I’m certainly not the only New Yorker who’s left the city, albeit unintentionally, and plenty of them might agree that it’s been uniquely strange to experience this pandemic away from home. We’re staying current on New York news as if we didn’t leave the epicenter, like we aren’t test-driving a cushy suburban lifestyle instead. As lucky as I am to be somewhere warm and spacious, I felt anxious those first few weeks; not only was it the longest I’d been away from the city in almost a decade, but I wondered what it would mean in a year, or in ten years, to have missed such a defining moment for New York. (Colleagues and friends urged me to stay away, of course; why would you come back, they asked, incredulous. Save yourself!)
My boyfriend agreed with them, naturally. Once I accepted that this would be our home for awhile—and that things had sort of worked out in our favor—my anxiety subsided. We’ve lucked out: The weather here is perfect, a steady 85 degrees with three total days of rain (though the drought caused a bushfire yesterday, and ash fell from the sky for hours). Florida has managed the outbreak pretty well, and outside of Miami cases are low; in our county, the number is just 1 in every 413 people. (In New York, it’s 1 in 44; in my hometown of Indianapolis, where my parents are now, it’s 1 in 120.) Florida’s stay-at-home order was issued about a week after New York’s, and as of yesterday, it’s already lifted. Restaurants began to reopen last week at 25% capacity, and stores are open again, too. I didn’t give much thought to either; my boyfriend and I would still rather cook than dine out, and I wasn’t itching to go shopping at a store again. Or so I thought. When I saw that Marissa Collections in downtown Naples was taking private appointments, I felt a surprising urge to go.
As the area’s go-to shop for contemporary and luxury fashion, I knew Marissa’s would have brand-new spring collections by Dries Van Noten, Chloé, and Mary Katrantzou, not to mention its jewelry gallery with Irene Neuwirth, Foundrae, Verdura, and more treasures. I’ve missed seeing beautiful things IRL, not online—and, on an unrelated note, I was kind of running out of clothes. I packed hastily for our “weekend” here, stuffing my carry-on with just two dresses, two pairs of jeans (an insane choice, given the humidity), one T-shirt, one pair of sandals, and—TMI, maybe—three pairs of underwear. My #workfromhome uniform has consisted of leggings and an oversized button-down I found in my mom’s closet; for trips to the grocery, I’ve alternated between a Dôen prairie dress and a By Any Other Name shirtdress. I’ll admit it was freeing to have such limited options at first; it forced me to wake up, throw something on, and get on with my day. But by this point, I’m ready for something new to wear for the next two months (and long after that), something comfortably and pretty, not sloppy.