The Butterfly Effect | Issue 10
Saying Goodbye to a Rock Stud
Valentino passed away Monday at his home in Rome. His legacy—enduring. Though he retired from his namesake house in 2008, I’ll always connect him with the Rockstud pump—who didn’t make her debut until two years later, in 2010. She was one of the first designer shoes (besides the ubiquitous red soles) I ever coveted. I vividly remember the joy of unfolding her from her tissue-paper kingdom, lifting her from that Valentino-red box—back in the days when unboxing wasn’t yet an event.
There are designers who stitch seasons.
And then there are those who transform the fabric of fashion.
Valentino—the latter.
Red, romance, discipline, devotion—he didn’t chase relevance.
He built a language. And trusted it to endure.
Fashion will march on. It always does.
But elegance and style, when practiced with conviction, never really leave.
Thank you, Valentino.
Your legacy? It rocks on.
The Boys Are Back in Beige: Men’s Fashion Storms the Runways
Menswear’s Fall ’26 debut began in Milan, swanned into Paris, and brought with it a sharply tailored whisper of change.
Gone were the bloated silhouettes of seasons past—this year’s man is slender, fluid, and maybe borrowing a little bit from his sister’s closet. Slim tailoring dominated across the board, with a wave of androgynous flair and finishes—think satin trousers, ballet flats, and suiting so streamlined it could slice a cigarette.
Neutrals ruled the palette: tapenade, oyster, oat, and noir. But pops of chartreuse, blush, and plum crept in—Jonathan Anderson at Dior and Miuccia & Raf at Prada both leaned into subtle flamboyance—or, perhaps, not so sublet at Dior.
If there was a throughline, it was suit-up-and-subvert. From Louis Vuitton’s Pharrell-infused remix to Wales Bonner’s romantic minimalism, it’s clear: 2026’s menswear is less about gender, more about geometry—and the tailoring is tight.
All of it, of course, merely a prelude—sorry, boys—to next week’s main event: haute couture. And frankly? We can’t wait.
The boys of fall have arrived—and here at CbC? We might just be taking a page—and a suit—from their playbook.
Why 2016 Is Haunting Our Hemlines
In 2016, I wore my distressed denim to the bone, quite literally—frayed knees, shreds down the shin. So ripped, in fact, my kids called them “tragic.” (Sometimes the youth are not wrong…) And always paired with a satin-y bomber—black, Forever 21, still hanging in my closet. May she rise again?
So what’s with the nostalgia trip?
Maybe it’s longing for a pre-Covid world—a little gentler, a little less combative. A time when you could disagree without being canceled, when discourse hadn’t been swallowed whole by polarization and DMs.
And maybe it’s not just a feeling. Because if 2026 feels eerily familiar, it is because it is.
Back then, our off-duty icons were Kendall, Kylie, and Hailey (née Baldwin)—sipping oversized coffee cups in Adidas Superstars and extra-long knits. Sound familiar? The names haven’t changed much. Just the footwear and the cups... Sambas instead of Superstars. Stanley tumblers and Erewhon smoothies instead of Starbucks ventis.
2016 was the 90’s revival 1.0: chokers, camis over tees, hoodies under leathers, suede button-up minis. Today’s redux? 2.0. Same bones—less glitter, more grit. Less Forever 21 unicorn-core, more The Row remix—2016 grown up and refined.
So if my Forever 21 bomber lives to walk another runway?
Call it survival of the fittest.
The jeans, though? A-frayed not—my kids will be relieved to know they’ve joined the denim pile in the sky.
The butterfly? She never flaps in a straight line. But 2016? She’s circling back.