Tessa, Two Lius, and Jeans

There was a Chanel party the other night in New York during NYFW and this one is for Violeta because Tessa Thompson showed up with a Chanel bag in hand and a Fiona Apple concert tee on her body. If you missed it, Violeta wrote a piece about “Fiona Apple’s Protest Song” at The Squawk a few months ago. This is such a cute look, and Tessa’s been serving them one after another lately as she promotes Hedda. Sarah’s review of the film from TIFF is here.

Also at the Chanel party, Lucy Liu and Havana Rose Liu and I am personally so excited about this because, frankly, I’ve never been able, until today, to write about a celebrity party with TWO Lius in attendance. Liu is a common Chinese last name, like … I dunno… Lewis in the west. But it's not common to have one famous Liu at this kind of event in NYC, let alone two. 

Havana you might recognise from Bottoms, and we should keep an eye on her over the next year because she has multiple projects in production and was recently at TIFF with Tuner, one of Sarah’s favourite films in the festival and possibly the biggest surprise in Toronto. It’s a crowd-pleaser, and when an audience finally gets to see it, Havana’s profile will grow. 

As for Lucy, she’s gotten a lot of acclaim this year for her performance in Eric Lin’s Rosemead which has also been making festival rounds this summer. She also received the Locarno Film Festival’s Career Achievement Award last month and with Rosemead scheduled for release in December, she is on the long list of Oscar contenders for Best Actress. Long list means longshot but still part of the larger conversation. Seeing her on the circuit like this makes me think that there might be a little bit of strategy here with a campaign, and I’m not mad at it. More resources should be put into a Lucy Liu Oscar campaign! 

Let’s talk about her look at the Chanel party because it’s so good. The jeans especially – high waist, wide leg, and ankle-length, she looks great in them and this is a higher degree of difficulty, I know, because she’s not tall. At 5 ft 3, I’m slightly taller than Lucy (I’ve interviewed her before) and for those of us who are on the shorter side, these wide legs can be intimidating. Right now, though, there are really good options out there in cut and length and I just tried on a few pairs last week for the show. 

I ended up going with the Ralph Lauren high-rise wide-leg crop in the darker wash. They look great under a sweater. Ralph Lauren has another option that’s currently on sale – this is a good price for the brand. 

I also really liked the Veronica Beard cropped Taylor and it too is on sale right now, the advantage with this pair is that it comes in so many colorways. 

Abercrombie has a wide-leg crop option that’s half off right now and there are fewer sizes today than when I checked yesterday because it’s a solid pair of jeans at an excellent price point. 

And this pair by Madewell is more flared and dramatic, I loved them and I wanted them but they are slightly less versatile for my personality because I’m always trying to live in a sneaker or a flat boot and they look most ideal with a couple of inches of height. You don’t have to go with a high heel for these. Literally just a one or two inch heel, any heel, block, point, whatever, and it’ll work. I’m just a lazy asshole. 

Same thing applies to this pair at Anthropologie, they are amazing. This is less of a flare and more like a culotte, in the perfect wash for the style, with the seams coming down the front. This pair is relatively new and I’ve seen them moving fast so the style is definitely hitting with people. 

If you’re not as into the cut of that pair but like the wash and the other details, Gap’s High Rise Stride Wide-Leg Ankle Jeans in the colour-seamed light wash are SO cute. I almost pulled the trigger on these but I ended up buying something else, which I’ll get to next in a minute. I can’t stop thinking about them though so I’ve told myself to wait two weeks and if there are still sizes then it was meant to be. 

As for the reason why I didn’t go in this direction…

Let me put you onto a whole line at Gap that people in Canada might be sleeping on? The Gap x BÉIS collection. I saw two American publicists from LA wearing the oversized hooded denim jacket during TIFF and… it’s fire. Two days ago there were still all the sizes and it’s now starting to dwindle, just FYI. Also FYI, it fits quite big. 

While we’re here though, two more denim top options that I wore from Gap during TIFF. I’m keeping this denim bomber because it’s actually exactly what you want and need in a denim bomber.

And this denim peplum, OMG, I wore it over a long tutu dress and I think the whole outfit might be my uniform for the next month. 

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