “barely scraping by” version of a life, which is better than what I had going on before, but I truly hope one day things will shake out in a way that feels actually livable and not just survivable. In the meantime, alongside my ever-strong love of One Piece, I’ve become deeply obsesses with Dungeon Meshi, an animanga series about food/cooking in all of its cycles, physically and metaphysically transformative properties, and invocations of both strength and vulnerability.
As someone who has never eaten meat and loathes cooking (and, unless the food is really good and I’m not responsible for it, eating), I was shocked at how much a show about eating monster meat out of financial necessity resonated with me, and even more startled to find a character so alike me in facial features, stature, and persona that I’ve had more than one dark night of the soul researching “affordable armor” and dreaming of future cosplays once my hair stops doing whatever it’s doing right now (i.e. standing stock straight up to 3 inches off my skull).
Anyway, in the scant hours between sobbing and laughing hysterically over some facet of this story, I’ve found myself drawn to three specific areas in the loosely-defined fashion sphere—sandals (namely orthopedic/recovery sandals, furthering my brave quest to eschew current standards of flatness in footwear in order to lessen my constant joint pain), scents (come on, a scent can be part of a look too!), and skirts (who in their right mind has touched a pair of pants with a 10-foot pole this month in areas hit by the heat wave?). Below are my top picks in each category, many road tested by myself (including every scent—I couldn’t recommend a smell I hadn’t smelt), plus a smattering of currently-on-sale items I’ve been tabbing through wistfully at random intervals. Thanks for reading!
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Sandals
This brand was recommended to me by the inimitable
, and I tried a pair on at REI yesterday—as comfortable as promised, though I wish they were a little less squishy and more stable, but that’s just my weak ankles talking. I have a hard time “investing” in flip flops, as I can only really wear them two or three months out of the year due to my bloodlessness (Reynaud’s! We are really doing my full medical panel on this newsletter as of late), but the shiny colorways (which REI didn’t have) are very compelling—if I ever want a flip flop, this will be what I go for.
I am a big proponent of Healthy Feet Store Dot Com, and these sandals especially look suspiciously close to something a brand along the lines of SC103 or Paolina Russo (both featured in the sale section below!) would pair with their outfits—the faux-weathering is a bit cheesy but I think it’d work in person, I like the eyelets on the strap, and you can tell that these are hardcore arch supporters.
I have a hard time with slides because my feet are bad, but I really like the curled toe of these—like an elf stuck in Venice Beach. I’d love to try them on, and Keen honestly never lets me down. Let me know in the comments, on IG, or in a response to this email if you’ve ever tried them and what they’re like…
Another brand I ride for. I like the weird, vestigial little decorative strap—reminds me of a piece of hair wrapped in thread at summer camp.
My little sister got these (on my recommendation, thank you!), and while recovering from major hip surgery, has been loving them. I love a sandal that can genuinely transition to F/W with the addition of a robust sock.
Scents
This scent is sharp and didactic, its verdant figgy edges softened by coconut milk. It sometimes gets too intense for me to wear on a regular basis, but it’s an incredible summer night out smell.
Now THIS one I never get tired of and am heartbroken to have run out of my sampler (a very reasonable $40 for four scents, btw). It is chlorinated and vaporous, like if someone turned the Pirates of the Caribbean ride into a sauna and threw in some fresh grasses and mellow citrus—it’s not incisive at all, very easy to huff all day, and pretty long-lasting. A surprise favorite.
Cloudland is the easiest perfume in the world to love. Somehow I LOST MY FULL-SIZED BOTTLE GENEROUSLY GIFTED TO ME BY THE BRAND in my move to NYC which I think about 10x more than I should and makes me feel like a lunatic, but anyway, it’s like how your laundry would smell in Heaven, and that’s pretty much all you need to know. Just try it ($30 for five scents! We are cooking!)
Another surprise favorite—this scent is savory, erotic, and carnal. Very Dungeon Meshi (spoilers: people kind of get eaten!).
A scent I didn’t think I’d like on paper but was delighted to smell—gingery and woody, very androgynous and comforting, the ideal winter scent.
Skirts
I love a non-straightforward hemline, and a viscose skirt is great when you feel like your inner thighs are sprouting sweat glands that didn’t exist before.
I’m reluctant to recommend a raw-hemmed skirt, as it almost always signifies designer laziness and a lack of structural integrity in a garment (and suggests it could easily be DIY-ed out of thrift store finds), but this Vaquera number is just pitch-perfect. The mid-rise waist, the length, the side sippers, I would certainly wear this.
If you like the above skirt, go get it, because it seems to be a one of one sample at a great price—I will admit I am a lifelong peplum enjoyer and I love the 2024 bubble-hem take on the silhouette, much more compelling than those awful pseudo-neoprene a-lines we had back in the olden days.
I just KNOW this skirt would be miserable to maintain, it looks so wrinkled even in the product photo, but its colors are so unique that I still wanted to include it for inspiration.
I really love what Britt Liberg does in every facet of their creative life (they’re Nicklas Skovgaard’s frequent model/muse), but their skirt line is especially compelling—I notoriously love to wear tubes, and don’t see enough bubble skirts taking advantage of their shape to impart volume to both top and bottom of the leg.
Another Britt masterpiece—gorgeous, uncannily sheeny green and masterful crunching.
Sales
This looks like the easiest thing ever to wear, 100% silk so it wouldn’t be too stuffy right now, cool halter shape.
Flore Flore is only rivaled by the likes of Brooke Callahan in its ability to be so specific about color it feels like it is discovering a new color altogether. I’m wondering if the baby tee is how we rehab the v-neck from its American Apparel-induced hibernation.
I kind of hate this shirt but I also really want to wear it. It feels like something that’d be sold at the exit-through-the-gift-shop at the Indiana Jones ride in Tokyo Disney. I am, for better or worse, a sucker for faux layered shirts because I am obsessed with ease in my wardrobe.
If you’ve had this tote on your wishlist for a while, this is probably the best price you’ll ever find outside of resale on such a versatile colorway—I think this would be perfect for summer-into-fall transitional weather.
If I get paid this week, I can’t promise I won’t buy this and write it off as a business expense (and yes, I will report back on it). I’m usually happy with the fabrication of SC103 products so we shall see! Or not!
Thanks for being here, go give Dungeon Meshi a try, and have a safe and well-cooled week!
<3 ESK
You are very correct about the not-so-stable feel of that Oofos model. Very cushy, but I think a flatter version would be better (have had back surgery and I have tile floors, so...I love a marshmallow slipper substitute.)
That shimmery green skirt! I have these bronze curtain panels on my canopy bed that reflect light like that. Maybe I should fashion a skirt. But then I wouldn't have the panels, and I love them! (Bought at Habitat UK years ago and gone forever.)
love my oofos so much!! i play roller derby which is extremely difficult for my feet but using oofos as my house slippers has helped tremendously.
debaser is my favorite fig scent by far. that hint of coconut milk is addicting! i need to find my sample of steamed rainbow again. i was expecting petrichor from it and it isn't that, but you've convinced me to try it again!