Letter of Rec #124: Octoberrrrrrrrrrrr

Letter of Rec #124: Octoberrrrrrrrrrrr

The best personality scarves out there plus: distressed leather, the right sunglasses, jewelry, ponchos and MORE!!!

Leandra Medine Cohen

Oct 20, 2026

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Last week someone asked me my favorite season and I told them fall or spring because to both, there’s a quality of feeling the passage of time — a sense that progress is being made regardless of personal output or participation.

I think I’ve always really liked change, but the answer surprised me because in the past I’ve said that I prefer winter or summer for the opposite reason: time feels more static.

Atmospherically speaking, the changes are limited. Or at least they’re more predictable. And that makes establishing a routine so much easier.

And the reason routine feels so damn good is because it infers a quality of safety, which is (at least in my experience,) essential to making good creative work. The kind that tests my risk threshold and challenges me into vulnerable corners I may not have had the energy to entertain without the illusion of stable ground under me.

More and more I am learning that everything I do, even how I parent, and in someways THAT I parent, is basically in service of producing the best creative work I can.

I don’t mean producing for public consumption or profit or validation or really for any reason beyond what is drawn out of me in the process of making a thing, which is a quality of calm at worst — and at best, it’s the sense that I’m deepening my understanding of purpose and meaning and life in this realm. It’s like tonic for the soul.

I’m happy my answer to the seasonal question changed. It seems to indicate that the conditions that drive me are changing too, and better yet that I’m aware of it. What a shame it would be to let this time go by without savoring the jolt of pleasure I feel when at the same time, the sun

and

the wind hit the part of my neck that is still exposed between my jacket and hair.

Etro

vest (

here’s

her less expensive, slightly longer sister), white tee,

Aflalo

surf pants

I don’t think anyone makes better

outerwear

than

By Malene Birger

By noon, no jackets are necessary anymore. (I’m wearing a

Sezane

sweater — v into the season’s

overwhelming collars

— and holding

a mondo tote

; the capris are

Aflalo

and the clogs are

Gabriela Hearst

). More on the scarf in a jiffy! (Similar sunglasses r

here

)

I don’t want to rush time, and I don’t feel

like I’m chasing it

. For the first time in a long time, it just feels like time. Passing like it always does, with no charge about it. There’s a lot of relief in that.

And as it (the passing time) relates to getting dressed? The beginning of a new season always brings a lot of stimulation with all of its newness in: shapes, materials, colors, texture.

I tend to zero in on tiny details that can make a big impact on simple, basic outfits because it doesn’t take too much commitment, clarity, or lift. Basically, when I go small, there’s less pressure and that feels pretty big! (And the outfits are better.)

Some of the impulses I’m most seduced by these days:

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