Sometime around this time last year I wrote a two parter post entitled “Sure It Is Spring, But Do You Wish It Was Summer?” (Part 1 here, Part 2 here) which was all about bringing a sense of warmth into your life during the one month of the year that requires you to both unpack your warm clothes, and keep those fleeces out, just in case temperature drops below freezing - and it will, just because. I loved these posts because, at my core, I am a summer baby and lighting the “Summer In Italy” candle while spraying Bobbi Brown’s “Beach” onto my winter skin is still the closest I can think of an instant pick-me-up.
But, in an emotional pivot for 2025 (a year that is, lets face it, all about emotional pivots), this April, I am here to recommend something completely different: which is heading to the beach (physically OR emotionally) when it is still cold. We just got back from a mini anniversary getaway to Duck (our neighbors own the most perfect beach airbnb in the Outer Banks) where there were virtually no tourists anywhere, and we watched sunset from inside cozy bars (highly recommend Even Tide to anyone in the vicinity ever) and wore cashmere hoodies and shorts and slapped very rich cream onto our faces morning, noon and night to brace ourselves for the whipping wind and book shopped and watched as our dog tried to catch every bird on a nearly empty beach and it was HEAVEN. You have maybe 2-3 weeks left to pull this off, or you can just try and pretend like your home is a cold beach.
How to GET INTO IT:
The Playlist: Ralph Lauren, the man that perfected COLD BEACH aesthetic, has his Spring collection playlist up on Spotify right now and it is a 4 hours and 15 minutes of almost-summer-but-definitely-involving-a-chunky-knit mood setting music. You’re welcome.
The Smells: To me, COLD BEACH is all about NIVEA - and I’m not talking about their whole line of skincare - I am talking about the OG heavy cream with their OG smell that comes in that big blue metal tin. It goes on everything - your body, your face, your hands, and makes your life smell like a JCrew catalogue from 1989. They apparently even made candles, and why those never took off over here is beyond me. Side note: this cream DOES NOT have sunscreen, you have to do that separately.
Alt smells: Calvin Klein’s Eternity, Davidoff Cool Water, and Aqua De Gio (basically anything that triggers that early 90s sense memory)
Clothes (with a pre-amble)
I was in college when “Something’s Gotta Give” came out. You know, the seminal Nancy Meyers movie in which a whatever-a-male-version-of-a-cougar-is played by Jack Nicholson meets divorced, post-menopausal, extremely successful neurotic playwright played by Diane Keaton (should be noted: still 8 years younger than him) because he is dating her daughter (always wonderful Amanda Peet) and then proceeds to contend with a handsome, younger doctor (Keanu Reeves!) for her affections. In the Hamptons, slightly off season.
Now, the movie is a national treasure. I have seen it probably 30+ times since it came out 22 years a go and will most likely never ever ever get bored of it. “It’s Complicated” is funnier, “The Holiday” is more glamorous, “Baby Boom” is extremely timely even now, but “Something’s Gotta Give” is my Meyers baseline. It is partially because at the time, I felt an immediate kinship to Diane’s character - the classic neurosis, the complete supression of a romantic emotional compass, the tendency to present resilience while letting things build up and then WEEPING in front of a laptop while exaggeratedly typing - it all felt very much like this woman WAS ME. The fact that we were 35 years a part (now only 13! Homestretch here!) was a minor detail.
And a primary expression of Diane Keaton-ness in this film is the fashion (any and every Diane Keaton movie is essentially about Diane Keaton wearing clothes, after all). The white turtlenecks and jeans, the constant layering - oversized shirts, sweaters etc. It is a COLD BEACH masterclass really. Consciously or subconsciously, I have been buying clothes as if I was getting ready to screen test for my own Meyers movie ever since. I was dismayed when this whole vibe was then co-opted into the unfortunate “Coastal Grandma” trend which like all trends was extremely reductive and also failed to explain that unless you live in New England and/or are on the slowing-down-of-circulation part of your life’s journey, there is truly a very small window of time paired with a very specific location where this whole look makes sense. And that small amount of time is APRIL, and that specific location is a COLD BEACH.
And now happens to be a great time to buy COLD BEACH clothes, because they tend to go on sale in order to make way for summer stock.
To me, the true MVPs of cold beach style are:
CHUNKY KNIT SWEATERS - whether you’re going upscale (while most people will say Jenny Kayne reigns supreme here, I am personally not a fan and will die on the STAUD hill here - I overindexed on the Hampton sweater during the pandemic - and while they only carry the cropped version these days (the regular did run VERY OVERSIZED, I am 6’1” and can wear the size Large as a tunic, which never happens) - the OG version is in the cycle where it is readily-ish available on Poshmark and RealReal, mid-market (obviously JCrew - though I recommend the men’s rollnecks over women’s - not as boxy and better quality somehow, and Quince is in on the fisherman game with aplomb) or downmarket (Brandy Melville is a surpringly good spot for some chunky knitwear - just look for oversize fits)
STRIPES - I own so many striped things that my household makes fun of me for it, but I am a believer that stripes are pertinent for all sorts of occasions - and a COLD BEACH vibe is a primary one. For this, you need a solid fabric and good coverage - you can layer it with a poplin shirt over it, or a v-neck sweatshirt . I love the Alex Mill’s bretons because they come with a neck reinforcement stripe and have a nice sturdiness to it, though Quince just did their mongolian cashmere shirt in a stripe and it is seriously threatening to make me break my no-shopping rule this year. If you want to go crazy, you can also get a striped sweatshirt or sweater, and put it on top of a striped menswear shirt with a popped collar or a rugby shirt. Or get a fancy seeming matching top and skirt set that you can also mix and match with OTHER stripes. The possibilities are limitless!
Shorts + good sneakers - think Sperry’s, Reeboks, adidas, think poplin, think terry cloth think something Princess Diana would wear with a big sweatshirt.
Chunky jewelry and a head-scarf (on top, around your ponytail, etc) - this is how you get this thing off the JCrew catalog/Coastal Grandma track and into elevated Martha/Jackie/Miuccia category. Think BIG earrings, or those puffy heart charms etc. A headscarf is a pretty magical way to not wear a baseball hat too.
Other movies to watch / books to read:
To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday - Michelle Pfeiffer plays the ghost of Peter Gallagher’s wife in this multi-kleenex operation and every outfit in this is perfect.
Margot At The Wedding - The last movie Noah Baumbach made for Jennifer Jason Leigh before meeting Greta is a masterclass in uncomfortable conversations and chunky knits
Ceremony - something about cold beaches leads to disfunctional weddings, and this road-trip/wedding crashers combo is extremely charming and one of my favorite movies no one has seen: watch out for a very smarmy Lee Pace, a hilarious Jake Johnson pre-New-Girl, and some of the greatest use of music this side of Wes Anderson
Last Word by Taylor Adams & And There He Kept Here by Joshua Moehling & The Survivors by Jane Harper - short of awkward weddings, and off-season beach (ocean OR lake) is a great setting for a thriller and the three listed above should scratch that itch.
And I am sure there is more but I have been told by substack 3x now that this newsletter is too long for email so - I guess this is enough?
Please send postcards from the vacation!
Ceremony is woefully underrated and underseen.