Editor’s Obsession: Shell, Yeah

Perhaps the puka shell necklace–wearing surfer boys of early 2000s beach movies were ahead of their time. Recently, punk-goth it-girl fashion label Dilara Findikoglu showed their Fall/Winter 2025 collection in Paris and debuted a breastplate sheathed in shells and safety pins. It wasn’t the only place that shells appeared in Paris this season (a little antique mussel shell graced the waistline of the otherwise all-black Look 5 in The Row’s show), but it was my favorite for its subversion of the familiar “coastal grandma” use of shells. Of course, shells pair nicely with scallops and wicker, but who knew they also pair well with safety pins and drawn-on eyebrows?

Interiors-wise, shell-themed decor extends far beyond the Cape Cod beach cottage look. Take Marian McEvoy‘s iconic New York apartment, for example. Her black mantel and ceiling are both covered in shells—McEvoy hot-glued them herself, of course—giving an unexpected edge to her cosmopolitan digs. Leave your grandmillennial coquillage at home; the world is your oyster with these offbeat, city-chic shell picks.