105: LEIGH BATNICK PLESSNER
lives in Simone Rocha dresses and L.L. Bean boat and totes.
Hi readers, and happy heat wave to those of you on the East Coast. I am sipping an iced coffee in the air conditioning to counteract today’s languid daze and it is NOT working.
This week I spoke with Leigh Batnick Plessner, a woman whose style meshes well with my dreamy summer mood. Leigh is the Chief Creative Officer of Catbird, a company she’s been with for 20 years. I live in Williamsburg, so I’ve made a few trips to the Bedford Avenue shop, but I’ve known the brand since 2013, when I used to stack their signature knuckle rings high on every finger. Leigh oversees the branding and design of Catbird’s in-house collection, and her own style feels inseparable from its delicate, antique-meets-minimalist aesthetic. She describes herself as “soft” and “floofy,” and her taste as “spare and ornamental.” I think her airy lace skirts and nightgowns are a compelling option for dressing through the heat. Here’s what Leigh has been living in lately.
Describe your personal style. What are you living in right now and why?
I love the tension of spare and ornamental, threadbare and grand. I’m not sure others would see it this way, but I like simple and clean lines, albeit in my own way.
How often do you shop?
Always, all the time, and almost never at all.
Where do you shop the most?
eBay, The RealReal, antique malls and thrift stores, estate sales, Poshmark, via Gem app, Stella Dallas Living, and H&M for sort of anonymous-ish pieces that I wear for ages
LEIGH’S MOST WORN
Dôen black lace skirt
Simone Rocha black dresses
Nightgowns
Best buy of the last year?
I bought myself new old hair - my black hair started turning silver when my mom died almost 15 years ago. It felt like me but over time the balance of black to silver started to change, it grew more wild, and as my face faded like a petal I thought more and more about dying it. And so I did. It was a shock to me, and to anyone who had known me with what they thought was light hair.
Someone on Instagram told me that I was a human version of hydrangea and Queen Anne’s Lace which, as a hydrangea devotee, was one of the loveliest compliments that I can imagine. I hope my new old hair has not washed that floofy softness away.
So perhaps my new old hair is the most significant buy of the last year. It’s the best because I did something I had been thinking about - and I can always undo it.
My husbands old t shirts, the more busted, the better
Housecoats
Black flats, preferably patent - Miu Miu and Repetto
Old evening bags - my daughter calls them walking purses
What are you currently searching for?
I’m always looking for black dresses - I love Simone Rocha, particularly the more pared back styles. It suits me and my body which is growing softer over time, though it was never not soft.
What’s your go-to bodega/coffee/grocery-run outfit?
A nightgown (Loretta Caponi or old/secondhand), my oldest Repetto slippers and either a Simone scalloped trench, a black velvet 1950s opera coat or a housecoat, a basket for groceries and miscellany, and a small black evening purse that is fraying at the edges. I need to replace it but have been loathe to spend the asking amount on eBay for the only substitute I’ve been able to find.
Does your style change when you go to work?
I try to be sure that my clothing is a bit less sheer, and I wear good walking shoes since I walk two miles from East Williamsburg to the Navy Yard. Aside from that, no, I’m always me.
Enormous Marks and Spencer black underwear
In the summer: a Horror Vacui dress from a Matches sale and Nike running shorts that I never run in
A very short Dôen dress with long sleeves - I have 5
Crumbling black winter coat with fur trim
What’s your go-to out for a night out?
To celebrate my twenty years at Catbird the design team was commissioned to make a parure - a convertible diamond rivière necklace with swan hooks, and a pavé rococo shell - and baroque pearl and diamond earrings, that can also be worn on the necklace, all set in white gold. So I’ve been wearing that, with a bit more eyeliner and lip liner than I’d wear during the day, an extra spritz of perfume (Portrait of a Lady) and Rochas black lace kitten heels that look like a mask. I love rhinestones but I clipped the tear rhinestone off of it to let the shape sing. Also the foil backing on them was gold, which I love only for jewelry. Oh, and then a black dress or a very sheer nightgown tucked into a Dôen lace skirt.
What clothing item or accessory do you always travel with?
My jewelry, small little lingerie bags and coin purses from antique malls to tuck my cords and bits and bobs into, a slim rhinestone headband, a pile of black dresses, nightgowns to layer, and a leopard house coat. One pair of flats, Nike Air Rift (though I miss the mesh ones, I don’t love these new ones), sometimes paper thin black Prada slides.
Do you change your accessories or wear the same ones?
I switch my earrings out a bit - Catbird and antique diamonds from Spain throughout 7 piercings - and sometimes wear bracelets that belonged to my mother and grandmother stacked with an Apple watch to help nudge me to walk a bit further. My rings are always the same, always Catbird. I do test and borrow samples from work so that will ebb and flow over time.
I always carry a monogrammed Boat and Tote to work and layer the same evening purse with a black Simone Rocha/H&M bag for the weekends, sometimes with an enormous Longchamp folded down inside to fill throughout the day. Occasionally I’ll switch out my walking purse for a Maryam Keyhani handbag. A black pedicure always.
I’ve just recently found your substack and it’s a delight — so many other style newsletters are tedious lists of basics but your approach is golden: detailed questions with enough space for individuals to share in granular detail what they love to wear. Thank you!
She had me at mesh over new air rifts. Bring them back, Nike!