to be loved is to be changed
prada's stained sleeves, miu miu's chipped nails, and my moth eaten sweater.
Two quick things!
1). I’ll be in New York from 2/10-2/14 for work. PR folks/editors, if you'd like to discuss coverage of fashion shows or events for the Molehill, email me at vivthemole@gmail.com
2). 50% of proceeds from subscription upgrades this week will go towards this fundraiser for Powderhorn, a Minneapolis community being targeted by ICE.
During the height of my Sandy Liang era (circa 2019), I bought one of her sweaters secondhand for $60.
It was a pale blue mockneck knit with a mary jane shoe in the middle. I liked the design and the fact that it was made of 100% merino wool—which is basically unheard of these days as the brand has diluted its natural fiber offerings.
The “catch” was that it had visible flaws. The front was peppered with moth holes, like a slice of swiss cheese.
I pondered it for all of 5 seconds and hit purchase. You and I may disagree on whether this was a good deal and that’s ok. (My mother would consider it textbook fashion victim behavior).
But I genuinely just did not care about the moth holes. When the sweater arrived, I gave it a good thorough wash and let it dry out under the sun. I didn’t think the holes were that bad. They didn’t bother me. I was too lazy to mend them (and I also didn’t have to worry about the respectability politics of an office dress code) so I wore the sweater all the time. It was comfortable, lightweight, and the perfect amount of playful.
I believe the universe sent me a sign validating my purchase of this flawed sweater. A few years ago, while getting a tattoo, I peeled off my sweater and prepared to lie down on the table. The client next to me clocked the sweater. He turned out to be Sandy’s runway/ecomm stylist, Dean. He said he loved the moth eaten look.
Last fall, when the GAP x Sandy Liang collab launched, I noticed that the collection included an updated version of this mary jane sweater. It had a crew neck, slightly ballooned sleeves, a cropped length, and was made of a cotton/nylon/acrylic blend. I posted a TikTok about how I wasn’t going to purchase the new version because I had the old version, and even though it was holey and faded, I kinda loved the mangled look.
And if you’ve ever had a video randomly blow up on TikTok, you can guess what happened next…
People thought I was ragebaiting. And honestly, I don’t blame for being suspicious of my intentions, because social media platforms push sensationalist content by design. Some people thought I had an unchecked moth problem and was unaware of it (aka stupid). I was also dragged for not mending the holes (aka lazy).
I didn’t realize that posting a hole-y sweater would evoke such a reaction. I took a break from TikTok and put mothgate in the rearview mirror.
Last week, I was reminded of that sweater during the Prada FW26 menswear show. Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons sent oversized sleeve cuffs down the runway, intentionally stained in a way that evoked coffee spills or mildew.
According to the show description, this collection taps into ideas of “impressions of life”, "significance of duration,” “liminal space,” and “a scope of our human experience.”
Ok, can I be so real with you for a sec? I often find fashion show notes to be frustratingly vague and overly reliant on buzzwords. They remind me of the artist statements I wrote in my undergraduate art classes, where I thought I was sooo clever for using the word liminal. But hey! Maybe I’m projecting.
Anyways, I liked the stained sleeves. Runway shows are more performance art than anything, and I found the display of dirtiness thought-provoking.
It confuses the line between clean/new and dirty/used. Clothes can be clean and used, and they can also be new and dirty. This is a nuanced concept that an algorithm would struggle to understand. Think about all the secondhand resale platforms training their pricing algorithms (probably with AI) to account for wear and tear. Can it make the distinction between a real coffee stain/real mildew vs. the appearance of coffee stain or mildew?? There’s something deeply human about trying to identify a mysterious substance and whether it poses a threat to you.
It is a literal impression of life, per the show note. Like tomato sauce stains, wine stains, paint splatters, rips, tears, moth holes. It is proof of meals eaten, art created, the friction of skin against fabric. It ties you to the corporeal world, as opposed to the cerebral one.
The stained sleeves feel like a thematic continuation of the chipped nails at Miu Miu’s Paris Fashion Week SS25 season.
Miss Prada seems to be exploring these ideas of life and imperfection through both the Prada and Miu Miu labels.
Models had their chipped pink manicures intentionally smudged off with acetone by nail artist Nails by Mei. It’s the kind of flaw you usually don’t expect to see on the runway. I think it captures the intuitive and spontaneous spirit of the Miu Miu woman. She’s unconcerned with maintaining a flawless presentation, she has places to go and things to do.
Ultimately, I see these flaws as conceptual art in the context of high fashion.
In most of our everyday realities, I’m not sure anyone would look at coffee stained sleeves and be like “omg that’s so liminal space impressions of human life”. Depending on the context and positions of power, someone might think you are a bit messy in an endearing way, or disheveled in an unpresentable way.
In the case of my moth-eaten sweater, the internet peanut gallery had a lot to say about it, but in real life…I don’t think anyone notices. If they do, they never point it out. It’s a good sweater. I love it like an old tattered teddy bear, and that’s all that matters.
“Too Much Love” photo series by artist Katja Kemnitz.
xo viv
Thanks for being here. You can find me on IG and TT. My wardrobe pieces and recs are saved here—unless it’s vintage, of course ;)
:')
Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'
'Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit.
'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.'
'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?'
'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.
I apply this same metaphor to abstaining from botox/filler/surgeries - wrinkles are also a literal impression of life!