Emotional Outerwear
Big Spender volume #005
Welcome to Big Spender, an interactive shopping column delivered to your inbox every Tuesday. In these issues, you will find links to items on my shopping wishlist along with recent good buys and product that sold out before I got the chance to buy. Enjoy & happy shopping!
Has anything ever felt so good to you that it makes you want to cry? It might sound weird and totally exploits my emotional sensitivity, but I often feel this way when it comes to really good food and really good fashion.
Cue the song, Crybaby, by SZA.
I have had SZA’s new deluxe album, LANA, playing on repeat in my apartment every day since it dropped. I am a huge fan of her music, so I was one of the people that were disappointed when the album was not available the morning it was supposed to drop. Nonetheless, I love every single song and feel like they are all somewhat relatable.
I haven’t been on social media as much as usual as of late because I’ve had a lot going on in my personal life that has taken up the majority of my time. My screen time has declined by almost 30% with my daily average at a little over two hours which is impressive but also so eye opening that I had been spending so much time on my phone! But, of course, TikTok is the one app that I can’t seem to not doom scroll on, and shortly after LANA dropped, I saw a ton of chatter about it online.
While there are plenty of people who love the album, like me, there are a lot of people who don’t. For example, I saw a lot of chatter about how SZA makes music for people with “high self esteem and low self worth”.
Here is another example of some hate:
I have so many thoughts on this.
Is it that us, SZA fans, are losers with low self esteem or is that you don’t know how to enjoy music that is made for sitting with your feelings? You would think that with all of the constant promotion of self-care, therapy and wellness on the internet, there would be more people that are in tune with themselves and less people that are still spewing out hatred.
What is so bad about sitting with your feelings? To me, that should be viewed as a super power because it’s so necessary.
Anyways, what was the last thing that made you cry happy tears? For me, it was seeing this photo of Tracee Ellis Ross in an insanely good green leather jacket from Loewe.
Assuming this is a paparazzi pic, but do you see the way she looks back like “oh, hey”. She’s is so effortlessly cool!
Her look along with the infamous jacket has made its rounds on social media and even landed on Harpers Bazaar in 2023. I’ll admit, I’m late because I saw this for the first time a couple of months ago.
Here is another example of amazing outerwear. Only, this one is from one week at a red carpet event . I love the exaggerated proportions of the trench and the subtle touch of logo at the collar.
All of this got me thinking about the amount of really good outerwear I’ve seen this season. It feels like it needs to be celebrated.
Although it’s still cold outside, I am slowly seeing more brands include resort wear on their new arrivals pages. During this time of year, I typically see a big spike in Denim, specifically in outerwear. I love the fashion-forward play on this pocketed denim jacket from ALIGNE that also gives the appearance of a snatched waist. Barrel shapes have been very popular in the denim landscape for the past few months but mostly seen in bottoms. I find the same pushed proportions of this ALIGNE jacket to be very refreshing in the form of outerwear. If you live in a cold region or just want additional warmth, I would wear these denim jackets as tops and layer underneath warm calf length coats!
Speaking of coats, I am obsessed with this burgundy herringbone wool coat from Rouje. If you’re looking for additional warmth at a shorter length, this J Crew shearling jacket is a great option. It’s very chic and easy to style and layer for Winter.
If you can’t tell, I love a waist length coat with a structured collar. As I mentioned earlier, we are entering the transitional phase between Winter and Spring where brands are starting to offer lighter weight pieces that still offer some layer ability. It’s still a bit early for me to purchase linen, but I love this structured cropped linen jacket in this beautiful saturated red from Ref.
Saving the best for last (in my opinion), introducing Sezane’s Bobby Jacket, aka the Clyde Trench Coat’s shorter little sister. If you want to maintain the trench coat vibe without committing to the longer length, this is a great option.
I hope you enjoyed and are staying safe amidst the devastating LA fires. My heart goes out to everyone who has been affected. Please donate and volunteer if you can!
xx, Niya
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