issue #89: weekly recap

Hey friends!

Happy Thursday!

I’m leaving for vacation Saturday, but don’t worry, you’ll still be getting things in your inbox from me. There are actually a couple of really great newsletters coming your way next week that I am personally quite excited about - I hope you like them too.

Because I’ll be on vacation, you won’t be seeing one of these recaps from me on Thursday. Instead, I’ve asked my new friend

Rachel Lipson

to answer a few questions for me, so you’ll be getting the first installment of my new series “taking notes” in which I pester both IRL and internet friends that I admire about their daily lives, businesses, careers, families, and creative projects. Mostly I just wanted an excuse to talk to these incredible people and learn a little something - I hope you find all of them just as inspiring and as interesting as I do.

ICYMI from last week:

Jade Fox

asked me to be a part of her “What Mums Wear” series, and I truly had so much fun answering her questions. If you didn’t already know, I love yapping on the internet, so I thank her for giving me another platform in which to do so! (Related: my

Intuitive Style

podcast episode with

Maureen McLennon Welton

is dropping soon!)

Anyways. Below the paywall this week you’ll find:

• Two books I finished in the last week, one I enjoyed, one…I still don’t know.

• A new tourist trap in NYC that I actually quite liked

• Nerdy date night

• The top five things on my wish list right now

• A few snaps from men’s pre-spring market

Enjoy!!

1. I caved and bought the Donni Rib Kick Flares which are very unlike me but you know what, fuck it. Will report back.

2. I feel like I was really doing the most this week, but in that, got to meet a couple of fantastic internet friends IRL and pay a visit to Naomi Nomi’s Dumbo studio. Tonight I’m attending the Literary Sport SS25 launch party and going to a concert. After that, I have one more day of work, a bunch of last minute packing, and a Saturday morning cross country flight out of Newark with a toddler to get through before I’m on vacation and can kind of, pretty much, check out.

   

3. This is how you know it’s not actually about the babies, but about power and control. If it were about the babies, this administration wouldn’t be making these devastating cuts to programs that support children and families. Rather, through cutting these programs - alongside making it harder to seek reproductive health care and family planning services - they are communicating that they only care if certain types of people have babies (rich) and if you aren’t that type of person you still have to have them but they are comfortable letting you fall deeper into poverty while propagating the societal structures that got you there in the first place and ensuring there is no way to get out or give opportunities to your children. That you and your family have to suffer because society was not set up for you, and that they think that’s just fine. This is inherently racist, of course, but it too is classist, and disgusting. Look, even if you don’t have children yourself, these cuts should alarm you. I know as humans we tend to focus on the things that affect us personally, and that’s fair, but these kids don’t have a voice. They don’t vote, they aren’t unionized, they aren’t lobbying. They are being hurt at the selfish hands of those that can’t see past themselves, and we all need to do better about speaking up for our future generations and fighting for them, because they can’t do it themselves.

4. I also highly recommend this piece in The Atlantic about Trump. I often wonder where we would be if he won two consecutive terms and didn’t have four years to stew on his grievances. Probably a much better place. The transcript of the interview is worth reading too. It would actually be hilarious, if it wasn’t so damn terrifying.

5. We all knew it was coming, but I hate that Saks has a storefront on Amazon. And like, yeah, Saks seems strapped for cash right now. I’ll honestly be surprised if they can really turn it around the in way Marc Metrick keeps confirming they will. And Amazon invested in the Saks x Neimans deal, so of course they were going to get this from them. They’ve been wanting to play in the luxury space for a long time, and have been trying to do so somewhat unsuccessfully, so maybe this will move the needle for them. I kind of doubt it, though - the Saks customer is going to Saks.com not Amazon to shop - but we’ll see. The ever increasing inescapability of Amazon is certainly giving me the ick, though, that’s for sure. As is the general feeling of everything being consolidated into the hands of just a few, which I just don’t think is good for anyone - namely end consumers - in the long run. (Hot take: WWD titling this article “Saks Joins Amazon in Designer Fashion Breakthrough” feels so much like WWD is just pandering to Saks to keep advertising even though they’ve written a few pieces about the trouble they may or may not be in. Making atonements and grand statements on their behest to keep the dollars flowing in. Ick.)

   1. Semi related: I actually think it’s a great idea for all e-commerce vendors to be adding a tariff charge line item at check out. This puts it front and center with the end consumer, and can be easily taken off and updated when the tariff rate inevitably changes. It’s a lot more transparent than rising prices, and of course, when prices go up they don’t come down - so I, personally, would love to see more sites simply adding an additional charge, calling it what it is, and leaving prices where they’re at when possible. And to Karoline Leavitt: shut the fuck up. You all did this, now you deal with the consequences.