Sartoria Americana.

Like scouts and sailors, I am easily identified by my uniform. And whenever I feel compelled to defend what has become my go-to get-up, I point to the fashion greats. Designers and creative directors are proof positive that great sartorial minds cultivate closets with little variation, eschewing the trends for their own take on the “classic”. Tonne Goodman, Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren,Donna Karan - all have a signature style that rarely wavers, year in, year out.

My uniform happened by accident; for the past eight months I have just refused to wear anything other than the pieces shown above. Night and day. Work and play. I make it black-tie appropriate with a champagne sequin tank, and I winterize it with a scarf. Should opportunity arise to hit the skateboard, I swap brogues for Converse. If the temp rises the jeans come off and chino shorts jump on. Say what you will about my Tradette fatigues; to me this uniform is double-stitched American perfection.All items I own are bolded. Others are substitutes. Clockwise from top:

• Ralph Lauren pearl studs
• J. Crew boyfriend fatigue jacket
• Louis Vuitton Speedy (I carry my grandmother's hand-me-down.)
• J. Crew Pearl Ring (I wear Kenneth Jay Lane's version.)
• Pedro Garcia leather brogue pumps
• J. Crew selvedge chambray shirt
• Libertine distressed jean
• J. Crew skinny metallic leather belt

(By the end of most nights out I also tend to wear Tanqueray gin, but that is always a happy accident.)

I feel most like myself in these duds - the sartorial daughter of Jane Goodall and Mary Randolph Carter, of the elements and the seasons and the outdoors, as proper at a cocktail party as on the deck of a sailboat. Ça look, c'est moi.