I Can’t Stop Buying White Linen Things

I’m obsessed with linen bedding because I neversleep. I’m a total insomniac, so the bed has become a very important object in my life. Linen breathes — it’s light, but sturdy; it doesn’t stick to the skin. And it’s nice to know you’re tossing and turning in something that’s been around longer than you have. I mean, they buried the Pharaohs in linen! Bed Bath and Beyond, believe it or not, is a very good source for sleeping linen, like thisWamsutta Vintage Linen Duvet Cover— though it’s closer to beige than white. A thing I love about sleeping in linen under a quilt is, you don’t need a second sheet — all you need is the bottom sheet and the duvet cover. For something much more expensive, there’s this linens line by the ex-wife of Julian Schnabel, Olatz. She has a website and a store, and sometimes I go to the site and lick the windows on the computer. Joke! Thissheetof hers is customizable, and available in linen and cotton. And it’s only $700 a sheet.

Parachute makes a perfect (much cheaper) white-linen sheet.

For clothes, when I’m feeling extravagant, Eskandar. You can find it at Bergdorf Goodman. I’ve been buying it for 25 years. Theshirts— and oh my god, thepantsare fabulous. They have anelasticized waist, and they have a real weight to them — though they don’t ever feel like they’re heavy on. And they last forever.

For less-extravagant white linen, I turn to J.Crew. They make a goodbasic white-linen shirt.

And I love, love wearing an L.L. Bean men’s linen shirt in a small. They have a nice, solid weave, and they’re indestructible.

These Sferra napkins aregorgeous, and machine-washable. In all-white, or a mix and match of the colors.

A brand-new discovery that I’m enraptured with for clothes isVestiaire, a luxury resale website — they sell curated vintage at much lower prices. I’ve been buying these old Ukrainian linen dresses that I used to be able to get on the Lower East Side when it was all Ukrainians — they’re all out of business now. There are these fabuloustwo womenwho sell vintage Ukrainian linen dresses, likethis one, which feels fabulous on and also features embroidery — which is very trendy, I’ve heard.

And then there’s the Linen Shed! They have really great pajamas and summer loungewear, like this stonewashedpairwith mother-of-pearl buttons.

There is something magical about dyed linen, too — the way it absorbs color. Good linen takes to dye brilliantly. I used to do a lot of that: I’d dump old sheets and nightgowns into buckets of boiling water and bright fuchsia, or emerald green, or even cobalt dye — I use them as tablecloths, or cut them up and stitch them into pants. I useRit dye, which is the most famous dye from the 1920s.