Hello, Open Thread. To all the veterans who were honored on Tuesday, thank you for your service. If you’ve been wondering why so much green and pink is suddenly popping up everywhere, I have the answer. The “Wicked: For Good” juggernaut is hitting peak volume with the second part of the neo “Wizard of Oz” reaching screens next week, and it brings with it peak product collab. The Hollywood Reporter reports that there are almost 70 — 70! — different “Wicked”-inspired commercial opportunities in the offing, including not just toys and laundry detergent (magic cleaning?) but also a bag from Rebecca Minkoff, a tulle dress from Zac Posen (otherwise of Gap Inc.) and a cashmere sweater from Lingua Franca. That’s got to be something of a record. And it’s not over yet. On Monday, in what may be the most haute collab of all, Monse, the New York label founded by Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim that shot to prominence when Michelle Obama wore its sleeveless suit to speak at last year’s Democratic National Convention, is unveiling a collection of one-off pieces featuring embroidery inspired by the movie. As to why it has proved so, um, commercially creative, Mr. Garcia said that, having long worked with many of the film’s stars, it just “made sense to get the wickedness in Monse.” I say it’s taking that whole red-carpet-dressing-in-movie-theme trend to a new, external level. NUMBER OF THE DAY 35The number of “male-oriented” rams rescued from the slaughterhouse by a German farmer, whose project to save the sheep that were being killed for declining to procreate with ewes has gone global thanks to a partnership with a Hollywood designer and Grindr, in one of the most positive stories I have ever had the pleasure of reporting. In other news, Balmain has a new designer: Antonin Tron, the founder of Atlein. Like many of his peers in the last group of new designers who made their debuts in September, he is in his 40s and trained in Belgium. (Also another white man with a scruffy beard — don’t know what it is about that look, but it has become ubiquitous). Although Mr. Tron’s Atlein featured a lot of the same body-con drapery that marked the Balmain of Olivier Rousteing, the former creative director of the house, and a similar earthy palette, it was lower on the 1980s quotient, higher on deconstruction. We’ll see if Mr. Tron continues in the same vein when he reveals his first collection in March, or if there is a pivot back to some of the more well-mannered style of the former Balmain designer, Oscar de la Renta. Anyone remember that? Think about that. Then consider the meaning of Michelle Obama’s new book, “The Look”; get the shopping guru Mary Portas’s holiday gift recommendations; and check out the new designation of Kente cloth. And have a good, safe weekend. Time to get the Thanksgiving planning going.
Make someone’s day and forward this email. Share your feedback on Open Thread by email. Check out our full assortment of free newsletters.
Your Style Questions, AnsweredEvery week on Open Thread, Vanessa will answer a reader’s fashion-related question, which you can send to her anytime via email or X. Questions are edited and condensed.
Is it my imagination, or I am starting to see blazers and even a few business suits make a return? Are suits back in style? If so, how can I wear and style a suit so that it seems modern and not outdated? — Molly, DetroitIt is not your imagination — and to be fair, suits never really went away. They just became less de rigueur, even in white-collar professional environments, as casual Friday became casual everyday (the exception being Washington, D.C., the last bastion of the classic suit). And yet there is a reason the suit has survived as long as it has. As Anne Hollander posited in her classic book “Sex and Suits” (if you haven’t read it, you should), the suit is essentially the human body, idealized to resemble Greek sculpture by clothing. Who doesn’t want that? According to Linda Fargo, the senior vice president, fashion office and store presentation at Bergdorf Goodman, a suit works on two levels. On the one hand, it can make you “feel pulled together in an increasingly up-for-grabs and disquieting time,” and it is practically “an act of stability.” On the other, and for the next generation, “suit dressing is actually a new mode.” There’s something easy about donning a suit. It gives you instant credibility, making you look pulled together with very little effort. Suits also tap into our current nostalgia for all things 1990s. That’s because, along with grunge, the other big theme of that decade was a sort of professional minimalism as practiced by Helmut Lang, Jil Sander and Martin Margiela, who took the stuffing out of the suit. Maybe that’s why suits were all over the recent runways, present in Haider Ackermann’s louche Tom Ford show, Sarah Burton’s parade of female power at Givenchy and Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel debut, which opened with a simple tweed pantsuit (recently seen on Michelle Obama). Though suits have been creeping back into fashion for a while now — Saint Laurent’s power shoulders emerged in early 2023 — they have officially reached critical mass, according to Tagwalk, the runway show search engine. Simply consider that there were eight pages of suits on Tagwalk after the spring 2025 shows, 14 pages for fall 2025, and 19 pages for spring 2026. Little wonder Ms. Fargo called a suit jacket “a priority wardrobe pillar, especially now.” Bailey Moon, the stylist who worked with President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill Biden, during their time in the White House, as well as Pamela Anderson, said: “When I’m unclear about the dress code — whether for a business event or something social — I always reach for a blazer or something tailored to anchor the outfit. Suiting can be dressed up or dressed down, which is why it’s such a reliable foundation for almost any look.” Similarly, Gabriela Hearst, who always includes tailoring in her collections, said it’s the thing she wears “when I don’t know what to wear.” You can wear a suit on the red carpet and to a premiere, to the office and out to dinner. Also, you can disaggregate it and wear the jacket as a blazer and the trousers as pants, making it an economical choice. (This is especially true when traveling.) But today’s suit is not yesterday’s suit, meaning the way you should wear it is different. Ms. Fargo recommends combining a suit, or jacket and trousers, with things “that have a casual vibe, like denim, loosely worn hair, a knit or tee underpinnings and non-dressy accessories.” Mr. Blazy did that with his Chanel suits (like the one worn by Riley Keough, above) by dropping the waistband to create a trompe l’oeil appearance of exposed undergarments, a reference to the streetwear trend of jeans falling off the hips. The rolled-up sleeves and sheer T-shirt underneath also help. For men, Mr. Moon suggested wearing “a tank top under a suit to show some skin, a turtleneck or even a T-shirt.” Or swap a pocket square for a brooch or favorite pin. The point is, Ms. Fargo said: “You can take a jacket pretty much anywhere, anytime, and it can be styled to fit the moment. You won’t miss. You can’t say that about many other things.”
|
