Saved by Lenú
On nostalgia, leather, and knowing yourself
Welcome to Saved by, where people whose taste I trust walk me through what they’re saving on Woven. Stay to the end for a code to come join them.
One of the best things about building Woven is meeting our users (a lot of whom are women!) and seeing how differently everyone approaches fashion, dressing, and the collections of saves they build. It’s truly a form of self expression, and there’s something quietly beautiful about watching individuality show up that way.
Which is maybe why Lenú’s The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants resonated with me so much. She asks the childhood friends she grew up with to describe their style in three words, and then to imagine one object that could travel between them all, the way the pants did. Four of them, independently, said a leather bag.
And the answers were never really about the thing. “You can leave things in the pockets for the next user.” The object becomes a carrier of where they’re from, where they’ve landed, who they’ve become.
It’s a refreshingly new way of looking at fashion and objects we carry, going deep into how they represent ourselves and the people we love. Which, in my opinion, is exactly what makes fashion and the pieces we look at and admire so incredibly personal, but also fun.
I’ve been following Lenú on Substack for a while now and loving her recommendations (I mean look at what she’s wearing below!!), so I couldn’t wait to get into this one.
How would you describe your taste?
Nostalgic, intentional and clean. I look like I have a capsule wardrobe, but really I collect one-off pieces: colorful, unusual, like a pair of golden leather pants. I mix 90s minimalism with a bit of 70s fun. If CBK and Jane Birkin had a baby, and they were South American (because I am!), that’s my closet. What matters most to me is real elegance, not the fabricated, overly curated kind, but the kind that comes from actually knowing yourself.
Talk me through one of your edits. What’s in it and why?
This edit is called Raw, and it came out of a month of paying closer attention to how fabric actually feels against skin: cotton, linen, silk, silhouettes that let you move and breathe. I wrote about it for my Substack, Mystical Archive.
The thesis was that being classy is tuning in to what your body actually wants, not to what looks expensive. You give the clothes their meaning, not the other way around. The edit is the visual version of that essay: no frills, raw materials for a raw self.
What’s something you stumbled onto in the app that you’d never have found otherwise — a brand, a person, a save/item that sent you down a hole?
I fall into vintage rabbit holes constantly, brooches, rings, pieces I have zero occasion to wear but would love to style on someone else. I also love learning what’s behind a brand. I recently went deep into Elsa Schiaparelli’s story and how it shaped the house’s evolution, and now I’m hunting for a dress from the brand. I’m a bit tired of brands overcharging for less and less craft. I’d love to see things go back to basics, more preservation of actual craftsmanship, so I’m willing to invest, but it’s a fine balance between paying for real value and just paying for a name.
Favourite save so far?
These Tom Ford sunglasses, they remind me of this famous look (below), just a more wearable version of it.
Best brand (or item) you’ve found through someone else’s saves?
Saturday in the Park by clara1, it’s in this edit. It made me feel like I’d stepped into an editorial shoot in a garden, butterflies around me, holding up impossibly pretty carrots, with the perfect Jane Birkin basket on one arm. Now I want a pair of Repetto shoes.
You can see everything Lenú saved on her Woven.
Saved by is a recurring series where people whose taste I trust walk me through what they’re saving on Woven, an app for saving inspiration and discovering what people with taste you trust are saving too. If you want to see what people with taste you trust are saving in real time, come find us on the App Store, or explore the web version. Access is still limited, but readers of this series can use the code SAVEDMONGOOSE for a spot.
a true Woven favourite!
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Thank you @Jess Mahendra 🥹, loved doing this and what you are building!