Knotting Goods

Four years ago I was flying back from a semester in Italy and feeling gloriously confused in the limbo of euro to dollar slipnslide. I changed planes in Germany and decided to buy my sister’s “I was in Rome and all I got you was this ____” gift at the Frankfort airport. It was clear to me that it had to be a Hermès scarf, whichever one I could afford. Joanie and I would spend hours paging through Vogue, examining all the ads, and thinking about how we would never end up buy anything in that magazine. The deep pooling orange of Hermes signature branding (which Dana Thomas tells us was first chosen because Hermès couldn’t get another color in wartime France) had branded itself in my mind as the first step on the ladder into to the wonderful world of luxury goods.

I did buy a little triangle-cut beauty for her, which they wrapped up in an orange box tied with chocolate colored ribbon. A couple years later I bought one for myself. Satisfied with my new status in society, I saved the boxes and bags under my bed and tucked the scarf away for the perfect occasion. But the scarves, especially for we midwest girls, are difficult to remember to wear, much less wear creatively. So I think the new I Love My Scarf from Hermès is just awfully convincing. Scarf tying how-tos, international candid photos, remarkably edgy girls wearing remarkably conservative scarves—one quickly forgets these are $300+ pieces of silk we are talking about here. (discovered via the eloquent Cathy Horyn at the NYT.)

ps: Lonny has a new issue out online. Hooray!

ps2: Ever since I linked to that summer playlist, I’ve been working my way through all of the mixes on K.I.D. Collective. They’re so easy to listen to when online! Here’s the different mixes posted together.