Congratulations to Emily Ratajkowski, who is modeling our first weird reinvention of the wheel of 2023. It took me a hideously long time to parse this, because for a long time I thought the belt under her boobs was CONNECTED to her tiny handbag in some sort of strange armpit purse/bumbag hybrid. Her fleeting Instagram story, however, confirmed that she’s simply carrying a teeny purse, while also wearing a completely unnecessary belt that is not cinching anything because it’s actually in the middle of her ribcage. In the end, that’s the confounding part — the why of the where of the buckling — and I guess that’s… better? As a bonus, this design resembles a jacket that was cut in half and then lowered so that it would pass as separates, so that means we’ve got Bonkers Belt and Jacked Jacket all in one outfit. Throw in the over-the-knee socks and glaring white kicks, and the whole thing reads like someone conspired to knock off Thom Browne, without actually knowing how.
