BASIC

I don’t know what it is about July, but something shifts. The pace starts to slow down just enough that I finally have room to notice the little things I’m gravitating toward. The things that make an ordinary Tuesday feel just a little bit more beautiful. We’re officially in high summer, and the days seem to stretch just a little bit longer.

If there's one thing four countries in two months will teach you, it's that you wear about ten percent of what you pack. I've been living out of a suitcase since June, from Texas heat to Montana's cold nights to London drizzle to Copenhagen cool, and as I head in to my trip to France I have noticed there are the a handful of pieces kept earning their place while everything else just takes up room.

I’ve got it all. The meditation pillow next to my desk. My tarot card deck next to my bed. My perfectly curated tea selection, kettle, and cute Danish tea cups in my kitchen. I’ve got the podcasts, the meditation guru, the mindfulness coach, my hippie breath work guide in Topanga, and even a hypnosis expert I Zoom with from Portugal. A person I call for cord cutting, a playlist I put on when I’m anxious, the therapist I’ve worked with for over ten years on IFS, EMDR, and more.

Hi there, It’s been a minute. Three weeks, to be exact. I didn’t plan on taking a (much needed) break from work, but apparently my system needed one. As you’ve most likely seen on social media, summer is in full swing. Montana with the girls, Wimbledon, Copenhagen. It’s all on the grid. What you haven’t gotten is a single word from me here, and I’ve been trying to figure out why. I talk a lot about how “less is more,” and I apply that rule of thumb to my closet and my outfits every day.

Spoiler alert: it’s not pretty. It’s also not something people talk about when they’re in the middle of reinvention. At least I didn’t. I didn’t post what the reality looked like, because it wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t filtered, and it wasn’t linear. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but looking back, there were definitely things, tools in my toolbox, that I leaned into hard during this time (more on that below).

I don’t know about you, but my summer wardrobe plans do not consist of running out and buying all new everything with splashes of prints that will die out after the season. They do, however, consist of investing in a few key basics that will transition easily from season to season. Over the years, I’ve found summer style to be my absolute favorite. The pieces that I end up buying each summer tend to be things that live in my closet year-round and are things I go to year after year.

When it comes to taste, I’ve always believed that less is almost always more. Less jewelry. Less clutter on the shelves. Less choice. I realize the past few years have been dominated by the conversation around “quiet luxury,” but that’s not quite what I mean. I’m not talking about a price point, a label, or a monochromatic cashmere wardrobe. I’m talking about the discipline of knowing when to stop. When I say this, I don’t just mean knowing when to stop with your wardrobe.

This weekend came in hot with the realization that summer is officially here. I have a confession: my wardrobe isn’t quite ready. Between wrapping up the school year, signing the kids up for camps, planning travel, and keeping up with a packed social calendar, shopping has fallen to the bottom of the list. Over the weekend, I reached for a dress and ended up wearing a Rachel Comey favorite that’s been in my closet for more than five years (see the bottom of this post). And honestly?

I was sitting at coffee with my ex-husband’s girlfriend the other day and I felt jealous of her (yes, you read that right). Not for the reasons you’d expect (ha!). I wrote a little bit about this in the “Things I Can’t Stop Thinking About” post. She mentioned, casually, that she doesn’t sleep with her cell phone in the room. Boy was I jealous of that idea. I laughed at myself the whole drive home. And honestly? It really stuck with me.

It started with Kelly Rutherford’s sunglasses at 1am. Not on purpose. I wasn’t researching anything. I was doing that thing where you’re not asleep but you’re also not making decisions, and suddenly you’ve spent hours going deep on the eyewear of a woman from Gossip Girl circa 2009 and ended up at a vintage Hermès rabbit hole that didn’t close until sometime around 3am with three browser tabs open and a very specific feeling of wanting. This doesn’t happen for me often.