Last night in the East Village, participants in the fourth annual FranCon gathered at Holiday Cocktail Lounge to celebrate all things Fran Lebowitz, including her intellect, wit, curmudgeonliness, and, of course, her legendary sense of style. Lebowitz would have hated it.
The author and New York cultural figure is known for her uniform: a white oxford shirt and a navy blazer worn with blue jeans, brown cowboy boots, and tortoiseshell glasses. At a time in fashion where quiet luxury, capsule wardrobes, and minimalism are at a particular high, there’s never been a better moment to dress like Lebowitz (surely much to her chagrin). “It’s very streamlined and simple, but it’s so definitive,” says Jane August, cohost of FranCon. “These are basics that everyone has in their closet. Everyone has a blazer, everyone has a button-up, everyone has jeans, everyone has a boot or a loafer of some sort. Somehow [with] these things that everyone has, she has been able to claim it as her own.”
August also sees the uniform dressing as a way to level the social playing field. “We’re not judging each others’ outfits or thinking about that because we’re all just the same,” she says. “Now we can really connect.” Indeed, attendees found ways to make outfits their own, like Helen Hong, who wore a crop top and a pair of ripped jeans with her classic Lebowitz blazer, while Marcus Drew wore a pinstripe blazer that his mother purchased for him in 2008 from a Burlington Coat Factory.
For my part, I finally got my Devil Wears Prada moment: a makeover in the fashion closet. But rather than turning into the “after” version of Andy Sachs, our intrepid fashion editor Ciarra transformed me into Lebowitz. In a true testament to Lebowitz’s transcendent style, everything I wore is currently on the market: a crisp white button-up shirt and oversized navy pinstripe blazer from The Frankie Shop, a pair of the cult favorite Khaite Danielle jeans, along with a Khaite trench coat, brown Frye boots, and Warby Parker tortoiseshell glasses.
Inside FranCon, Frans from all walks of life milled about in their matching bobs and blazers, chewing on candy cigarettes and sipping on cocktails called the Franhattan and the Rent-Stabilized Apartment. Two younger Frans take on the zeitgeist with their looks, one in a bright green “fran” tee in the Charli XCX brat font, another wearing a Spider-Man shirt under his button-up. At the bar, two male Frans—wigs and all—debate the merits of the interpretation. “I think she would love it,” one says. “You think so?” the other asks. “I don’t think she would.”
The event drew a sizable queer crowd. “The butch look is an underappreciated look, especially in our era,” says Rosella Tursi. “For us, it’s pretty nostalgic because we all blossomed into our queerness in the ’90. It’s representative of that time.” Tursi’s partner, Christine Champagne, notes that borrowing Lebowitz’s sartorial practices begot a sense of self-assuredness. “I feel confident dressed like this,” she says. “I don’t normally dress like this, and I just feel really good.”
Champagne wasn’t alone in that feeling. Cohost Micaela Fagan says she dresses like Lebowitz beyond FranCon. “Honestly, when I started to really like her [and] started incorporating the way that she dressed into my own style, I found a shocking comfort and power in it,” she says. “There’s no gender to it. She is both simultaneously feminine and masculine, and so everyone can get on that page.”
