Introducing VF minis
Your extra helping of Vintage Finds ahead of Hat Week
28 March 2023, San Diego, California, USA
First, I apologize for my week of silence.
It was needed. It was teeming with work, emails, calls and the most rain San Diego has ever experienced. It was nice. Like Oprah says, “The most important thing you can give yourself is time..”1 Thank you, Oprah, and thank you, Subscriber, for patiently awaiting my return post a longer than expected intermission.
Over this past week, I have opened up the filing cabinets of my noggin to select the next Week here at 21st & 18th. After days of meditation, lists and lists, discussion with Jasper2, and making a Pinterest board of sheep and Marie Antoinette gifs, I landed on some interesting concepts that were so dense my Art History Thesis Advisor3 would have asked to tap in her TA for proofreading.
So I pulled back, put the engine on ice, yanked on the reins, slammed on the brakes - I took that lovely time for myself that Oprah and Harpo are marketing to us. And what did that time produce?
Hat Week.
Oh yes, Hat Week. It’s coming around the mountain and when she comes you will inevitably find yourself googling ‘milliner’, ‘race tracks near me’ and searching for Pretty Woman4 on one of the four dozen streaming services we are frustratingly subjected to these days.
As always, here at 21st & 18th Hat Week is coming to you in 4 parts:
I. WIOW What I’m Obsessed With
II. Vintage Finds
III. Antiquated Traditions we Must Resuscitate
IV. Meet the Expert
Prior to the loveliness destined to be Hat Week, from me to you, please enjoy this gift.
As a prelude to our next 21st & 18th concept, I give you Vintage Finds minis (lovingly shortened to VF minis as word count is everything in these swipe swipe days), a special, unexpected, wee number of days devoted to spotlighting your favorite segment: Vintage Finds.
Think of VF minis as the rabbit hole you found yourself lazily floating through on Instagram post lunch after you explored, explored, explored, shared and snapped out of it with a double tap of a video where the sound was actually on and it happened to be German - spark notes: VF minis is all the juicy goodness you want between Weeks here at 21st & 18th without working for it. Delicious, unexpected, an amuse-bouche or after dinner cocktail, you didn’t know you needed it, but it made all the difference.
In this first VF minis epi we are digging into the provenance, history and acquisition story of a very recent vintage addition to my fashion collection: A Gianni Versace Skort Suit.
Yes, you read that correctly. Skort.
Skirt. Shorts. Skort.
Skorts are not just for 7 year olds at Catholic School, they quite literally can be the lowers silhouette for the chicest, sweetest, OG, Brenda-from-902105 suit ensemble of your life.
Juice up your Jeep Wrangler, bonus points if you’re dialing on your brick phone while clocking hours behind the wheel under a learner’s permit, and pull on your knee socks because we’re headed back to the 90s and just like you were jealous of Cher’s computer closet, this OG Gianni Versace suit is going to give you major vintage goose bump envy.
Coming to an inbox near you, VF minis: Gianni Versace Skort Suit. T-minus 3 days.
In the meantime, enjoy our 21st & 18th Hat Week Pinterest board and Spotify playlist.
Cheers,
Lo. Lynch
@Super Soul Conversations, love you Oprah hope you’re reading
Best friend who is also a cat and my Assistant Editor at 21st & 18th
My Art History advising professor was a tough lady, she had snow white hair down to her butt and once accused me of plagiarism, I very quickly rebuffed her accusation with a barrage of questions bookended by a Lorelai Gilmore style collection of statements that were so filled with art-y footnotes that she had no choice but to retract her suggestion that Lauren Lynch would ever steal another writer’s writes
The polo scene is legend. This is your sign to acquire some new polka dots for spring
90210, the best young adult dramedy series of all time, Shannen Doherty plays Brenda, her twin brother is a heart throb, Dylan aka Luke Perry drives the vintage Porsche of my dreams and the hair and light wash denim is excellent