Tried & True with Leah Melby Clinton
Meet Leah and hear about her must-have closet items and favorite brands.
Welcome to Tried & True, an interview series where I speak to friends about their wardrobes and the items they reach for again and again. I think that all of us are curators of our own lives; every day, we try new things, test out our purchases, and iterate based on the information we gather. I love to learn the nitty gritty, not just what someone loves, but WHY they love it.
MEET LEAH:
Leah is a gal after my own heart! She LOVES to shop in the same way I do! And she is just so chic; I live for her #commuterstyle posts on Instagram. I am trying to think back to when Leah and I first connected via the internet, and I can’t nail it down perfectly, but I sort of love that. I just know that our worlds have continued to cross paths for years. I love connecting with Leah via her wonderful biannual magazine, In Kind, her work with Margaux, or through her great Instagram. She makes me want to curl my hair, throw on a great dress, and get things done! I am continually amazed by how much Leah seems to get done in a day; she truly wears so many hats and does it all with grace and style. I know you all will love her as much as I do (and probably be convinced that you need to add multiple white dresses to your closet, why do you think I bought that Rue Sophie dress the other week?!)
THE FACTS:
Name: Leah Melby Clinton
Location: Bucks County, PA (with many #commuterstyle train trips to NYC)
Title: Writer, editor, and community builder
Self-description: A shopper, storyteller, mom-of-two, and ninja-level shopper living in Bucks County, PA. I professionally grew up in the world of NYC women’s magazines—I worked at ELLE, Glamour, and across all luxury titles at Hearst—and started my own, In Kind, after having my daughter. Now I work full time running brand marketing at Margaux while also leading Diana, a membership group focused on building community for women with entrepreneurial spirits.
FOLLOW:
@leahmelbyclinton (She is also here on substack; )
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TRIED & TRUE WITH LEAH
What is your go-to outfit?
I am a dress girl, through and through. I’ve never understood how anyone thinks it’s any “easier” to get dressed in leggings and workout wear rather than pulling on a dress—it’s one piece and so effortless. I love a good midi skirt since it achieves the same silhouette and is wildly versatile. It’s something I almost always pack when I’m traveling because you can wear it multiple times, with striped shirts or button-downs or t-shirts or thin knits tucked in. Suzie Kondi makes a great one and Alex Mill routinely includes a good classic cut in each collection. They did this taffeta version in their collab with , and I scooped it up immediately on launch day.
The section of my closet where I’m most over indexed is definitely striped shirts, though I’ll never say no to a new one. I obsessively hunted down one from Matteau one with oversized sleeves (I finally found it on eBay), and Buck Mason makes a very similar cut that’s way more affordable. I’m not sure what it is about stripes that resonates with so many of us..they’re chic and simple and the ultimate in a lazy, don’t-have-to-think-about-it way that still can look incredibly polished.
I’ve realized I dress quite modestly, though there’s no real reason; it’s nothing I ever consciously consider. I don’t love the look of a mini on me and am perhaps a bit old-fashioned in what’s appropriate for what (I believe, for instance, that there are some things that just don’t fly for work or church or the theater—I’m always a bit heartbroken to see how casually people are dressed each time I’ve gone recently). A fun fact about me and also a moment I’ll never forget is hosting a conversation with Julia Berolzheimer when I was an editor at ELLE. Afterward there was a meet and greet that I politely hung around for while a literal horde of people queued up to chat with Julia. One woman approached me, and I thought, Oh, how fun, she wants to talk about what it’s like being an editor! Instead, she asked me if I was a “modest fashion blogger.” I’d never heard the term, and I really felt like I’d missed my calling—if only I could have gotten in on the ground floor!
Another side effect of my time as a digital editor was this focus on distilling style into neat little nuggets: short, tight copy that conveyed something quickly. At some point, for some reason, my colleagues and I spent time thinking about how we’d describe our personal style, and the phrase I landed on has really stuck with me ever since. “Country aristocrat.” To me, it captures the romance and drama of clothing that I love—give me a dress that swishes or pools on the ground—without trying too hard. It’s about really good stuff, really beautiful stuff, but messy hair and minimal makeup and, ideally, no shoes (or practically things like sneakers or wellies or jodhpurs). In my fashion fantasy life, I’d dress for dinner every night and spend the day in some sort of blazer or knit or waxed parka. And I’d definitely have, like, a diadem (which, also, is something I love at heart—I turned away from big headbands when they started to get a bit too overdone, but I’ll pull one out for fun or a night out—I wore one to my daughter’s holiday concert this year).
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