issue #51: weekly recap

the math doesn't math.

I have a love / hate relationship with the holidays.

On the one hand, what fun, right? Family! Wine! Food! Presents! Lazy days! Snacks! Time off work! Cold weather!

On the other…Family! Wine! Food! Presents! Lazy days! Snacks!

The time off work and cold weather are both always good (yes, cold weather, don’t at me).

Anyways, all of that means this is a slightly chaotic round up because my head is elsewhere and I am trying to spend a little bit more time off line over the next couple of days, which is objectively a good thing!

Hope everyone is enjoying their time with loved ones, or alone. Celebrating, or not. Because you do you this holiday season, even if that means pulling a Four Christmases and skipping town for a few beach days.

Field Notes:

• If you’re watching the luxury space, it’s not news that it’s in a downward spiral. I don’t disagree with the premise of this op-ed, but I don’t fully agree with it either. Yes, the quality has gone down. Yes, luxury has refused to recognize changing times. Yes, social media is partly to blame. But, I think, there is so much more to it that wasn’t touched on, or wasn’t touched on enough. Most bluntly: greed, and an inability to have any foresight into our changing world, consumer desires, and economic challenges by those at the top of these luxury houses.

• I’ve written and rewritten this little section more than a few times, trying to find the right words to convey my many thoughts on The Cut’s piece on Maryam Nassirzadeh. I realize that this actually probably warrants more of a discussion than me simply ranting on here, so I’ll just note a few things that came to mind:

  • Her business is not unique. Many, many brands, retailers, and showrooms are in similar predicaments. First of all, it costs a lot of money to run these things, and it’s truly unforgiving. Second, quite a few are run by creative types that have questionable people management skills and struggle to find and retain the right people that they trust with their vision and who they will actually listen to when it comes to running the business (it’s one thing to trust your gut and your vision, but that needs to be paired with listening to and acting on strategic business advice and grounding the long term plan in reality). And third, this is a common story because the industry is notoriously volatile and dependent on the whims of consumers, which are difficult to predict and ever changing.

  • Many independent retailers (and brands and showrooms) therefore rely on personal money, investment from friends and family, bank loans, and credit cards, and they often take on a not small amount of personal and business debt in order to keep the lights on. I think one would be hard pressed to find an independent retailer with no proper investment money or that doesn’t come from generational wealth that doesn’t have some amount of debt. The whole industry operates on borrowed money, and most retailers are often operating in the red. Especially now, with competing brand and retail demands and interests, lower profit margins due to deeper discounts and longer sale periods, and customers that are pulling back, shopping second hand (or not shopping at all), and those same customers doing a lot of due diligence before purchasing.

  • MNZ was always cool. It was never my style, personally, but it always has been an interesting shop with a unique point of view that catered to a very specific customer. That said, I’m not sure that customer really exists anymore, and if they do, they probably can’t afford it.

  • We do need to keep having a conversation around this, however, as I think it’s important for people to understand the true challenges of an independent fashion business, call out questionable leaders - both men and women - that either are or lean towards toxic (because we can all do and deserve better), and recognize that running a fashion business is, in fact, running a business. I think generally, from those outside the industry, it sounds like all fun and games, but the reality of the situation is that it is incredibly hard work with little to no room for error.

• Related:

  Ali Kriegsman
  ’s piece on the performative aspect of being a founder. A must read.

• The Nordstrom buyout is finally official.

  • I would love to see them scrap their marketplace, become, again, a place of discovery, and throw their weight behind younger and independent designers now that they ostensibly won’t have shareholders screaming at them for higher profits. We’ll see!

• And Saks is buying Neiman Marcus (and with it, Bergdorf Goodman).

  • Real estate seems to be the name of the game with a lot of this department store chatter.

  • Frankly, I don’t think this will actually be great for any of these retailers. The biggest red flag to me is including Amazon, Authentic Brands Group, and G-III as additional investors. I think we’ll start to see all of these stores (except maybe BG) flooded with brands from Authentic and G-III and the sales floors will all start to look even more similar than they already do. And with Amazon on board, their focus has always been more, more, more and faster, faster, faster, which objectively is just not a good thing!

• Finally,

  Lindsay Sword
  nails it with her 2025 fashion predictions (even though I will never stop wearing sneakers, personally).

Playground Chatter:

• A hotly debated topic in my household, the MAHA movement is something that seems to be gaining traction in a lot of the wrong ways. Around here, we discuss at length food, wellness, medicine, what it means to be healthy, exercise, alternative and holistic approaches, and nutrition. We are steadfast in our agreement that vaccines work, and that a healthy, nutritious, balanced diet is essential for our child, as is movement and exercise - all things we value as well, even if we sometimes lean into Chinese takeout for ourselves and boxed mac and cheese for our daughter (it’s about survival, people). We know that there is an obesity epidemic in this country, and that there is evidence that points to our food being on the unhealthy side of the spectrum (just listen to this recent episode of The Daily). But is the overarching MAHA movement the way to approach this? Probably not. Each aspect of this is so unique in it’s challenges, the information that’s out there, and what it means for us as a society - it’s impossible to hold all of it in one movement or conversation. Either way, this is an interesting read to catch yourself up on what it is and where it came from (hi again to the trad wife community!). My hot take: let’s just look to France, where they have much higher food standards, make healthy food less expensive and more easily accessible, put a value on how we engage with food and meals, and have universal health care allowing their people to take better care of themselves without being afraid of going into debt (where they fall behind, I’ll admit, is on the exercise side of this conversation - when I lived there the gym had a smoking section and I saw a gentleman jogging through the park in chinos and loafers - but that’s changing…)

• THIS. For the love of god, just leave the moms alone.

Coveting:

• Everyone on this platform convinced me that the Leset Margo tee was worth it, so I caved on Black Friday and bought a couple. Turns out, you guys were right. It’s a great t shirt, and now I want more.

• Also great from my recent purchases: this Uniqlo C cashmere blend turtleneck (I originally bought the black and went back for the grey), this Uniqlo long sleeve shirt (I bought the grey and plan to grab the white), and these Uniqlo pants (I got dark brown and went back for black). Maybe that’s all just because we’re going into cozy season, but my lounge/at home wardrobe is always the thing I update last, and it’s time.

• I also now am dying for a pair of Ruadh jeans after

  Jess Graves
  ’s conversation with founder/designer Jac Cameron.

• These.

Loving:

• My old assistant, who has since started running circles around me career wise and is just an all around awesome person doing awesome things, launched a side project. It’s a vintage and secondhand bridal studio and she has truly excellent taste and a discerning eye so if you’re getting married soon or know someone who is, check it out. It makes me want (no, need) to have another wedding.

  

  

  

  all images from studio dorothy

• I want to go back to school just for this class.

Reading:

• This one is for my NYC friends specifically, but the concepts behind it apply to everyone. Local elections matter now more than ever, and we have a big one coming up here in 2025. As soon as the New Year hits we are about to see quite a few Mayoral candidate hitting the pavement, and it’s a good time to ask ourselves what we want from them. And while you maybe have a little free time this week, it’s a good opportunity to read up on who is in the running, what their actual policies are, and what their vision for NYC is. And then, volunteer. Get out there and make your voice heard, encourage other folks to vote, and do everything you can to ensure we get someone in there who is effective, works for the people, and will be a strong advocate for a city that will inevitably face some serious challenges from our next Presidential administration.

• What does one do with old campaign merch? I, for one, hang on to it, as a relic of a more hopeful time. (Related: we have a textile waste problem)

• Every book

  Dana Thomas
  had written at the time was on my graduate school syllabus as required reading. She was really my introduction into fashion, it’s history, and it’s place in our larger cultural context. She was the first that really made me think about fashion in a new way, to understand it as more than just pretty things we buy and wear, and I’m so thrilled that she was able to pave the way for more fashion writers. I will always listen to anything she recommends (and read anything she writes).

Buying:

• A few last minute gifts here and there, but mostly nothing, for once. I forgot about a wedding I had to attend a few days ago, and ran to Zara to find a dress and shoes. After trying on a million things and being dissatisfied with all of them, I landed on *gasp* rewearing a look I wore to a wedding last year. And you know what, it was fine! No one cared! I saved some money! Less unnecessary consumption!

• I did cave and get these pants, however, as I realized I needed something other than jeans…sometimes.

Doing:

• I had more time to myself this week than I’ve had in a while, so I went to the spa, got a massage, took myself to drinks, lazed around, watched It Ends With Us (who wants to discuss?!), and binged shitty true crime docs (I am who I am). But it also left me conflicted about, well, me. Perhaps I’ll expand more in a later post, but it struck me that the more time I had to myself, the more it led me to think about how I wasn’t sure what I wanted or needed anymore. I wasn’t sure how to spend my time, or what would make me feel relaxed and rejuvenated. It made me feel a little sad for the old me, a little confused about the new me, and a little conflicted about future me. Anyways, if you’re a mom, you can probably relate, if you’re not, I’m sure you’ve had these moments too.

Eating:

• A new wine bar opened in my neighborhood - Entre Nous - so I popped by there for a drink (or three) when I had an evening to myself. To be fair, I didn’t eat anything but the drinks were good and the food looked good as well. Mostly, the bartender was great and got me sneaky drunk while I was alone in my thoughts. 10/10.

See you next week!

xx

jen

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one final reminder that this section will become paywalled next week! if you’re a current subscriber and can’t pay, shoot me a note, i got you. but as this is entirely reader supported, and as i would like to keep it that way, it’s time!