I know what you wore last season

Dree Hemingway has just finished hours of back-to-back interviews with the television, print, and Web reporters who have converged on Madrid’s chic Villa Magna hotel during the days leading up to Mango’s big reveal of its spring 2010 collection. But there’s still one more job to do (and this one’s a bit less tedious, maybe): Find the perfect outfit to wear to the show. Dree is the new face of Spain’s high-street mega-chain’s catalog (which explains the press attention). “It’s so wearable and affordable,” says Dree. “And they make really great basics.”

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Today, she’s wearing a black Mango blazer and jeans with leather on the legs, her own white tee—plaid Agent Provocateur bra peeking out—gray Marlova cardigan, and Steve Madden black flats (usually it’s Lanvin, but she wore out the soles). Before heading out to shop, she swaps the flats for fur-lined Jimmy Choo motorcycle boots, and the blazer for her Isabel Marant tweed jacket. She hops in the car waiting downstairs (photographer and Jak & Jil blogger Tommy Ton is along for the ride to document the outing), and it slowly makes its way through hordes of teenage girls who are waiting for either the Jonas Brothers, who are in town to play a concert, or Robert Pattinson—doing press for New Moon—or, probably, both. The heartthrobs are all
supposedly staying at the Villa Magna.

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It’s not the first time Dree has come to the Spanish capital to model; she was here just a short while ago shooting the look book for another Spanish fashion institution: Loewe. Fitting, since her great-grandfather Ernest was a customer and bought Ava Gardner a Loewe handbag as a gift. At Mango, Dree grabs a pair of corduroy riding pants; a pink asymmetrical oversized cardigan—but asks for it in black, please—a sweatshirt top; one zippered, quilted black skirt; and a pair of Brenda Walsh–meets–Chloë Sevigny floral fitted pants. Some high-style, low-priced stores “give me panic attacks,” says the model. (Not that she doesn’t go for a bargain; Dree’s been known to drive her MINI Cooper to the Woodbury Common outlets an hour outside NYC to hit up the Balenciaga outlet). Right near the entrance to the fitting rooms is a faux fur jacket done by Adam Lippes for Mango. “This is kind of really good,” Dree says. “I think this is my outfit.”

For the show, she decides to wear the denim-and-leather trousers she already has on, the Adam jacket, and some cinched black Mango heels. “Finished product,” she proclaims, throwing her hands up in the air as if to say, ta-da! “I think we have a winner. Plus, this jacket will be good for the motorbike.” The next day, Dree will be landing in London, where she will have to go straight from Heathrow to a Valentino shoot. She can’t afford to sit in traffic, so she’ll be hopping on the back of a motorcycle. And that, you see, is the Hemingway of doing things.