sorry was away living in perpetual fear of the sun with shoddy wi-fi aka on holiday so am attempting to catch up whilst battling the jet lag.
quirky, hope you're able to catch your breath a bit again now.
On kimonos, I saw a loose interpretation one at h&m when I was doing some mad dash panic shopping before going away. It was more in the vein of the Etro one but without colour and it has tassles and a fringe at the bottom, looked a bit high priestess as a result. Think I took a pic, will dig it out.
On all things 90s, I too am very partial to strappy shoes, this time and the last time around. Have already been wearing my 90s remnants from the back of the closet since last summer so it shouldn't be a surprise. I'd apply the same principle of not wearing them as you did in the 90s, so I'd wear them under a cropped wide leg now rather than an Audrey H 7/8 trouser or tight mini dress.
From bitter experience I would say it's not really worth spending too much on them as the thin straps wear out quicker than other shoes, they're usually on square toes which are already wide so they just become unwearable but the cheaper incarnations are less comfortable. Have you looked at By Far already Elle, reformation also recently launched a shoe line with lots of strappy 90s silhouettes but the models feet seemed to be shooting through the fronts already in the pictures so I wasn't all that impressed. I tried a few at Mango but I wasn't convinced about the comfort level despite being low heeled.
I'm less on board with the 90s florals but that's just personal bias as it's the quickest route to Frumpsville for me. In a broader sense I'm also missing that one thing that breaks the tweeness of it and brings it to current times. In the 90s they did it by wearing it with Doc Martins and people seem to be just repeating it again now. Though I suspect those are people who just never stopped wearing them like that.
I did check out the Rihanna collection when it launched to see the prices, well a day or so after. Was surprised everything was still available. Not the sticker shock I was expecting, it's about the price point of Jacquemus which is very reasonable by mid tier designer standards, as an LVMH brand I had expected it to sit higher than that, in the range of Chloé of similar. Was surprised the sizes ended at 42 though, I thought it was going to have a more expansive size range. Nearly ordered the camel fold trousers I posted previously but the size range actually was the thing that put me off, they had it on a 'plus size' model so realistically she couldn't have been bigger than a 42 but she looked at least a size bigger to my eyes.
Good to see you back Festiva, can't believe Mini is already 3 months, doesn't seem that long ago we got to meet them in London. And hurray for the Bobbies coming back in stock.
Time quality linen is a bit tough, I agree. I sort of divide them in two, the stuff that's meant to be worn a bit slouchy and just left to air dry and not get pressed to death just needs to be really heavy. Then the more classic starched linen look that is tolerated a bit of soft slouch needs a really fine weave. It's actually easiest to see if you browse a fancy men's department store where they sell Italian brands, it's almost smooth and slippery to the touch when starched, a slight shine as well.
Also delighted Lady Penelope Flo had a good outing in pink. We're not exactly living up to our thread title, are we?
Red, I'm a bit meh on the linen blazers. They look about what they are, affordable and unremarkable. Nothing offensive about them but they're not oversized and boxy enough to be that menswear inspired thing and not fitted enough to be tailored. I prefer the white over the rust which looks like a wrong size on you to my eyes. Mango usually do decent linen on the high street and are usually good at tailoring, just much sharper but I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for. H&M usually have good menswear inspired ones in their Trend collection (pink label) with heavier weight linens.