flofly timeline RSS2024-05-15T22:02:15+0000I am so curious what the next year will bring for fashion. It’s been a big shift this year to see fashion enthusiasts (fans, editors, and stylists) get more excited about the Telfar and Ugg collaboration, or the Supreme x Northface puffer coats than they do about fashion week. I totally get it and I feel the same way. Most high fashion isn’t cool anymore; an epiphany I had watching Real Housewives over the pandemic. RHOBH’s Dorit Kemsley wears head-to-toe runway looks in a way that’s so embarrassing I literally have to cover my eyes sometimes. Even with access to the best stylists and clothes on the planet, celebrity style is rarely interesting. Designers too are embarrassing, as evidenced by fashion Twitter’s endless dunking on Matt Williams at Givenchy since his appointment. And sadly, many of the newest and and most talented designers will be forced to sit the next fashion season out. Fashion is going through an awkward stage right now. I remain hopeful for new change and growth in fashion, but all of this did drive me into a period of fashion fatigue at the beginning of the pandemic. My interest in clothes has returned with a vengeance, because this year has made me look at my clothes in a different way. We are dressing for ourselves now and it’s different to enjoy clothes minus the fashion, the basic and less-exciting clothes that just wear well. I had to add some of these to my impractical collector’s wardrobe and the shift has been invigorating. I’ve been focusing on making sure that I really love my own clothes and that they serve me well. It’s been fun for me. Like I said, I realized I had a few gaps in my closet, owing to my collector’s shopping habits. As a fashion lover, I buy vintage not so much as to wear it, but to have it in my own personal archive. I try to wear my vintage as much as possible, so each piece gets to live it’s own little vintage life. But this year didn’t afford m... Read more

]]>2024-05-15T22:02:15+0000 Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a pleasant and non-transmissive New Years Eve. I got the house clean, watched a comedy show via Zoom with my friends, went crazy setting up my new 2021 Hobonichi planner, and drank champagne. It was a lovely way to ring in the new year but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing from my life. After assessing my needs, basic and spiritual, I realized that the hole I felt in my heart was from a lack of thrifting, a lack of consignment store haunting, a lack of vintage! I really don’t feel comfortable spending long stretches of time in any store now, period, no matter how much I miss shopping. I so badly miss spending hours chatting and trying things on at Vintage Martini with the owner and my friend Ken Weber. I miss hitting Crossroads Trading weekly, and finding things like the $35 Comme Des Garcons anime dress. I miss coming home from an antique mall with an armful of tasteless novelty cocktail coups that I know will horrify my husband!! To fill the void of vintage in my life, I searched and scanned and now I am here for you with a round-up of fabulous second-hand goodies I’ve found from all over the internet. Enjoy, and stay safe! F/W 2007 Balenciaga is one of the most iconic Ghesquiere collections of all-time, and this jacket has haunted every fashion-girl’s mind ever since. It could be yours now for 800 dollars (or much less, as the seller is accepting best offers). If you have the cash to spare and want to invest in something archival, you could hardly do better than this. Size 38. This preppy rainbow check two-piece is so chic it’s driving me crazy. It’s like what a Connecticut housewife in the 70s would wear on her weekend trip to the lakehouse. Size small, 60 bucks. Make the move before I do! This red leaf folkloric cardigan is a good “personality knit”, you know, a sweater with a sense of humor and lots to say. The print on this is very now, and ... Read more

]]>2024-05-08T22:02:12+0000A few readers have asked me over the last months to put together a guide on how to create an eclectic mix of style in your home. Because I have access the absolute expert on this topic, my mom, I felt it was high time to write this post. You may know my mom Judy Aldridge as @atlantishome on Instagram, where her house has undergone many different looks over the years. She’s a fearless decorator and bold, eclectic looks are her speciality. We had a long chat about how to build those layers of juxtaposition and art to create a room with one-of-a-kind look and big personality. The people who asked for this post have told me that pulling together an eclectic, layered style within a room can feel intimidating at first brush, and they wanted some tips on how to build a great interior style mix that clashes in just the right way. Here’s how Judy Aldridge breaks it down. Photography by Carley Page Summers 1. Go with your instinct, and buy what truly speaks to you. Even if it feels a little crazy, you’ll find a way to make it work. Don’t be afraid to go for something big, for something bold and let your personality shine through. For example, my mom’s signature in her home design is her penchant for gigantic animals, be they represented through painting, sculpture, or textile. Her upstairs loft has a giant plaster zebra sitting on a brass coffee table, random sheep figurines are tucked into hallways and corners, and wooden Tonola animals adorn shelves. Those are some examples of bold signature pieces, but yours could be a giant pop-art painting, a pair of oversized graphic vases, or a sculptural chair. “I’ve been told my signature is in-your-face whimsy.”says my mom, Judy. She is right, and while some people might balk at putting a two foot tall statue of a dancing horse in a teal dress in their dining room, she knows that bold moves have big pay-off. A giant painting of a cat my mom found when she did a makeover on my sister&#... Read more

]]>2024-05-01T22:02:13+0000I had discovered the Phoenix, Arizona boutique Purple Lizard Boutique online a few months prior and had been quietly obsessing over the small boutique ever since. I found Purple Lizard Boutique when I was digging online for quarantine clothes, and their offering of uber-comfy chic dresses had turned up. As I started clicking through the rest of Purple Lizard Boutiques offerings, I knew I had stumbled upon a very special store. With so much of fashion retail becoming increasingly slick and data-driven, I have deeply missed the textured landscape of small boutique retail, and Purple Lizard Boutique stands out as a jewel of its kind. Purple Lizard has an extraordinary collection of small and hard-to-find designers, as well as goods made by artists and craftsman. You have graphic African print dresses by Fahari Bazaar, made in Tanzania by a small group of seamstresses. You’ll also find Manuelle Guibal, a French label founded in 1991 focusing on understated clothes in carefully dyed raw fabrics. Elsa Esturgie is another exquisitese French label carried by Purple Lizard, and looks like the kind of clothes a Yohji Yamamoto woman would pack for a vacation. The experience of Purple Lizard is light years away from shopping at a giant like Nordstrom or Net-a-Porter. It’s obvious that Purple Lizard is a true labor of love. Left: Manuelle Guibal dress, Right: Fahari red lines dress If this store’s vision seems singular, that’s probably because it is. Owners Marguerite Tram and her husband Joe are the sole employees of Purple Lizard Boutique, making it about as small as small business can get. Listings on their web store aren’t photographed on mannequins, but are modeled by the boutique owner herself taking mirror shots with an iPhone. Marguerite explained over email to me that she opened her store in 1998, after a few years in fashion show production. Since then she’s worked hard to accrue a small stable of sustainable designers for Purple L... Read more

]]>2024-04-24T22:02:11+0000We tend to think of petticoats as something from a bygone era, and they’re certainly not something you ever see in stores anymore, but in my life and in my wardrobe they play a prominent role. They really make a difference for so many of my favorite outfits. I got many confused DMs last week when I posted myself wearing the Adidas ripstop skirt I have been talking about so much. “Why does your skirt look so different than the one on the website? It’s so floofy!” The answer to that question is petticoat magic! Pop a crinoline under that  Adidas skirt and suddenly it starts looking pretty major. Petticoats have transformative powers, as I will demonstrate in this post. Read on below… Above is the outfit where I am wearing my Adidas ripstop skirt with a crinoline underneath, and here you can compare it to the skirt product image shown online without a petticoat. It makes a big difference! The petticoat was super necessary. You can read all about the long, deep history of petticoats and underskirts around the internet if you’re so inclined, but modern day versions aren’t anywhere near as encumbering and scratchy as their hooped and horsehair predecessors. Cotton and nylon petticoats abound in the second-hand market and I get by just fine and very comfortably with one midi-length cotton-tiered petticoat by Laura Ashley and another soft rust-colored nylon square-dancing crinoline that hits at the knee, pictured below. I wear these petticoats all the time, wearing them under my CP Shades Julia dress, a Chantal Thomass silk ruffle skirt, a Molly Godard bubble skirt. In the winter, these petticoats provide surprisingly good insulation under an airy dress (I swear!). My two most used petticoats, a rust colored nylon crinoline and a Laura Ashley cotton tea-length petticoat I do recommend having one longer length petticoat and one slightly above the knee petticoat. If you’re committing to the lifestyle, you’ll need options... Read more

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