Welcome to Style Diaries, a series where we research the physical manifestations of our closet tours IRL. We're asking friends and tastemakers to show us what they're *actually* wearing during the week and to provide a little insight into their thoughts on the current state of fashion. This week, we follow Clémence Polès, founder of Passerby magazine. She challenged herself to reinterpret her mother’s sense of style, whether that’s rewearing old pieces of hers or reimagining looks from collected photos. The result of which, underscored to Polès the value of timeless design and personal style and helped her to learn about what fashion meant to her mother.
Look 1: The Surprisingly Current Vest
“The fact that the vest is having a moment inspired me to wear it. It's such a staple piece and it stands out probably more than the pieces I have in my closet. Keeping it super simple was the way that I made it work for myself. The skirt is actually my mom's Max Mara pleated skirt from her college years. I've had to have it tailored. But yeah, I wear a lot of loafers. Those are my G.H. Bass loafers that are just so comfortable. I've always liked wearing socks with loafers. I didn't really have a vision for this look. I just played around, tried it with pants, and this was what worked.”
Bobby Shirt
Pleated Wool Blend Mini Skirt
Right Angle Striped Socks
Whitney Weejuns Loafer
Look 2: The Matching Set
"My mom is really into Pleats Please. I now have a lot of pleats in my closet. [When I wear Issey Miyake], I get stopped by older women; women that have this appreciation for it. I find it so flattering. Also, my mom wore so many sets. There's also this detailing that I feel like my mom would gravitate towards. The bag is from La Mer. The shoes are Stuart Weitzman. I'm a big fan of their vintage pieces because they have a square toe—and they're just more comfortable than the newer pieces. I have them in all the colors."
Pleated High Neck Top
Pleated Cropped Trousers
Este Leather Ankle Boots
Look 3: The New (Belted) Suit
“That's a Prada belt and that suit is from Giorgio Armani. My mom had a suit that was pretty much identical to this. I wanted to style it with my mom's Chanel chain belt, but thought it would be more ‘me’ to style it with this Prada belt. It’s my way of paying homage to the suits that my mom would wear. And [I added] a Medea bag.”
Blazer
Women’s High Way Drape Pant
Nylon Belt with Metal Buckle
Europa Leather Tote
Look 4: Yet Another Set
“My mom was big on pearls, and this is my version of pearls in 2022. I just found these ones on Maimoun. My mom would have a lot of pearl necklaces and it just reminded me a bit of the sets that she'd wear, more in weddings or family events back when she lived in Tehran.”
Crinkled Silk Habotai Maxi Dress
Silver Pearl Earrings
Red Amina Heeled Sandals
Look 5: The Forever Coat
“This look is definitely my comfort zone, cozy outfit. And I found these leggings from Live the Process. They're so comfortable and I'm obsessed. My mom wore a lot of leggings. There's a photo where she wears this coat with leggings and boots similar to mine.”
Wool Coat
Tuxedo Legging
Notes on Style:
How would you describe your sense of style?
“I don't want to use the word minimal, but I think that typically is the style I gravitate towards. Pieces that are classic, that are timeless. The brands that I typically gravitate towards are Lemaire, a lot of vintage Giorgio Armani, vintage Donna Karen, vintage Prada, Jil Sander. Again, pieces with impeccable quality. I have a lot of suits and a lot of two pieces—those are really flattering on my body. I love old Jil Sander and Prada campaigns. Honestly, when I feel uninspired and don't know what to wear, film can change that for me. Andie MacDowell in The Object of Beauty, Chantal Akerman's films, Nora Ephron's films, a lot of Mike Nichols, early Paul Schrader, and of course, Brian De Palma. I'm also surrounded by very fashionable women that have probably influenced my style the most, for example, Mina Alyeshmerni who runs the best online store there is Maimoun, or Mindy Seu who is probably the most stylish professor that I know.”
Now compare and contrast how you get dressed to how your mom gets dressed. What's the overlap? Do you have a very similar sense of style or do you have different approaches to getting dressed?
“I think she would do a lot of oversized silhouettes, which I also do. And she does a lot of two piece suits—a lot of the suits that I've inherited were hers. She'd probably do more color than I wear. Also, she would do more accentuated, big shoulder pads or she had this vintage Chanel belt that I still have but haven't figured out how to style. (Granted it was also the '80s.) There's an elegance to her style that I think I try to implement in the way that I dress. She prioritized quality and well made pieces. We grew up in the Middle East, so it's not like we had access to much fashion. So she would take magazine ads to the tailor and be like, "Can you create this?" then shop through different fabrics. I remember a lot of that.”
Did you always like her style or did that have to come later as you grew up and learned to respect it?
“I think it came much later. I probably came to appreciate her style more when I went to college and as I packed pieces of hers that I loved. I remember every time I would change my wardrobe for the winter season, there'd be a new piece of my mom that I would gravitate towards but had previously hated. Now, I’m at a point where I love all of her pieces, even pieces I thought were janky like a vintage Jean Paul Gaultier vest. I could never figure out how to style that, but now, vests are having a bit of a moment.”
Also, I didn't have much knowledge of fashion growing up in Dubai. Yes magazines, but I don't think it was that sophisticated, I guess. It's only when I started college in London that I found more exposure. Especially in London, people just experiment more with style. And I think that gave me a new form of appreciation for fashion. Then I started understanding the pieces that my mom had were kind of a big deal. It's wild that she dressed that way while running a laundromat in the early '90s in Paris. “
What have you learned about your mom through this exercise?
“My mom often shares anecdotes of the racism and prejudice she faced as an Iranian while living in Paris in the early '80s. Her big advice was to always look your best… ‘Imagine what others would think if you didn't.’ My mother had impeccable style and taste. She valued the perceptions and opinions of the 'other', an 'other' that oftentimes was white and Western. Fashion was her way to control not only what they thought of her, but to garner their respect.
“I'm sure there's a correlation between her growing up during the Shah era, and the government's extreme efforts to Westernize. Reza Shah saw traditional clothing as a sign of backwardness and pushed/forced Iranians to wear western-style garments as part of his plans to modernize Iran. He really cared about how the West perceived Iran, so much so that his son, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, did everything to woo them when he took over. (I read somewhere that the government would even set aside money for women who couldn't afford tailors that made these new Western attires.)
“I have vivid memories of my mother taking me to a place called Al Karama in Dubai to purchase counterfeit goods when she no longer had the means to buy the real stuff. In hindsight, it was pretty extreme. I remember once we followed a sketchy man back to his tinted van, and were driven to a remote building, where we were led to an apartment with a secret closet. I was sure we would be kidnapped or worse, but thankfully that closet led to another room filled from top to bottom with fake Chanel, Prada, and Gucci bags. My mother still has the Chanel bag she bought from the man, it has held up pretty incredibly for 20 years.”
How do you feel after this exercise?
“Honestly, it's been emotional, just imagining what my mom must have gone through. And I don't think her style was appreciated or that she was necessarily seen or noticed. She didn't work in fashion. She was just inspired and had such good taste—now I'm just truly seeing how much [of a creative eye] my mom had. And also, just thinking about the power of pieces that have gone through different generations but are still wearable and iconic in 2022. That is really cool and radical and speaks to these designers too.
Ultimately, my mother is the reason where my interest in fashion stems. She made any outing an event and would spend hours getting ready, even if it was simply to go to the supermarket. I remember her overflowing closet and wearing her clothes when she was out to work and eventually sharing a closet with her as I got older. I feel like I go back to that time whenever I pull a piece of hers out of my own closet. Shopping mostly vintage is honestly linked to how my mom's pieces stood the test of time. It's quite rare to find that kind of quality in contemporary fashion, I mean this Jean Paul Gautier vest alone has lasted over 30 years, and not only is it in impeccable condition but it still can be styled in 2022.”
Want more stories like this?
This Designer Prefers to Spend New Year's Eve At the Beach
This Ex-Gucci Designer Has A Thing for '70s Fashion
Susan Alexandra's Founder Has A Closet Full of Moschino 'Cheap and Chic' and Some Serious Florals
0 Comments