The Write Stuff:  Lettered Looks to Inspire a Trip to the USPS

We might now pay bills online and make use of Amazon Prime’s one-day drop-offs, but the post office remains our nation’s backbone delivery service. The mail carriers who consistently slide grandma’s birthday cards into our mailboxes also serve as a lifeline to many who receive medications and Social Security checks, and they will be essential workers couriering mail-in ballots for the upcoming election. 

There’s never been a better time than now to put your pen to paper and write a handwritten note, to address that dog-eared postcard you forgot to send, and to buy stamps from the good old USPS, because the much relied-upon government agency is seemingly under attack from the President himself. 

And, let’s be honest, there’s something so intimate about receiving a handwritten letter. Perhaps it’s the permanence of the ink, words that can’t be erased by the backspace key, or the physical note itself, but a letter is a richer keepsake than a fleeting text. While technology provides us with the means to connect with anyone anywhere at any time, words on a screen fail to accurately replicate the thoughtfulness of an IRL note. 

Like a well crafted letter, a good design can carry the mark—or in the case of Mary Katrantzou’s spring 2013 collection—stamp of its creator’s hand. Some sartorial messaging, like that on Ashish’s sequined tops, exhibited in the Camp show, or Christian Dior’s strong-worded sweater, serve as PSAs. Designers’ “handwriting” can be adapted to their themes or audiences. For a collection dedicated to mothers, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana made a print using children’s penmanship; in contrast Nabil Nayal’s Elizabethan-inspired show, presented at the British Library, featured a print that replicated Henry VII’s impeccable calligraphy. At Valentino back in 2015, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli used thread as if it were ink, stitching Shakespeare quotes and lines from Dante’s Inferno into a series of dreamy couture gowns. 

Show your support of the USPS: Send a letter. Here, some inspiration from the Vogue Runway archive.