DORÉ

When I finally write that book that’s been sitting on my chest and in my heart for the past ten years, I already know what the dedication will be; “To the women.” I believe the most romantic relationships I’ll ever be involved in are with my female friends. The smallest of gestures from squeezing my hand and asking me to text them when I get home, to insisting on buying my five dollar coffee just because I’ve had a bad week, to showing up on my doorstep with a bottle of wine and cheese for no reason, to long dinners that have no end in sight because we have so much to tell the other despite seeing each other just the week prior.

My relationships with my girlfriends have lasted longer than any of my romantic dalliances, and they will continue to do so. No romantic relationship can replace the love and care these women have put into my life over the years and nothing is more romantic to me than someone simply showing up time and time again.

And while the winter months may be cuffing season, spent hunkered down with a mate watching endless amounts of Netflix, I can’t wait for when spring has finally sprung and I can grab a girlfriend and get outside. Here are a couple things I’ve learned while getting dressed for those springtime meals and getaways shared with my closest girlfriends.

Light denim. I used to shy away from it and now I can’t get enough. It’s relaxed, romantic, and looks so damn good with spring florals. A light denim jacket is all I want to grab for a Saturday coffee date in the park. Or perhaps I’ll rent a car and drive up state with a girlfriend for the weekend. Just two people in an enclosed space hurling down the highway while passing a bag of sunflower seeds back and forth and belting Madonna? Sign me up! Top that picturesque scene off with some light denim and a white tee and you’ve got just enough of the relaxed hippy vibes our moms so effortlessly rocked in the 70s.

My girlfriends and I tend to steal a lot of one on one time after work on the weekdays. Sometimes weekends are just too busy to slip in that catch up. So a question I’m constantly pondering is, what the hell do I wear to work at 9am that will also be perfectly acceptable to drink a glass of rose with my girlfriend on a stoop in the West Village come 6pm? The answer? Floaty, flirty, frock like nothings. Those pieces that when you slip them on you immediately feel like skipping, even though you haven’t skipped since you were twelve. Throw a cashmere turtleneck over that spring dress to guard from the chill of nights so you extend that porch sit as late into the night as you’d like.

Unusual layers tend to intimidate me. Can I really wear a top over another top and not look like a five-year-old who just raided mom’s closet? You can. I can. We all can! The key? A muted palette with a pattern that pulls it all together. When’s the last time you went out with your girlfriends? Like, out out. Those are my favorite nights not only because I get to revel in the warmth of my ladies, but I force myself to push my fashion boundaries because no one appreciates my attempts at having fun with fashion more than my girlfriends. I mean, at the end of the day, we all know we dress for the women in our life, right?

This Friday I have a dinner date with two of my best friends from high school and you know damn right we will be raising our glasses and toasting, “to the women!” I can’t think of anything more romantic or modern than that.