“Innerwear-as-outerwear” isn’t a new concept, by any means—for a bit there, it even felt a bit tired. (Another silky cami on the runway? Really?) But lately, designers have started offering up antidotes to lingerie fatigue, with bedroom-inspired pieces that not only can be worn out of the house, but also feel legitimately feel cool, not cringe-y: mustard-yellow lace, sheer bodycon, marabou trims… They’re meant to be shown off. In fact, they look best when paired with your cold-weather staples—your chunky knits, your midi skirts, your oversized coats. Need proof? We styled four of our favorite lingerie-adjacent runway trends to show you how to wear them in your day-to-day (with picks for coping the look for $100 or less.) Check it out.
Photographs by Nicholas Riley Bentham. Fashion stylist: Amy Hou. Models: Carlotta Kohl and Sahara Lin at Elite Model Management; hair: Brittan White; makeup: Joseph Carrillo at Atelier Management.
Buying a new coat is a big deal. Unlike T-shirts and sweaters, which are often replenished seasonally, a new piece of outerwear takes more consideration—and funds. It can be a major investment, but one that people insists checks out on the cost-per-wear meter: You’ll wear it every day throughout the winter, and will likely keep it in your closet for more than one season. There’s another less sensible, by no less important consideration: If it’s going to go over all of your clothes for months on end, it’s got to look good.
With nostalgia continuing to dominate the fashion industry (see: every trend from scrunchies to mom jeans coming back and being deemed “chic”), furry-sleeved coats à la ‘20s and ‘30s are an early frontrunner for reigning outerwear trend of 2018. The exaggerated, opulent accents are made with luxe materials like faux fur, feathers, and shearling. These types of coats have been the hallmark of Copenhagen-based label Saks Potts since its inception in 2014; global brands like Gucci and Prada started incorporating them into their collections in 2016. This year, Anna Sui, Cinq à Sept, Staud, and others followed suit, offering their own versions of the statement-making toppers—which means the style has made it to mass retailers like Target, ASOS, and Zara, too. You can find variations in patent leather, tweed, glimmering jacquard, or even leopard print.
Even if you’re not the “statement-coat” type, this genre of outerwear can be surprisingly versatile—an easy way to look like you’ve put in a lot of effort into your look. A slick leather jackets with plush sleeves reads easy with jeans, a simple sweater, and combat boots; and come the holidays, when metallic-flecked fabrics and ultra-tailored shapes reign supreme, they both feel sophisticated and festive, whether it’s worn over an LBD or satin trousers.
Ready to take a cuffed coat for a spin? Let assortment of 16 styles—from under-$100 options to designer takes—push you toward a hard yes.
For centuries, black women’s physical features have been seen as undesirable because of our inability to conform with “mainstream,” Eurocentric beauty standards. And yet, time and time again, when a famous white woman adopts those features endemic to women of color, it’s considered “cool,” “pretty,” or “trendy.” The debate is nothing new. Just look at the discussion around Kylie Jenner’s lips. She might have the option to get rid of them—or wear “boxer braids for fun—but for black women, these attributes are our genes and culture, not merely an accessory.
And, well, here we are again. The latest example to sweep the internet? White influencers and models appear to be passing as light-skin black or biracial women—also known as “blackfishing”—on Instagram.
The conversation first bubbled up on Twitter, after one user shared a conversation between her and another one of her followers about a Swedish Instagram influencer with over 200k followers. Despite the woman’s appearance—deep, tan, racially ambiguous skin; full lips; and wavy hair—a deeper dive through Emma Hallberg‘s feed showed that before all the spray tans, her skin was actually quite pale. That tweet caused an uproar and a full-on debate about what it means to “look black.”
One user commented, “Some of y’all gotta stop trynna make this look OK..racial fetishism objectifies POC. I bet this girl thinks she looks more “aesthetic” when she makes herself look like a light skinned black girl.”
Another user commented, “White woman if you don’t realize the formula for instant social media fame and notoriety is to copy black womens’ style, appropriate black women culture and pretend to be a mix/light skin black woman then you’re lost in the sauce.” [all sic.]
“I genuinely believed this girl was Afro-Latina,” Deja told The Cut. “She had been mimicking black features and getting famous for it. She has been darkening her skin several tones deeper than her natural shade, braiding her hair to make it look similar to mixed people’s curl pattern, and even been featured on Instagram accounts made for black hairstyles and spotlighting black women. The sad part is she really fooled everyone into believing she was a mixed girl.”
According to Buzzfeed, the influencer self-identifies as white—which she’s confirmed to others on social media (Glamour has reached out for comment and will update when we’ve heard back.)
For example, after an old Snapchat photo resurfaced of her explaining how she got her hair wavy, Hallberg shared that she sleeps with braids in her hair to achieve this wavy look. And after old images surfaced when her skin was noticeably lighter, she was approached by another Instagram user asking if she was white and why her skin used to look so much lighter. She responded, “Yes, I’m white and I never claimed to be anything else.” She also went on to explain that those “before” pictures were taken after summer, where she gets the same tan every year.
“It made me sad that some of my natural features are hurting and upsetting people. It also made me upset and scared that I can’t look the way I look naturally, without receiving false accusations, hate, and threats,” she told Buzzfeed.“I do not have any specific intentions other than [to] show my passion for makeup and fashion.”
Unfortunately, Hallberg isn’t the only white woman who has been recently called out for the same act. Another Twitter thread started to shed light on several white influencers appearing to co-opt black features. Most of them aren’t from the U.S., where appropriation often gets lost in historical context, but nonetheless, with easy access to the Internet and the global conversations that take place around blackface, it’s no excuse.
As a woman of color, it’s disappointing to see that situations like these keep happening, and it’s equally as disheartening that black women are still being held to a different standard when it comes to our physical traits. White women work so hard to achieve the same looks we were born with—and they’re celebrated for them while we’re still shunned. I wish I had an answer to make all it stop. But until then, I’ll keep shouting into the void. Influencers, can you just not?
I’m no blush expert; expertise requires wearing it regularly, and I’ve applied it to my face a grand total of one time. Thanks to a natural permaflush that’s been attached to my face since birth (it’s either a sign of good health or mild rosacea), I just haven’t felt the need. The closest I ever got to making it a part of my beauty routine was when a former boss, shocked at my revelation, hurled a tiny Korres pot at me and melodramatically screeched, “You’d better wear this tomorrow!” And I did—for one day—before going back to my old, blush-free ways.
But that was until images of orange blush started permeating my feeds and dare I say it’s the first time I actually considered wearing it on my own. At face value, “orange blush” doesn’t sound like something a beginner would dive right into—actually, it doesn’t even sound like something people who wear blush on the regular might consider putting on their face. According to Pinterest’s 2018 Global Beauty Report, though, blush in all shades of orange is becoming increasingly popular (searches are up 250 percent, based on their data). The fall trend has also been a mainstay on Japan’s beauty scene for quite some time now.
After going down a rabbit hole of reference photos, you can definitely see the appeal; the color stands out more than red or pink, yet lends a surprisingly flattering glow to any skin tone.
Ready to confirm my conclusions, I set out to put the trend to the test with a little phone-a-friend help from celebrity makeup artist Ralph Siciliano, who has somehow mastered the ability of making every shade of the rainbow look stunningly wearable. “I just did an orange blush look minutes ago,” he informed me when I texted for help. Coincidence? Or it’s just that much a thing now? Either way, it was perfect timing.
When I asked Siciliano on advice for choosing the best orange for my skin tone, he kept it simple: “Usually, the first orange I grab is the one I’m drawn to and I just make it work.” As my eyes were immediately drawn to the blush that screamed “ORANGE!” the loudest, I too was determined to make it work. I sheered it out on my cheeks using a double-ended brush from the same brand, picking up the cream formula with the densely packed contour side, then flipping it over to the blush brush side to blend everything out.
“Placement really depends on the look I’m going for,” Siciliano says. “But for everyday, it’s best to just smile and hit the apple of your cheek where you’d naturally blush.” I followed his instructions with my best cheesy smile and spent the next 10 minutes admiring the results from multiple angles.
Since the cream formula had worked out so well, I decided to step things up a notch and go for a darker orange in a powder formula. Siciliano told me that the orange he gravitates toward depends on his mood at the moment, as well as the vibe he wants to create. “I often go for matte—Kevyn Aucoin makes a good all-around matte orange blush that works for most skin tones,” he says. “But you can use any orange.”
Taking the second part of his advice to heart, I erased my Tangerine glow with a makeup wipe and went in with Nars Taj Mahal. If you haven’t tried Nars blushes before, know that they’re pigmented and proceed with caution. The burnished orange powder, flecked with golden microshimmer, was the most intense of all the shades I tried—intense, but beautiful.
“The trick is to apply it with a super light hand,” Siciliano warned me. “Use very little product and pressure on the brush and build it from there. As long as it’s light, it won’t look ridiculous in real life.” If you’re looking for something that’s almost impossible to overdo, he recommends a mineralized formula: “They have less pigment usually, and they give a great dewy effect with less color payoff.”
Another option to keep things subtle is to search out shades of orange that “make the cheeks look fresh and sunkissed.” On my complexion, this translated to paler peach tones with a touch of shimmer. I layered one coat of Make Up For Ever’s Artist Face Color in B306 Mandarin under Charlotte Tilbury’s Beach Stick in Moon Beach for an orange highlighter-blush hybrid that made me look incredibly dewy.
Having discovered a newfound love of blush (when it’s orange), I texted Siciliano a final time to ask what he recommended pairing it with. “If you want to wear it alone, go for it,” he replied. “If you want to wear it with a nude lip or a dark lip, go for it. Or go monochromatic and match it with your eyeshadow or lipstick.” I ended up wearing all four shades with my usual winged liner, mascara, and brushed-out brows. The one constant that I found really made the color shine was a smooth base. While I usually can’t be bothered to wear foundation, a thin layer of Nars Foundation in Vienna acted as the ideal canvas.
I loved every single shade I tried for this experiment, but there’s no need to buy four new pans of blush if you’d rather work with what you already have—or want to test-drive the color before fulling committing. Lipsticks and eyeshadows can easily pull double duty; I found that Catrice’s $15 Paradise Desert palette contained plenty of options that wore well as both blush and eyeshadow.
I leave you with Siciliano’s most helpful piece of advice, which successfully ended my existential crisis over which orange blush to try first: “The only rules are that there are none.”
Large bags have gotten a bad rep: You overpack, you schlep, you can’t find anything inside… They’ll cause you to breathlessly explain to everyone you see, “Ah! Sorry for all of this stuff.” It takes up an extra seat at restaurants. It’s the reason you’ve saved every receipt you didn’t know you had.
That might explain why fashion rallied behind those super-cute mini bags that can really only fit some credit cards, a tub of lipstick and maybe, if you’re lucky, your iPhone—but definitely not the plus. The most popular one was by French designer Jacquemus, which was six centimeters tall and ten wide. It’s so cute, it’ll initially make you squeal… before inevitably making you scream when you realize there are so many things you need to carry that there’s no room for. But for Spring 2019, Jacquemus appears to have done a 180: At his most recent Paris Fashion Week show, he debuted the exact opposite—totes that were large, spacious, and perfect for emptying the entire contents of your life into.
Jacquemus wasn’t the first to indulge a love for over-packing: Proenza Schouler, Maison Margiela, and Jil Sander have all released large shoulder and tote handbags within the past year, having models tuck them under their arms or wear just one strap on their shoulder so that the other flails in the wind. Being a lady with lots of things is nothing to be ashamed of.
So go ahead and get ready to carry everything you own and see below for the best large handbags, in order of how much stuff they can actually fit.
In recent years, the Scandinavian label has reached international ubiquity, all while maintaining a relatively accessible price point. (Basics hover around $200, versus $500 to $600 per piece for comparable “contemporary” labels.) But its story begins back in 2000, as a side hustle of Frans Truelsen’s, a Copenhagen-based gallerist. Nine years later, he would bring in Nicolaj Reffstrup and his wife, Ditte, to manage the business and creative, respectively. That’s really when Ganni began its ascent.
Ditte, a former fashion buyer, first got involved by helping Truelsen design some shoes, at a time when Ganni was bringing in less than one million Euros annually, according to the now-creative director. “It was really nothing—Frans designed a couple of cashmere sweaters, some T-shirts,” she recalls of Ganni’s earliest days. Nicolaj, now the brand’s CEO, adds: “It was not coherent, not a fashion collection, really. It was just Frans doing what he thought would be cool; one-off products.”
PHOTO: Melodie Jeng
Ganni Dainty Wrap Dress, $235, available at Shopbop.
What made Ditte want to be involved with the growing brand was a desire to create a different type of Scandinavian style: “Every time I was out traveling, it really annoyed me that people thought that being Scandinavian meant either you were very androgynous or very bohemian, and I couldn’t really recognize myself, my friends, or the girls I’m inspired by in that at all… I thought there was a ‘Scandi 2.0’ style that the world hadn’t seen yet.”
From the beginning, the price range has been set to be relatively affordable. (Accessories start at $20, and nothing in the collection is over $1,000.) “We just did what we felt was right, a fairly honest price point,” Nicolaj says. “Democratic fashion is a concept that reflects very well the society we live in, and way we think and act. You wouldn’t get an average Danish customer to pay $600 or $800 dollars for a basic dress, as is usual for contemporary brands in the U.S… In return, we get very high sell-throughs.”
He continues: “From a product and a price point, we just did what we wanted to do: We wanted to be perceived as an international premium or designer brand, without knowing it’s not how you’re supposed to do things, we insisted on sitting next to very, very cool brands, in very, very cool specialty stores across the world.”
PHOTO: Cornel Cristian Petrus/REX/Shutterstock
Ganni Edison Bucket Bag, $220.50, available at Shopbop.
Ganni positioned itself as on the same level as pricier contemporary labels, but with a lower entry point and a quirkier approach to wardrobe staples: cozy knits in rainbow stripes, easy dresses in bold floral prints, drawstring pouches covered in beads … Ganni has that charm of being an indie brand based in a very cool city that’s not a fashion metropolis, as well as a tremendous trend-spurring power that stems from understanding what people wear, versus shock-and-awe feats of design made for the catwalk and Instagram. You’ll absolutely see its wares on your social feeds, but it’s not just on diehard fashion industry types—these are the kinds of clothes that speak to intelligent, confident women across creative industries: a mix of slightly-off-kilter basics, like high-waisted, wide-legged red jeans and a demure shift dress, alongside a zebra print midi dress and a pleasingly duvet-like quilted floral jacket.
“The styles can easily mix-and-match, but are also special enough to stand out on their own,” says Caroline Maguire, fashion director at Shopbop.
Creating pieces that feel directional, interesting, and thoughtful is one thing. Knowing how to get them in people’s closets is another. And the Reffstrups have adopted a somewhat unconventional strategy to grow Ganni’s business—one that involves turning away potential retail partners.
“Again and again, we’ve edited out retailers we didn’t feel were resonating with the brand,” Nicolaj says, versus continuing to take on more wholesale buyers, as most indie brands do. Case in point: In fall 2017, Ganni dropped around 100 retailers out of approximately 400 total; one of which constituted 10 percent of the brand’s total sales.
“A lot of things went into making that decision,” he explains. “We’ve been running this company as you would a tech company, with a very strong vision but no business plan… We always knew what brands we’d sit next to, and and the retailers we wanted to work with. We kept pushing until we got into those retailers.”
That approach has paid off: According to Nicolaj, Ganni has grown around 50 percent each year—“steady, organic growth that we hope is perceived as sustainable and relevant… Honestly, we could have probably grown a lot faster, doubled our growth overnight, by not dropping wholesale accounts, taking on even more wholesale accounts, opening more stores, but that’s never been the ambition.”
PHOTO: REX/Shutterstock
Ganni Denim Jumpsuit, $405, available at Selfridges.
Natalie Kingham, fashion and buying director at Matches Fashion, which began carrying the brand this season, highlights the success of Scandinavian designers and “their simple, clean aesthetics and effortless wardrobe essentials” on the online retailer. “Ganni is a strong addition to the mix of these designers we already have and the brand has quickly garnered the attention of the street-style set; we find that Instagram is a powerful shopping tool.”
Net-a-Porter discovered Ganni a few years ago, first through Instagram and then at Copenhagen Fashion Week—before the brand had any online wholesale business. “The brand’s designs were popping up everywhere and being worn by all of the Scandinavian It-girls,” Elizabeth von der Goltz, the retailer’s global buying director, explains. Sales of the brand are very strong for Net-a-Porter—without sharing specific figures, von der Goltz says: “We keep exponentially expanding our buy with Ganni. We noticed very early on that our customers could not get enough of their designs. It’s grown to be one of our top selling brands.”
There’s an approachability to Ganni that Saks Fifth Avenue, another one of its major stockists, credits for its success. “Ganni has hit the sweet spot of balancing the storytelling elements of fashion with everyday consumer wearability,” says Tracy Margolies, its chief merchant. “There’s a romance in the Scandinavian lifestyle; it evokes a carefree, lighthearted feeling, and Ganni does just that. The clothes are easy to wear, the silhouettes are flattering but never restrictive, and the prints and palettes are always happy.”
PHOTO: Christian Vierig
Ganni Rosenfeld Mini Trapeze Dress, $900, available at Saks Fifth Avenue.
Saks Fifth Avenue declined to share sales figures or distribution changes (previous or planned) for its Ganni business, but Margolies says customer reactions to the brand have been “very enthusiastic,” with “figure-flattering wrap dresses, feminine silk tops, and easy separates” as bestsellers. (Those wrap dresses have also been a hit season after season for Net-a-Porter, too, “because they transcend trends and age, can be worn from day to night, and styled in many ways,” per von der Goltz.)
The brand’s remarkable success has resulted in an outsized effect on fashion trends more broadly. (Our sleeves are much puffier, our printed dresses much more floral, in a post-Ganni world.) Ditte insists it’s not by design: “It happened very organically, we didn’t have a master plan, honestly, we just tried to do what we like and what feels right. I think people can really recognize themselves in it.”
It didn’t hurt to have a crew of #GanniGirls, brand ambassadors that wear its latest collections and post about it on social media, on their side, including mega-popular street-style stars like Pernille Teisbaek and Reese Blutstein, aka @double3xposure.
PHOTO: Christian Vierig
Ganni Marlyn Cowboy Boots (right), $548, available at Farfetch.
“I really love the quirkiness of the pieces they create, and they just have an eye for unique patterns and fabrics I would never think to pick out,” Blutstein says. Ganni’s success, she believes, has a lot to do with being “extremely wearable,” while still having unusual twists, that give its designs more mileage.
Stylist Alexandra Carl praises the fact that Ganni “doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is very appealing, because essentially we all just want to have fun. It’s just clothes, after all… I think they capture something very playful and of the moment; women want to have fun and experiment with their style.”
PHOTO: Christian Vierig
Ganni Charron maxi dress, $267, available at Farfetch
There’s also a quality that’s hard to describe—a Danish je ne sais quoi—that maybe fills a void for shoppers who might feel fatigued by certain fashion tropes, like the fascination with “French girl” and the “New York model-off-duty” aesthetic. Perhaps the timing of Ditte and Nicolaj’s Ganni in the late aughts, ushering in a fresh interpretation of Scandinavian style, aligned well with our collective tiring of these mythical style icons. As Nicolaj explains: “The Copenhagen girls in general have a style of their own, [they] dress well, and they’re confident… It’s not just like we’re particularly great at dressing themselves; it’s a matter of attitude, and living in a society that’s the most well-balanced places left on earth, and that injects self-confidence and attitude, and affects how they look.”
“Growing up in a place where you’re allowed to be yourself; it’s personality, you see the person behind the clothes, not the clothes that wear the person,” Ditte explains. Carl calls Ganni’s take on it a “liberated vision of Scandinavian style, that’s not so clean, strict, and ‘uptight’; it’s quite free and laissez faire, which I think suits the vibe in Copenhagen very much.”
PHOTO: Szymon Brzoska
Ganni Blakely Zebra Print Wrap Top, $362, available at Farfetch; Ganni Blakey Zebra Print Trousers, $335, available at Farfetch.
Right now, Ganni has its sights set globally: “We’re hoping to build an international brand, but we’re trying hard to keep it very relevant and sustainable in the long run,” Nicolaj says. The Reffstrups are particularly focused on the U.S., with a goal to have a bigger retail footprint stateside. (“We like old-school retail, where you can meet and embrace the customer—they can touch and feel your product, and I don’t think that’s ever going to go away,” Nicolaj says.) So don’t be surprised if you start seeing more ruffled skirts or bold prints in your neck of the woods.
So, what’s that Ganni secret sauce, exactly? “The brand has had a very strong point of view and that’s something that has stayed true despite their global success,” explains Net-a-Porter’s von der Goltz. “Ganni is particularly good at building a loyal following and social presence, and I think that’s something every brand should be considering in the coming seasons.”
The magnitude of its trend-spawning, Copenhagen-cool-dispersing effect, though, is nearly impossible to explain, even for the couple responsible: “We’re both insecure overachievers,” Nicolaj says with a laugh, noting that when the brand gets lauded for being a global trend-creating force in and of itself, the couple tends to “feel even more insecure and work even harder; we’re not too good at stopping to appreciate things. We like to be very honest and sincere!”
In fact, it’s all about moving onto the next—as Ditte describes: “After our show this summer, people were very positive about it, and the first thing I’m thinking is, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing next time?!’”
