Dress, Gucci. Panty, Deborah Marquit. Ring, Solange Ltd. Slingbacks, Michael Kors Collection.
In honor of our September issue, ELLE is partnering with Substack, enlisting some of the platform’s most followed fashion writers to write essays accompanying our fall fashion shoots. Today’s edition features Laurel Pantin, author of the Earl Earl newsletter.
My first real shopping memory (and, I think, the experience that made me love clothing the way I do) was in 1998, when I was 12. My father brought me to ByGeorge, the storied specialty store in Austin (where I would later work as the fashion director at large), to buy a dress to wear to my cousin’s wedding in Venezuela. What a mouthful that is. I was teetering on the precipice of adolescence—I can’t remember if I owned a bra yet—but the store was so adult, so refined compared to where I was used to shopping (mainly Gap or Ann Taylor), and my dad treated me with so much respect and care…it was magic. I remember, at that time, the store carried clothes from brands like Tocca and BCBG, and together we picked out the perfect dress. It was short, but not too short, and had a squared-off scoop neck with thick straps. It was viscose, probably, it was slinky and springy—and best of all, it was black.
Dress, tights, Dolce & Gabbana. Bra, panty, Deborah Marquit. Slingbacks, Michael Kors Collection.
Dress, Max Mara. Earrings, Solange Ltd. Socks, Wolford. Pumps, Prada.
We bought black satin Mary Jane block heels to go with it, and to this day I don’t have the words to describe how changed I felt.
The day of the wedding, I spent all afternoon with my older cousins and aunts getting ready. It didn’t matter that I barely spoke Spanish. We were each engaged in our own personal transformations, and a roomful of women individually transforming together is powerful. I can’t remember what any of my other cousins wore. I think my Aunt Fifi was in a purple gown, but there I was in black.
Dress, Carolina Herrera. Tights, Wolford. Slingbacks, Michael Kors Collection.
Dress, Celine by Hedi Slimane. Panty, Deborah Marquit. Slingbacks, Michael Kors Collection.
The spell that little black dress had over me made me feel adult and young at the same time, classic but current, magnetic but subtle. That LBD (by BCBG) contained (in the words of Meredith Brooks on her seminal track “Bitch”) “a little bit of everything, all rolled into one.” If the witchery of a little black dress was available to me way before I considered trying to get boys’ attention, imagine my enthusiasm for the garment once I started dating! And sure, the life-changing LBD is a bit of a cliché, but clichés are usually true. That one not only made me dance literally all night at the wedding (at age 10!), but I think it was largely responsible for setting me on the career path I’m on now. No bullshit, that dress changed my life.
Dress, Emporio Armani. Earrings, Solange Ltd.
Dress, slingbacks, Michael Kors Collection. Bra, Deborah Marquit.
Hair by Syd Hayes at Art + Commerce; makeup by Miranda Joyce for Chanel; manicure by Ami Streets for Byredo; casting by Michelle Lee Casting; model: Mathilda Gvarliani at Next; produced by Honor Hellon Production.
This shoot appears in the September 2024 issue of ELLE.