Notes of: A Seaside Escape
A mood board with Donni
Welcome to Notes Of! Each month I make a mood board and post it to Instagram as a little creative exercise in thematic thinking. Notes Of elaborates on each month’s theme and includes links to relevant articles, videos, products, and more.
This mood board is extra special, though, because it’s in collaboration with a brand of whom I am a super-fan, Donni!
Sometime over the last few years I lost my affinity for high-rise, ultra-rigid denim in favor of clothes that barely touch my body. I no longer can stomach wearing something fussy, but I also refuse to use working from home as an excuse to wear ratty sweatpants all day. Enter Donni, an LA-based brand known for its wearable soft clothes meant to be layered and lived in. Their organza collection, which launched today, is a perfect example. My first thought when I saw their new pieces was that it would all be so perfect for a coastal vacation: a breezy dress thrown over a swimsuit, a wispy skirt with an oversized cotton sweater, a floaty button up worn as a jacket… It’s one of those materials that thrives in all seaside scenarios.
This imaginary getaway is what got me inspired as I built this mood board. In my dreams I’m in Cadaqués, an artist town in Northern Spain I visited back in 2019. The beaches are rocky but the water is perfectly teal-blue, and white buildings filled with wine bars and galleries line the shore. I pictured a long day spent in the sun reading books and eating fresh fruit until the light starts fading, a signal it’s time to make my way towards cocktails and tapas, my feet still sandy and hair still salty.
Vacation packing is historically not one of my strengths. I need options—a lot of them—and I always end up bringing one giant wool sweater or an extra bulky jacket that takes up half my suitcase. On my last trip I took a different approach and instead focused on mix-and-match separates that I could pair in near-infinite combinations, including three pairs of Donni pants (two taffeta, one pointelle.) It was a revelation. Thus, these organza pieces will be joining me on any and all jaunts this summer.
Some accoutrements:
I had dinner at Greekman’s the other week and the water for the table was brought to us in this perfect fish carafe. A week later I was at a friend’s house and spotted this fish-shaped lemon-juicer. Is it Fish Girl Summer?
The woven sun on the mood board once hung in Joan Miró’s Mallorca studio, and the close-up doesn’t do it justice. Look how big it was!
Some snack suggestions to simulate a vacation at home: a bottle of Big Salt wine (it actually is a little salty and it’s so so good,) a tin of Bonilla a la Vista olive oil potato chips, and a plate of fried stuffed Castelvetrano olives. Save that potato chip tin to use as a wine bucket at your next happy hour.
Even though I’m a vegetarian and don’t eat tinned fish, it might be my favorite food genre based on aesthetics alone. I stumbled on this Portuguese archive of tinned fish packaging the other day and although it’s quite clunky to navigate, it’s a wealth of visual inspiration worth diving into.
Artist Michael McGregor’s book of hotel stationery drawings Room Service has been reprinted! I have a copy and it’s a fun one to flip through.
My mind was blown when Donni shared their founder Alyssa Wasko Stein’s favorite way to tie a shirt around the waist last month. The most important shirt-styling trick since the Jenna Lyons cuff!
The third image in the mood board is of a mural painted by Spanish artist Elvira Solana, and I urge you to check out the rest of her work because it’s all stunning.
I pulled a still for the mood board from Agnès Varda’s 1958 documentary Along The Coast, a tongue-in-cheek examination of tourism in the French Riviera. Watch the trailer here and if you have a subscription to the Criterion Channel, you can watch the 28-minute film in its entirety here.
Okay, fine, one more fish-shaped item: this plate from Porta, which is perfect for those olives I was just talking about.
The biggest thank you to Donni for dreaming up this mood board with me! Take a peek at the new collection here.
x
Ali
Mood board sources, from left to right: A photo I took in Cadaqués, Spain, 2019; Nature Morte aux Sardines, Angel Planells Cruyanes, c. 1930; Estado Real, Elvira Solana, 2018; Growing, George Greaves, 2021; still from Along the Coast, dir. Agnès Varda, 1958; Donni Organza Shirt in creme; Mark Strand quote, Tessa Forrest, 2024; Jeanloup Sieff and Jean Shrimpton in Mykonos, Richard Avedon, 1966; vintage matchbook from Famous Oyster Bar Restaurant in NYC; Pasiphaé, Henry Matisse, c. 1944; vintage hair combs, source unknown; deflated hot air balloon in Cappadocia, Turkey by Patricia Sofra, 2017; moiré fabric from Dedar Milano, shot by Andrea Ferrari; woven sun sculpture from Joan Miró’s studio in Mallorca, Spain; Donni Organza Long Sleeve Dress in Jet; Pierre Cardin’s Palais Bulles in Théoule-sur-Mer, France
I’m a Pisces, so it’s always fish girl summer. I immediately loved the combs in the mood board, and then you went ahead and posted all the other fish things. Beautiful!
This newsletter transported me to a tiny seaside town in italy with the sun warming my shoulders. I loved it!!!!!!!!!