By Karen and Erica

A recent headline in the FT was entitled: How to build a wardrobe you never think about. Subtitled: Stick to a silhouette — and don’t be afraid to repeat, repeat, repeat.

That caught our attention. How on earth can you not think about what you wear? And why would you want to repeat, repeat, repeat? Unless you want to say the same thing, day after day. Which you probably do not. Lustre Ladies are imaginative and inventive, and we know our clothes send a message. Most of us enjoy crafting that message. As do some of the main protagonists in the news of the day—women and men.

• First on our list—E. Jean Carroll. She took a huge risk going to trial on allegations of sexual assault and defamation. Her clothes perfectly reflected what she said during the trial, heralding a woman of 79 who has brains, style, grace, humor and attitude. She won.

• Second: the young Tennessee lawmakers, Messrs. Pearson and Jones, who with their colleague Ms. Johnson were expelled for protesting gun violence, and then reinstated. They wear suits. Sometimes white suits. And ties. Signalling that what they are doing is important, and formal. We are not alone in our appreciation. They won too.

• We were impressed by the lawyer who decided the way to make an impression was to dress in hot pink. And have her whole team dress in hot pink. (We too wore hot pink when we practiced law—but she’s taken it to a new level!) The message is clear: a previously male-dominated industry is no longer.

• A couple men in the news have taken approaches that might be similar.

  • Sam Bankman-Fried’s attire sent the message that that he had no sense of the seriousness of handling billions of dollars of other people’s money. Presumably the people who gave him so much of that money didn't believe his message. But he sure did not hide it.

  • We’re not too sure what Elon Musk, the Twitter King, is trying to say. Does he even get the whole idea that you can convey information through your clothes? He does not seem to care, at least at the moment.

• The Met Gala offers a platform for another set of messages.

  • That women know the value of glamour, like Viola Davis in pink feathers.

  • That age and elegance are entirely compatible, as Glenn Close demonstrated, in an amazing, if voluminous, outfit.

  • That clothing is political—as AOC’s Tax The Rich gown announced, infamously and without much subtlety.

  • That some men, at least, want in on the action.

    • Lil Nas X seems to want to win the competition, in skin-tight sparkles. (Is this actually style? Maybe…)

    • Pedro Pascal in lipstick red gets the playful part of the conversation. Good for him!

We have never been to the Met Gala, but we enjoy dressing each day for a different challenge. We learned early that clothing was messaging, and we never forgot. Retirement did not change that fundamental truth—we are still communicating, in different ways on different days with different people. No repeating for us!

What are you saying about yourself with your clothes?