Editor’s Note
Though it may not feel like it, summer is over and we are back in the city to enjoy everything September has to offer.
Fashion month kicks off, television hands out its biggest prizes. And this month, two women reminded us what it looks like to never really finish becoming yourself. We always love this time of year for exactly this reason. Everyone comes back a little sharper. The shows get better, the rooms get fuller, and even the small things, a new skincare step, a different way to wear a necklace, start to feel worth paying attention to again.So here is what is on our radar this month.
Love,
Ferko
New York Fashion Week: What the Runways Are Telling Us
New York Fashion Week’s whole message this season was to loosen up a little, have some fun with what you already own, and stop worrying quite so much about getting it “right.”
The cuffs showed up oversized and doubled on more than one runway. Then there was the fringe, which is really just movement dressed up as a texture. Print mixing got bolder, too, with stripes, animal prints, and color piled on rather than carefully matched.
And almost every collection stretched the body out a little, with longer lines and more vertical silhouettes. Strong tailoring, sheer layers, and fluid satin also made their way into the mix.
Tory Burch put it best when she described her collection around the “joy of getting dressed.”And honestly, it’s nice to hear her say out loud something that has been at the heart of Ferko’s from the beginning.
The Emmys: History, a Few Favorites, and One Very Good Tribute
This year’s Emmys made history twice before the show was even halfway through. Matthew Rhys became the first performer to win two lead acting in different categories on the same night, taking Lead Actor in a Comedy for Widow’s Bay and Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for The Beast in Me.
Jean Smart won her fifth Emmy for playing Deborah Vance on Hacks, bringing her to eight acting Emmys and tying her with Cloris Leachman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the most ever.Among a very strong field, a few nominees earned our full attention this year. Hacks closed its final season in a sharp and unwilling way to soften Jean Smart’s edges. The Gilded Age gave us enough reason to eagerly wait for its new season. And Slow Horses continued making shabby look like a philosophy.
But the moment we keep coming back to what happened on the carpet, not the stage. Zendaya arrived in a custom silver Prada gown with a cropped pixie cut, a deliberate tribute to Halle Berry’s iconic 2002 look at the Die Another Day premiere. Her stylist, Law Roach, confirmed the reference. Berry saw it, reposted it, and gave her blessing.
Watching one woman pay tribute to another in real time, in front of everyone, with no other agenda than admiration, was and always will be invaluable.
Ferko's Forever Icons: Yayoi Kusama and Madonna
We picked these two women this month because they are both trailblazers, and because neither of them has ever let age decide what they were allowed to make next.
Yayoi Kusama: Seven Decades of Making Infinity Her Own
Kusama passed away this August at 97, and the retrospective now closing out at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, its final stop after Fondation Beyeler and Museum Ludwig, has become something closer to a farewell tour. At the center of over 300 works and more than seven decades of art lies an enduring instinct to take one shape, repeat it, and go until it becomes something closer to infinity.
Dots, pumpkins, flowers, mirrors, nets. Kusama took ordinary shapes and turned them into an entire universe of their own. Her Infinity Mirror Rooms make the idea of endlessness physical, surrounding you with reflections until you can no longer quite tell where the room ends. Her work can be playful, obsessive, immersive, and sometimes unsettling, often all at once.
She painted until her final days, continuing to expand a world that was unmistakably her own. Few artists have created a visual language so instantly recognizable and made it feel new every time. Kusama never seemed interested in standing still.
Madonna: Why Stop Now?
Confessions II, Madonna's sequel to her 2005 classic, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in July, giving her her tenth chart-topping album. It was also her biggest week by album-equivalent units since Billboard changed its methodology in 2014, with 134,000 units in its first week.
Now she is bringing that momentum to the VMAs, opening the September 27 ceremony with her first live performance at the show in twenty-three years, with a career-high 11 nominations. The lead single, “Bring Your Love” with Sabrina Carpenter, is nominated for Song of the Year and Best Collaboration.
She has spent years being told she should have slowed down by now. She has responded every time by getting louder.
Beauty: The Post-Summer Reset Worth Actually Doing
Summer leaves its mark on skin in more ways than one. A little dryness, dullness, uneven tone, and the general feeling that your skin could use a reset are all good reasons to give it some extra attention in September. Think of it as a transition from summer skin to a routine that works for the months ahead.
Start with body exfoliation. A hammam-style ritual with steam, warm water, and a kessa mitt or exfoliating glove can clear away the buildup that an entire summer of sunscreen, salt water, and sweat left behind.
Then turn your attention to your face. Rebuild your skin barrier with a cream or oil-based cleanser and ingredients like ceramides and hyaluronic acid to put moisture back into skin that has spent the summer exposed to sun, heat, and dry air. Once your skin feels balanced again, you can bring retinol back into your routine gradually. Vitamin C can help with pigmentation, while niacinamide can support the skin barrier.
And make wearing sunscreen every single day, cloudy days included, a habit, just like brushing your teeth. Your skin will thank you for it.
Style & Jewelry: Fall Layers, From Collar to Cuff
Fall dressing is basically summer dressing with more fabric involved, and more fabric means more places for jewelry to show off. Here is how we build a layered look from the neck down.
Start high. A pair of huggies in the morning with a single ear cuff can build into a fuller ear stack by evening.
Move to the collar. A fine gold chain sitting just above a crewneck collar looks clean. Add a slightly longer pendant on top for depth, and you have a two-piece necklace moment without touching a single earring. Oversized collar necklaces are having a moment this fall, and two well-chosen chains can give you the same effect.
The wrist is next. Fall is blazer season, and a blazer cuff is the best frame a bracelet ever gets. Let the bracelet take up a little more space and stack a few thin bangles with something textured. Or pair a simple chain with a diamond-accented bracelet. Statement cuffs worn over long sleeves are having a moment, so if you have one, this is its season.
Rings get a little bolder in fall too. A heavy stack, or one substantial cocktail ring worn alone, feels right against a sweater sleeve. Textured metals and statement rings are also part of the fall mix.
Style & Jewelry: From School Drop-Off to Dinner
Some days do not have one dress code, they have five. The trick is not to change your jewelry every time the plan changes, it is to let the look build as the day does.
Start at school drop-off with the pieces you can forget about. Small hoops or studs, a thin bracelet, maybe a simple ring. They work with whatever you are wearing and, more importantly, they will not get in the way when the morning gets chaotic.
Then comes the workout. For anything that involves a lot of movement, keep things small and secure. If you are lifting weights, a bezel setting is a better choice than prongs. For yoga or Pilates, skip anything that digs in or gets in the way when you are on the mat.
By book club, the jewelry can get a little more interesting. Add a layered necklace and a ring with some personality, something people can actually notice now that you have time to sit down and talk.
Then you get home to change for dinner. This is the moment to add a little more and bring out the pieces that have been waiting all day. Wear a tennis bracelet, add a cocktail ring, and make the ear stack sparkle more.
Till Next Month
And that is September. The weather is changing, the layers are coming out, and apparently we have quite a few places to be. We will see you in October.