Don’t you just love it when the air gets nice and crisp and you get to climb up on a chair to take your favourite scarf out from the very back of your closet? When life starts to feel like the song September in the Rain? Too bad week 7 has us all staying in the library until it’s dark out. If, like me, you’re behind on assignments and are in the trenches of Ussher 3, and all you want to do when you get home is have a hearty dinner and watch a rom-com where absolutely nothing bad happens, let me give you some recommendations that will also double as inspiration for your library fits. 

“Don’t you just love it when the air gets nice and crisp and you get to climb up on a chair to take your favourite scarf out from the very back of your closet? When life starts to feel like the song September in the Rain? “

It’s decided: this is a Nora Ephron fall. Think Meg Ryan’s various memorable hairstyles. Billy Crystal crouching in that white knit sweater. Tom Hanks in his least dramatic roles ever. Someone running up the stairs of a brownstone, bouquet of flowers in hand, to Stevie Wonder’s Signed Sealed Delivered I’m Yours. Think enemies to lovers. Other than the whole autumn in New York feel (as Joe Fox says in You’ve Got Mail, “don’t you love New York in the fall? Makes me want to buy school supplies”), what I find most iconic about Nora Ephron’s films is the fashion, so here is a selection of outfits I think should make a comeback in 2023:

 

1. Sally’s Bermudas and knee socks situation 

In When Harry Met Sally, our two protagonists meet when Harry (Billy Crystal) hitches a ride from his girlfriend’s friend Sally (Meg Ryan) from the University of Chicago to New York. Stuck in a car together for 18 hours, the two have a heated debate over the impossibility of friendships between men and women. Sally has her hair in a fantastic Farrah Fawcett-type feathered flip, and she wears a pastel yellow shirt under a navy cardigan. She has knee-socks to match her sweater, visible beneath a pair of tan Bermuda shorts, which were sooo in style this summer. It’s cute and preppy, it’s made up of only basics without being boring, not to mention styling your fall wardrobe with weather-inappropriate summer pieces, however impractical, is very fashion forward. Keep ‘em guessing.

Other honourable mentions from WHMS are the little floppy maroon bow tie Sally wears in the airport and Harry’s jog-in-the-park outfit. That one gets a mention because I can’t stop thinking about it, and not in a good way. 

 

“Even though he’s a heartless capitalist who stands for everything I despise, and looking past his constant quoting from The Godfather, I can’t help but find him charming. Especially in the scene where he takes the kids to the fair and he wears four different shades of brown.”

  2. Joe Fox’s monochrome ‘day out at the fair’ outfit

You’ve Got Mail follows Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan), an independent bookstore owner, and Joe Fox, who runs the massive book conglomerate putting her out of business, as they unknowingly fall in love via electronic correspondence. Even though he’s a heartless capitalist who stands for everything I despise, and looking past his constant quoting from The Godfather, I can’t help but find him charming. Especially in the scene where he takes the kids to the fair and he wears four different shades of brown. He’s got a reddish/dark brown knit sweater, under a coffee-coloured suede blazer, taupe trousers and brown boots. Monochromatic outfits where every item is a different shade are top tier. 

“I also love a double bag feature. When you need to carry two for practicality, why not be intentional with your combinations? “

3. Kathleen’s pencil skirt and oxfords moment

Costume designer Albert Wolsky (who also worked on Grease) styled the same items multiple times for Meg Ryan’s outfits in You’ve Got Mail. A realistic touch to the film’s costumes which makes its outfits even easier to recreate! Kathleen is seen wearing tights and Oxfords in many of the scenes. My personal favourite version is when she’s walking to the bookstore in a brown pencil skirt, a black coat, and a thin black leather bag. For accessories, she goes for a canvas tote bag and a pumpkin. The perfect outfit for running errands on a chilly October morning perhaps? I also love a double bag feature. When you need to carry two for practicality, why not be intentional with your combinations? A mini cross body purse and a massive tote. A baguette and a fishnet bag. The world is your oyster. 

 

Honourable mentions from YGM: Frank Navasky’s (Greg Kinnear) little round, wire-rimmed glasses.

WORDS: Margot Guilhot Delsoldato