EGGPLANT: The Shopping Guide
Corn was a summer color. Eggplant is a whole mood, and a moodier one — deep indigo, plum, oxblood, that soft white the small varieties turn. Which is a gift, because that exact range is what fashion and design have gone all in on this year. So this month the vegetable and the trend are the same thing, and I’m going to dress my table, my kid, and myself in it.
The Table
Per my fascination with food-themed candles: this aubergine candle is random and fabulous for any tablescape. If you want a subtler nod to the theme, these bordeaux candlesticks from Apotheke are fabulous.
Then build the color in through the kitchen goods, the easiest, least-costume way to wear the palette on your table. This Schoolhouse x Clare V. Yves catchall offers a design-forward take in a useful and chic way. I have this in chrome and purple. It’s the perfect catchall. These Dusen Dusen Oven Mitts are such a fun way to incorporate the color into the everyday mundane; the Prado Oxblood Soup Bowls are affordable and a statement to eat your cereal and / or ice cream out of; this Lilac Chubbie Salt or Pepper Mill is probably the cutest thing I’ve ever seen (and I feel like I need them in multiple colors?) Any of them reads eggplant, with no vegetable printed on it.
For flatware, go moody and playful at once: Sabre Paris makes its cheerful French flatware in a deep aubergine, the plum answer to last month’s candy colors. Surprise to nobody, my obsession with vintage tableware continues. Amethyst depression glass, purple majolica, the odd hand-painted eggplant plate — all of it collectible, cheap, and impossible to buy new. Hunt it in the antique shops you already like to lose an afternoon in. (Like, these Vintage Patricia Garrett Great Impressions Eggplant Salt and Pepper Shakers Ceramic from the 90s... are we kidding?!)
If you’re an NYC local, or happen to find yourself in the neighborhood, this palette lives in the Italian-ceramics-and-vintage shops. Global Table in Soho is a tiny treasure box of artisan tabletop where the deep-toned glazes practically pool on the shelves, and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn is the afternoon: Salter House for the linens and the moodier, old-world pieces. Bring a tote. (Speaking of totes.... the best tote of all time, I OWN 3…..the Hulken, comes in purple....)
The Host
Eggplant is a Mediterranean vegetable at heart, so the host gift basically writes itself: bring the makings of baba ganoush. A jar of proper tahini from Seed + Mill, which grinds its own in Chelsea Market, plus a tin of good za’atar turns a roasted eggplant into the best dip on the table, and it’s a gift that says you actually thought about what they’d cook. Want to do the work for them? A jar of real caponata or ajvar is the eggplant already done, ready to spoon onto bread the second you walk in.
And the one-stop for all of it is Kalustyan’s on Lexington, the New York spice-and-pantry institution where the za’atar, the tahini, the pomegranate molasses, and the sumac all live under one gloriously cramped roof. Go in for one thing, leave with nine.
The Closet
Here’s the color story, made shoppable: the eggplant palette. Aubergine and deep purple as the hero, oxblood and burgundy as the new neutral, plum as the elegant cousin, and a soft white or cream — the white-eggplant note — to ground the whole thing. And this isn’t a gamble: deep purple is in its third straight season on the runways (Chloé, Loewe, Ferragamo, Tory Burch all ran it), and oxblood is being called the neutral of the fall. We’re just giving the trend a vegetable to belong to.
Some hero pants I would be remiss not to call out: the Olina Cropped Pant from Reformation (not exactly eggplant, but just… so good) and the Techno Taffeta Ultra Wide Leg Trouser in Orchid from Chan Luu. Showstopping, no?
The statement piece is outerwear this time. (I know it's still suffocating outside - but soon, it won’t be, and you’ll be wishing for an eggplant. An oxblood coat is the easiest possible way in — let it be the whole look against cream or camel. Mango’s burgundy edit has the accessible version; this Reformation Veda Celine Jacket is pricey... but a good look. My forever love, Frankie Shop, has a sick burgundy coat that will probably end up in my closet. Add a soft aubergine top underneath, and you’re speaking the whole palette at once.
For shoes, the low-lift move is an oxblood boot or a burgundy flat. Accessories are my love language, and where I have the most fun. A girl can dream, right? Because the bag is the hero here, and the hero is oxblood. The accessible one I’d actually buy is the Anna medium angular clutch bag in aubergine from Topshop, or the Calista Scrunch Heel from Reformation. This Purple Satin Evening Purse found on Etsy and Mia Crinkled Patent Leather Mini Bag from Stuart Weitzman are both precious mid-tier options. The one I do not own and deeply wish I did- the wishlist splurge- is anything oxblood from The Row (pre-owned way to go): size37, this Khaite bag, or a pre-owned burgundy Bottega.
The Kiddos
Small-human plum is easy, and I’m sending you somewhere different this time: Soor Ploom, the Brooklyn label whose whole muted-heritage palette lives in this range. The Purple Plaid Pants from All Small Co are the cutest things ever, same with these muslin pants from Milk Teeth. The literal move — the eggplant’s actual colors on a kid — is anything that pairs deep purple with a little green, skin and cap in one outfit.
This Charlie Chair in limited edition Mulberry is such a good room addition, same with this Chunk from Nugget (play and storage!)
And the one that’s almost too perfect: Jellycat’s Aubergine, a plush eggplant with a face, which is the chicest possible way to put the ingredient in a toddler’s hands. Pair it with a felt play-food eggplant for the toy kitchen. For the shelf, Lois Ehlert’s classic Growing Vegetable Soup has an eggplant in it and reads like a farmers-market trip — or grab it at McNally Jackson.
The Point
Nobody ever accused eggplant of being the fun one. This is me making the case that it’s the most stylish thing in the market right now, and that the case holds all the way from the dinner plate to the coat closet. Buy one purple thing you don’t need. That’s the assignment.
Sadly, I don't have a playlist for you this month. Very sad about this, but something had to give. September rocked me, and I sat or walked in silence rather than having music on. I promise next month’s playlist will crush and bring happy, fall pumpkin-spiced funk.
That said, I've been listening to Sufjan Stevens, Illinois fairly often in the evenings. Sprawling, orchestral, a little melancholy in the best way. Good for a when I need to get a bit more work done or unwind with a tea. It's weird and fabulous and absolutely ageless. Enjoy <3
xx
Gina