Dressing for summer and childlike wonder

Day to Night looks for Jenna's expanded capacity

Is this thing on?

If I’ve been hard to reach, that’s because summer is my time. You can pretty much bet that if the sun is out, so am I. Though it hasn’t always been fun to be a summer baby (Remember when everyone would bring in snacks and cards for your birthday in grade school? Because I don’t), this season —against all odds— I’ve felt my capacity expand. Most of the year my track record is (1) single thing a day before tapping out, but lately my social battery has filled up, and my calendar has followed suit.

What’s to explain my greater capacity? Maybe it’s my momentary unemployment in the off season at work; Suddenly my schedule resembles a school-aged past. Natal Cancers are said to be childlike, and true to form, I’ve no shame for my current youthful return. Also accompanying this downtime is a creative headspace that works like a feedback loop, refilling my cup and drinking it, again and again. I think they call this flow. Today I’m dropping in to mark this rare expansion and sense of play with some outfits that have taken me from day to night plans with only a few tweaks.

Left: vintage tee via Mothfood, old Evewear lace bike shorts, vintage Mama hand-me-down Fendi baguette, vintage brown wrap slides via Kalimera. Right: beaded red pouch via Zipper Factory, vintage 90s skirt via Goodwill, Maryam Nassir Zadeh silver closed-toe mules.

Summer attire is about doing a lot with a little, which means vintage t-shirts come out to play, offering their character and effortlessness.

The look on the left carries more water for me than just errands and neighborhood walks. Psychologist William James and physiologist Carl Lange developed a theory that physical changes generate the experience of emotion, rather than the previously established other way around where you are sad (feeling) and so you cry (bodily change). I don’t sleep in this oversized tee and frilly bike shorts, but I could, and so they are easy enough to throw on in the morning (bodily change), which has become a crucial step in making me feel ready for the day and energized (feeling). Anyway, you’ll probably run into me at Walgreens in this.

The nighttime fit was inspired by Subrina Heyink, who writes my favorite style newsletter. By subbing in a slinky, black slit skirt for the bike shorts and changing up the accessories, I’m ready to go to a friend’s show at Baby’s All Right or dinner at Thai Diner (asking the universe for a res). The alchemy of t-shirt, elegant skirt and metallic mules makes me feel up for anything, like the evening can swerve into a bender with multiple locations and I will luxuriate in comfort.

L: vintage t-shirt via Manitou Supply, vintage INC linen trousers via Kalimera, Núnoo studded Ellie bag, a pair of sandals I’ve had so long the insoles have completely rubbed off. R: old Urban Outfitters bodysuit, vintage 60s handbag via Apricot Vintage, Everyone’s Mother buoy belt.

Inevitably when I share my unabashed love for summer in the city — the way the 1% clears out to the Hamptons or Europe leaving we rats to run amok, how a giddy Coney Island day can spring up on the horizon and fill you with a thirteen-year-old’s stamina, the involuntary intimacy wherein everyone shares a bit more of their skin and underarm hair and body odor — someone will throw hot garbage smells and stagnant subway platform air in my face. But here’s the thing: an armor of cotton and linen can withstand all of this and more.

Though it’s been in my possession since September of 2019, this sunny and paper-thin Mountain Dew tee has seen a lot of action these past few weeks. When paired with silk and linen blend trousers, the result is one of my favorite contrasts: young x adult. The combo could also be considered casual x refined. My staple studded bag toughens up the ensemble and makes it feel like me, the kid who wore fishnets and Converse everywhere from class to punk shows in synagogue basements. When the sun starts to dwindle, it’s time to break out the extreme cut bodysuits without any fear of tan lines. A deep V-is-for-vampy halter neck with these trousers provides another fun contrast: femme fatale x Miami Vice masc, like a walking Basic Instinct. The look needs the bauble belt and bright yellow 60s bag to keep it playful. I’ll wear this anywhere I want to cosplay the French Riviera, like say Maison Premiere.

L: old silk scarf; Roucha Diane jeans in wheat; the old beat-up sandals; Ciao Bella canvas tote, a travel souvenir from Nika ♥. R: beaded red pouch via Zipper Factory, Maryam Nassir Zadeh Olympia wedges in Sahara.

The noticeably Gimaguas color story here smacks of radioactive fruit punch flavors cherry and grape. Tying this purple scarf in a one-shouldered configuration that drapes just so is maybe my proudest achievement. Something else about me: I don’t have amazing motor control when my arms are behind my back. Like, every day of seventh grade before school, I walked to my friend Amy’s so she could put my hair into a high ponytail for me. Picture me standing folded in half, my hair skimming her tiled bathroom floor, Amy bent over me with her hands gathering my hair. OK stop, those kids are 13, you absolute pervert. Because of this lack of coordination, after wearing the outfit on the left to the grocery store, it seemed unlikely I’d ever attain this particular draped scarf-top ever again. So I upgraded the beat-up sandals to my favorite lucite wedges, swapped a bitchy little pouch for the tote, and strode into the night.

As time moves unyieldingly forward, day will become night. I’ll get older, and before that, my capacity will contract again. My aim (with this uncharacteristic cheer) is to store up as much sunlight and bloom to bring with me into a future that cannot be known until it’s too late to repack the bag.