Dear Style Diary, It's November 12, 2023.

Today I'm thinking about the Comme des Garcons fall 2009 show, the books that I've bought recently, and black clothes.

November is my least favorite month of the year. It gets dark earlier and earlier in Finland, and most days are, if not rainy, at least dreary and gray. My seasonal affective disorder kicks in and all I want to do is sleep, laze around, eat chocolate and watch old fashion shows. (Doesn’t sound all bad, right?)

Comme des Garcons fall 2009. Photo credit: Vogue Runway.

Speaking of old fashion shows, I recently came across a bunch of images from the Comme des Garcons fall 2009 show on Pinterest. The use of tulle and sheer fabrics jolted me out of my November lull to check out the entire show. These clips have the original audio: the first part of the show is here, and the second one here. Sarah Mower’s review of the show talked about emotional tension and “a mysterious welling up of symbolism caused by looking at multiple layers of flesh-colored tulle, veiled face masks, and pyramidal layerings constructed from pieces of jackets, sweaters, and parts of blankets”. Earlier this year a shrunken Loewe trench coat that was featured in the spring/summer 2023 issue of The Gentlewoman had me gasp on Instagram that “I’m not ready”, but maybe I am now, because the miniature jackets that resemble children’s cotton gabardine coats in this CdG show look really beautiful to me. The silhouettes and the cascading layers underneath the tiny outerwear are magical. There’s so much beauty in this show, and I highly recommend watching the whole thing.

This Yohji Yamamoto vintage jacket (above) caught my attention on Vestiaire Collective the other day. In my mind’s eye I can see fascinating outfits emerging from this piece in the spirit of the CdG show. The seller has dated it to the 1980s — fashion is, indeed, cyclical. I don’t usually include shopping links, but if someone with 369 euros of extra cash lying around wants to nab this piece, you can find the listing here.

I went to the Helsinki Book Fair a few weeks ago to hunt down old fashion books from the secondhand book section of the event. It was slim pickings. I wanted to buy a beautiful Richard Avedon fashion photography book that’s a rare collectible, but I couldn’t justify spending a hundred euros on it (although a later google search showed that the price was actually very reasonable). I ended up buying the Olsen twins’ 2008 book ‘Influence’ (what a title!), and a fascinating Finnish book written by Marketta Franck and published by the now defunct Doll and Costume Museum of Tampere in 1997. The title of the book is, loosely translated, “the message and the seduction of clothing”. The book tackles the meaning of clothes from the societal perspective throughout the centuries: the chapters discuss gender, wealth, status, norms, ideals, and rituals. No doubt I’ll be sharing snippets from this book in the coming weeks and months.

I haven’t been photographing my outfits much lately. There’s so little light, and the further I am removed from posting outfit pictures on Instagram, the less meaningful or necessary it feels to record what I am wearing. I have been wearing a lot of black, which is somewhat unusual for me — maybe it’s all the Yohji shows I’ve been watching lately. One of the most widely-used quotes from Yohji has to do with the color black: “Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy - but mysterious. But above all black says this: "I don’t bother you - don’t bother me.” I find that playing with textures and proportions is pretty safe with black clothes. You show up but not show off. It’s like hiding in plain sight.

On the left I’m wearing a fitted Carven tailcoat-style blazer with a cream silk turtleneck and a Pleats Please fringe skirt. On the right, the tasseled and beaded sweater is by Dries Van Noten and the skirt is by Pleats Please. I’m pretty sure I’m wearing black lace-up shoes in both pictures. Everything is second hand and bought this year.

Next week’s newsletter will be a long one — it’s the much requested laundry newsletter. If you have any specific questions, now’s the time to ask them. See you next week!