House Dressing; Sabrina at Home

One of my touchstones is the Hepburn/Bogart film Sabrina. I reimagined and updated it in my fashion illustration class, I sometimes dream of awnings, and today I dropped off my six-year-old daughter at a birthday party at her new classmate’s Sabrina-esque house.

Decidedly old world and gracious, this home was built in a time past—it wasn’t as historic as my own 1874 digs, but it did boast some serious Jazz Age chops.

In such surroundings, though, I felt we were, in various washes of denim and wool (and one Prada nylon jacket), utterly anachronistic. If I lived in such a home I wonder whether I wouldn’t dress for it. (Full disclosure: although my house is well over 100 years old, I do not rake the front lawn in Victorian-era hook-and-eye boots.)

But something about this house just begged for martinis and cigarette holders, even though I despise olives and don’t smoke.

So here, courtesy of Jil Sander, are a few looks that would make a postmodern lass feel at home in the glamourous Sabrina house: