I have reached the point in my life where I am suspicious of anything that requires me to make more decisions than necessary.

This is probably not the most conventional way to begin a fashion article. Still, I think it explains my relationship with clothes better than telling you what is “in” this season. I have never been particularly interested in dressing according to a trend calendar, and I have become even less interested as I have gotten older. I don’t want a closet full of clothes that technically look good but somehow make getting dressed feel like a project. I want clothes that make sense.

Relief comes from owning a few pieces of attire that never require a decision. You reach for them without thinking, they work without effort, and they make you look like you tried harder than you did. The striped sweater is one of those pieces, and it has been for about a century, which is its own kind of endorsement.

The most-worn outfit in your closet is rarely the one you most consider. It can be both.

There is an outfit that most women own by accident. It is the thing you put on when you are not thinking about it: the soft top, the easy pant, the combination you reach for on the mornings you have no interest in making a decision. It is usually the most-worn outfit in the closet, and it is rarely the most deliberate one. It just accumulated.

Most women in their forties have a rule about volume, even if they have never said it out loud. The rule is: fitted reads as intentional; loose reads as giving up. So they buy the tailored version of everything, and then wonder why their wardrobe feels effortful in a way they cannot name.

On the difference between a piece that anchors your summer and one that defines it.

What to wear when presence matters and when it just needs to be Tuesday.

I don't write about specific pieces every week. When I do, it's because something has passed every filter I apply before I'd put it in front of you: does it belong in a real wardrobe, not a fantasy one; does it hold up across more than one context; does the woman wearing it look like herself, or like she's wearing a dress.