Zipper, a Machine
In his invented glossary of the 20th Century, novelist JG Ballard wrote:
Zipper: This small but astute machine has found an elegant way of restraining and rediscovering all the lost enchantments of the flesh.
From top, all found in INA Chelsea: Prada patent leather gloves; Theysken's Theory taupe, silk dress; Lanvin charcoal, silk parachute skirt; Etro linen coat with zip-around waist and arms; Marni coral, silk dress; Lanvin slate, silk parachute pants; Sigerson Morrison lavender, leather flats; Iro white, silk zipper pocket blouse; Clare Vivier suede, tan clutch with neon pink stripe.
20th Anniversary Gift Card Winner - Amani Olu
Amani Olu, Managing Editor of Whitewall Magazine, was the January $500 Anniversary Gift Card Winner!
After visiting INA MEN in Nolita, he chose a Barbour ¾ length quilted parka and an Arthur & Fox cashmere coat.
INA NYC is giving away $500 Gift Cards on the 20th of each month this year in celebration of our 20 year Anniversary. How do you win one? LIKE the INA Facebook page for starters. Then be on the look out for the monthly contest announcement,"Like" the post and you could be next!
My model
Oh, my, model during fashion week.
With your headshots, and your mother, your straight wispy hair,
I see you on the train.
One, two, sometimes three of you – one model I mistake for the other,
and that one for the other.
Though I would not mistake Daria for just anyone,
and who could, with her new,
short short hair?
My adoring poem:
Leather pants tight on skeletal legs,
at the bottom scrunched into ankle boots or high-top sneakers,
of which the two-toned variety is most popular.
Your sweatshirt, with a hood and sometimes without.
Across your arm is slung
a tote bag,
Celine of course for the road.
Over the sweatshirt, your jacket –
fur, leather, or, leather underneath fur on a cold day.
Never complete
Is the steely look
without cashmere.
From the top, INA Soho: Toga leather pants with zipper detail; Rag & Bone distressed leather boots; Isabel Marant sneakers; Celine leather tote; Isabel Marant sweatshirt; The Row straightened shearling jacket; INA brand cashmere hat (in collaboration with Meg Cohen).
Turbans Abound
I need a turban more than ever, the idea of which has always been in the back of my mind but the fixation upon which had never before manifested in a real search. Finally I felt ripe for the occasion.
I went to thirty-some charity stores on the Upper East Side, and flea markets on the west side of town on Sunday, then East Village blocks of vintage boutiques. Very few turbans made sense. This turban isn’t hat-like enough, that one too high, like a chef’s hat. Then, why only black turbans? Or white?
I saw any number of hats: the brimmed hat, the top hat, a curious number of jeweled beanies, and the rotund fabric toboggan - close calls in the windows of resale shops. There were a couple of near-misses. A vintage Christian Dior gold netted turban on the top of an armoire in the East Village. It was too high, what might be called a fortune-teller’s hat. And the next-closest – a simple black turban with its ends tucked into themselves at the crown of the head.
The turban in my imagination has been a vintage silk floral one, netted, that I once saw behind the counter in INA Soho. When I first started working there, this was my favorite object in the store – a cast-off from the Patricia Field sale. I did not buy it; it went to a supermodel, and the closest approximation to its fabric I have found is in a blue spring Thakoon dress. And the longer I looked at this Thakoon dress, the more I thought of it dissected, wrapped, covered in net, and turned into a turban. A Thakoon Turban.
Perusing the spring preview racks in INA Chelsea, the tucks, folds and sheer silk pleats of dresses I realized, are all materials waiting to be turned into turbans. Racks of flowers, pastels and bright primaries – to see these fabrics wrapping a head would really be the implementation of spring.
