Every week a different FADER staff member will pick a clothing item or accessory that he or she has lately been spending a lot of time with—or would like to—and write a little love letter to it. We would’ve done a column on who we’re dating but that seemed a little bit much. This week Naomi Zeichner talks about Dusen Dusen's Dots Button Up Top.
Here is a blouse that's as good as a T-shirt, but nicer. It's made from silk that approximates the color of half-dry Georgia clay. My backpack's canvas is almost the same shade of dirt. Brooklyn designer Ellen Van Dusen picked a sateen, burnt copper fabric for the simple top, but turned it inside out so that the glossy side of the fabric is hidden and the matte side shows. The shirt's cut shortish and square. The sleeves are generous and the medium-low crew neck is straightforward and flattering. A line of petite wooden buttons running from the collar to the navel slims the boxy shape.
I've been leaving the bottom button undone and tying the resulting tails together in a front knot. This way I can wear the top over shlubby dresses without losing a waist, or at the lip of high-waist pants. It doesn't seem exactly like a party shirt—though I've worn it to some—but rather something to wear under a blazer for synagogue on Saturday morning, sitting in the back with the old ladies in wigs. It's something an established woman could love—a neutral, flexible closet piece. Thankfully, it's made less severe by small, irregularly spaced polka dots that look like good jokes. Unfortunately, without steaming, dry-cleaning or tidy hanging, it wears rumpled. A button fell off, so I fixed it. Today I'm wearing the top under a huge sweater with stretchy black pants that are a little too big. Let's call the look "witch hiding Halloween candy."