The Five Senses

THE FIVE SENSES

Seeing: It’s fashion month and my eyes are looking upon so much! Feathers, sheer fabrications, and oversized, slouchy handbags clutched close to the body. For some reason, oversized handbags and the 2008 recession are twinned in my mind. And though conversations around incumbent recessions are often sensationalist and fear-mongering, I can’t help but wonder… Is this a sign? Am I on to something?

Hearing: Found this new Kybba x Basshall mix from Amsterdam thanks to TikTok. I also need to look into a playlist from Rick Owens. I’m sure there must be one. Though Rick’s music taste is outside of my musical comfort zone, every time I’ve experienced a Rick show or been backstage, like this moment, I’ve been charmed by the music.

Smelling: I shall go to a Comme des Garçons store while in Paris so I can smell the perfumes Nathan and I discussed in our live. Hunting for a new signature scent is so hard! I’ll smell Concrete for the laughs and I’m very intrigued by Blackpepper. But, why isn’t there a perfume called Gold?*

Tasting: Camembert and a fresh baguette. A tin of sardines. Fig ice cream. And, as always, sparkling water, so crisp and bubbly.

Touching: I made a mistake and only packed one sweater with me which means that when I’m feeling chilly in my Airbnb, I turn to my one and only sweater. It’s an oversized, cream pull over that looks luxe and feels divine. The sweater consists of 32% acrylic, 26% polyamide, 25% wool, 15% baby alpaca, and 2% elastane.

On My Mind:

• @Libras: I discovered this Rodebjar coat after I sent out last week’s newsletters and as the garment is named in your honor I felt compelled to share it.

• As someone who routinely wonders whether or not I should get a MBA, this Wall Street Journal article: ‘The Rise of the M.B.A. Novelist,’ was cute (ish). The author argues that the case study is no different than a short story and that the mixing of art and commerce is something the MBA student, rather than the MFA student, might just be more equipped for. The real takeaway from this article is a throwaway sentence which basically says that if you get a 6-figure advance do not place it into a zero-interest checking account. I.e. Aspiring authors should gain a degree of financial literacy.

• The Booker Prize has a lot of funny little marketing ploys and the one I actually like the most is a column created in collaboration with Lit Hub called, ‘TBR: The Booker Revisited.’ Thanks to this collab, I am routinely introduced to new authors and books. Right now, and thanks to this article, I’m thinking about A Green Equinox by Elizabeth Mavor which was shortlisted for the 1973 Booker Prize and reissued by McNally’s. The novel is an exploration of love “and its multifarious manifestations: carnal, romantic, or cerebral.” The plot also includes “a car crash, a fire, a drowning, a bout of typhoid, and a suicide.”

  • Mavor seems like an exceptional talent whose other work I must look into.

  • Will be reading A Green Equinox in October for those who are interested.

• More fashion things:

  • The Attico Spring Summer 2024 show looked so sick. Design duo Gilda Ambrosio and Giorgia Tordini presented their first runway show on the streets of Milan. With supersized suiting, slouchy trousers, gowns, and fringe embellishment, all of the looks felt both cool and glamorous.

  • Special shoutout out to the delightful diaphanous dresses from Prada.**

  • Need to read this article about the lost art of viewing a fashion show by Rachel Tashjian of The Washington Post asap.

• Finished Solenoid! Was it worth it? Still grappling with that question!