2026 Style Retrospective: June-July

Slow stitching, a revenge dress, and mediations on emotional shopping vs. wardrobe intimacy

Welcome to this combined June + July style recap: a rapid-fire rundown of what I’ve been exploring, making, acquiring, and putting on my body this summer.

June was one of the most stressful, emotionally-taxing months I’ve ever experienced, and culminated with me resigning from my full-time job. July, then, was a sigh of relief. While I wasn’t officially done until the 21st, I had begun the process of mentally unwinding from the untenable track I’d been on, while shifting my attention to the new paths in front of me. The result was a gentle, nourishing, curiosity-driven month—with a few moments of recklessness. Here’s what I got up to.

What I did

Toronto really comes alive in the summertime: the streets become animated, the patios fill up, and festivities are non-stop—backed by a steel drum rhythm. I did a lot of walking in June and July, desperate to soak in this energy.

My field adventures took me to vintage shops, markets, and thrift stores where I unearthed treasure after treasure. I also sought out local textile art exhibits, feasting my eyes on the incredible work of Sarah Zanchetta, April Martin, Judi Martin, and Kennedy Soong Bouchard.

I continued my streak of partaking in a communal crafting session every month: a free rag weaving workshop at the Textile Museum in June, and a foxglove embroidery class in July. Though my creation from the latter event looks more Little House of Horrors than dainty botanical sketch with thread (fun fact: I finished this piece at a bar, taking in the wild ride that was the England-France World Cup consolation match).

My non-wardrobe-related creative practice was deprioritized amidst the chaos, but I made time to appliqué a silly motif of my husband and child in their backwards, “cool dude man” caps on a pair of Uniqlo shorts for a Father’s Day present. Other creative dabbling include making loose watercolour sketches alongside my daughter (hers are better) and adding whimsical patches to her secondhand summer clothes.

What I Added to my Closet

My closet has taken in a whopping number of new additions this summer (14!), owing to the outputs of my own hands, as well as the IRL shopping I’ve been engaging in.

Of my purchased items, the vast majority were collected in-person, from secondhand sources. And aside from the green hat, all were spoils from the month of July. In my last few, no-fucks-left-to-give weeks of work, I got into the habit of sneaking out early on Friday afternoons to decompress via the city’s prime vintage offerings. This innocent, nonchalant browsing led to several wishlist-crossing and spontaneous finds.

Most of my additions were affordable bargains—equivalent to the price of a cup of coffee or an upscale sandwich with tax and tip. But there were a couple of big ticket items, too ($100 CAD+): a custom-designed top ordered months ago, a bag I’ve been seeking for years, and one slightly irresponsible designer piece that I don’t regret (yet).

Here’s a zoomed-in look at my June-July additions:

Starting with my own makes and upcycling projects, the knit tanks and drawstring skirt were always part of my wardrobe plan for the season—a nice instance of me actually following through on a vision. I made the pillow case skirt sans-pattern (the concept is stupid simple) as a prototype, before I endeavour to repeat the process with one of the antique embroidered ones from my stash. Surprisingly, I’ve been enjoying wearing this “toile”; I feel like the sporty, faded graphic juxtaposes nicely with the prim boatnecks I’ve come to embrace as my signature top for the summer.

The bandana was knitted on a whim last week, during my first real stretch of freedom. I’d been meaning to make one using a filet crochet pattern but ultimately craved a quick, easy project using yarn I already had—hence this yellow silk cutie.

Finally, the denim cutoffs were a low effort thrift flip—my favourite kind. I had originally hoped to create my own version of the ubiquitous baggy, A-line jorts I’ve been seeing everywhere this summer using this method, but am loving the pedal pusher-like fit of these ones.

I know, I know—this is a lot of new shorts. Excessive, most likely. But the calf-baring gods really came through last month, divining me with one showstopper after another.

The silk shorts are similar in concept to the pool blue linen pair I found earlier this year but carry a totally different vibe. I love the vintage sailor-style side buttons and swishy fabric, which make me want to plan a night of swing dancing ASAP. The other two add pops of bold colour and pattern to my shorts wardrobe, while meeting all my core criteria: longer length, comfortable waist, good pockets, low maintenance fabric.

I first declared my passion for this whimsical fish textile last August. A year later, it is finally mine, in the form of a boxy cropped tank—one of my staple shapes—by custom order. The wait was well worth it.

Now we’re getting into the danger zone. I’ve dubbed these “experimental pieces”— items that don’t quite map onto the archetypal essentials in my wardrobe. Each purchase involved an element of risk-taking: some calculated, some impulsive. In the months and years ahead, I’ll be putting these garments to the test, seeing how the style fantasies I’d conjured around each of them translate—or not—to real life.

The items, in order of purchase:

• Silk hat - An impulsive vintage market acquisition, made by darling local millinery, Lilliput Hats. I love the glossy texture of the raw silk and the mouldable wire along the brim. Feels very artsy grandma x Cawley.

• Green cotton jacket - Damn, I have zero willpower against this verdant shade of green. This colourful, lightweight jacket was somewhat influenced by Alberta Rose’s brilliant turquoise one, and I look forward to styling it for the chillier mornings and evenings that will soon sneak up on us.

• Jean Paul Gaultier dress - A dream buy. Also, a “fuck it” purchase made whilst celebrating my liberation with a group of friends. It was very out of character for me to buy something so steeply priced (but not absurdly so), unpremeditated, and I was admittedly caught up in the moment. However, I don’t think I’ll regret it; it’s a wonderful archival piece from designer I admire and the chambray material makes it much more practical than the silk Prada dress or Mugler suit I was also eyeing.

• Grey linen dress - For someone who seldom wears dresses, I sure own a lot of them! I was immediately drawn to this simple shift dress and could see myself wearing it for decades to come—eventually with white hair in girlish plaits like Noriko Shinohara from Cutie and the Boxer. It’s also the ultimate no-bra, heatwave-proof garment for puttering around.

• Orion bag - I’d originally planned on sewing own my crossbody bag in an interesting fabric, as an alternative to the dirty totes I’ve been schlepping around for years But when Veri, a brand that’s long been on my watchlist, came out with this burgundy beauty in their summer capsule, I knew this was it; I could never make anything that would come close to this perfection. I got it in their July flash sale—my only online purchase in this recap.

What I Wore

I’m hoping to write a more detailed analysis of my summer dressing patterns and experiences, but here is a flyover of some outfits I’ve worn so far.

June’s looks were all over the place, matching the temperature graph and the emotional wave I was riding. I enjoyed lingering on spring style themes, while sprinkling in tastes of pure summer.

Sun’s out, shins out. Is that how the saying goes?

My outfits across July feel somewhat more uniform in terms of silhouette—you can’t go wrong with a cropped tank and knee-length bottoms—and shoe choice, as I came to accept my immutable, duckfeet reality. However, I feel like the different dimensions of my life and personality, as well as the creative energy that’s been bubbling up, are coming through nicely in visual narrative: the colours, patterns, and textures.

Reflections

We’re more than halfway through the year—an incredibly fulfilling one for me, stylistically and creatively. Where things have gone awry is that I haven’t had the kinds of intentional pauses I’d hoped to imbed into my consumption cycle.

Some of it is circumstantial; my body is still changing, along with my dressing needs. But I also wonder if the way I want to engage with clothes right now—chasing material curiosities, collecting irreproducible vintage, rescuing unserviceable garments, and learning how to make things—is incompatible with maintaining a highly minimalist wardrobe. As someone who once coveted a tightly-controlled 50-piece closet, I don’t even know what my current count is, and what that number signifies seems to matter less and less.

At the same time, too much shopping can be problematic. While I’ve been honouring my gut instincts and entertaining ideas that spark when I encounter incredible pieces, there is a deep anxiety that’s holding hands with the inquisitiveness. Throughout July, I’ve been battling this looming fear of austerity, of losing financial stability. Ironically, this has resulted in me buying more, in a “get it while I still can” way.

Maybe part of me needed a period of being daring and throwing caution to the wind—I am a job divorcée and the Gaultier is my revenge dress. The tradeoff, though, is wardrobe intimacy. As a barrage of new things enter my life, the rotation is getting larger and larger. I’m not seeing the same items go through the weekly wash. The orange tank that was such a staple last summer has only been worn twice this year.

When I look at my outfit photos and diligently recorded Indyx calendar, I see a concerted effort to wear my whole wardrobe and mix the new with the old. Yet, I feel like without a significant slowdown, that sense of closet familiarity and deeply knowing the clothes in my possession will continue to elude me.

Looking Forward

A silk top, linen capris, and bare feet on grass is peak summer chic to me.

It’s hard to believe there are only a few weeks of summer remaining. More incredulously, I’m nowhere near bored of my wardrobe like I usually am by early August. There are so many pieces I want to wear more. Combinations I want to create, modify, and repeat.

In what’s left of the fast-fading season, there are a few more summery projects I want to tackle (another pillowcase skirt, culottes from some old feed sacks I thrifted, a Victorian tie-on pocket using scrap fabric), but I am starting to pump the brakes on adding warm weather garments.

I’m also tempted to put myself on a “no buy” for the foreseeable future, but know better than to make that kind of hard commitment. August is my birthday month and there’s part of me that would love a piece of modernist sterling silver jewelry or a pair of foot-shaped flats in a fun style. But I know the best present to myself would be a period of stillness and the gift of freed-up attention to pursue my other whims and dreams—not another pair of shorts.