Introducing Addressed, a weekly column where we’ll, ahem, address the joys (and tribulations!) of getting dressed. We’ll look at runway trends, real-life trends, talk to people whose style we love, and most importantly, answer your own fashion queries. Download the Vogue App and find our Style Advice topic section to submit your question.
The big story in fashion in 2025 is a call to arms for personal style. At the spring 2025 Prada show, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons said they’d had enough of algorithm dressing, wanted to be free from the tyranny of quiet luxury wardrobe building blocks and other prescriptions on how to live (because fashion is just part of life). It’s not surprising that 22 years of living on social media has made everyone hyper-aware of what they look like and made it easier to compare ourselves to others with every scroll. Suddenly personal style became an It-item to covet, and now everyone wants to know how to get it, even though at its core it is the same as asking how am I more myself? Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
Someone who really knows herself is Erykah Badu, or at least that’s something we can certainly glean from the way that she dresses. The CFDA agrees and last year they gave her the Fashion Icon Award. She showed up to the American Museum of Natural History, where the ceremony took place underneath the blue whale, in a custom Thom Browne oversized cocoon black suit, which in true Badu form she had accessorized with a sterling silver headpiece embellished with semi-precious stones and charms made by Chrishabana. An amorphous flower shape hung from her septum, and her hands were covered in shiny black gloves and a silver ring as big as a small saucer. Her look seemed to reference ancient history, hippies, an alien civilization we’ve not yet met, and a future likely only Badu has seen.
Accepting her award, she said: “[Getting dressed] is my therapy. It’s my workout. It gives me inspiration. The colors that I’m attracted to, the amulets and talismans; those things are my personal power. The world is a private joke between me and my thangs.” When she got to the “thangs” part, she gestured in a circular motion overher heart but also over the dangling stones from her headpiece which reached her sternum. Something lit up in my brain right away.
The world is a private joke between me and my thangs. I’ve thought about that phrase at least once a week since then. At its heart, it is a simple premise—that you should have a relationship or at least a bit of dialogue with what you put on. These pieces are always present in our wardrobe: the shoes you splurged on to celebrate a new job, a necklace passed down from your grandmother, a random vintage find that defined a special era in your life, but Badu invites us to expand beyond things with sentimental value. A private joke opens up the world to experimentation, but above all, it opens up your wardrobe to the possibility of fun.
I’m a 40-year-old Puerto Rican woman who loves color and is perpetually attracted to things “so ugly they are amazing.” There were many times when I was younger when I tried to quiet it all down in order to fit in better, to seem more worldly or sophisticated or whatever. I don’t do that anymore. I know that I love a slouchy men’s trouser because when I was 13 years old I was obsessed with Gwen Stefani; the same way that my love of ballet flats is a remnant of my early 20s when I was a Marc by Marc Jacobs fanatic. But it’s not all about nostalgia: three years ago, a freaky button-down shirt with slits at the breasts by Commission began an obsession with wearing oversized shirts and dresses—coincidentally, or maybe not, I had just given birth. And recently, I decided if I was going to splurge on designer stuff, I should do it on New York designers, and it’s nice to look down and see a dress or pants made by friends or friends of friends, or people I’ve seen around (on social media) and get a good vibe from. The point is to go with what speaks to you, whether it’s something you’ve long known to be true about yourself (you’re goth!) or something you just recently discovered (you just found a pair of vintage Balenciaga pants that fit you like a dream and you want to wear them all the time).
