galliano, challengers...

I’ve been a bit precious about writing and things have been a bit hectic with travel. The following is a brief overview of what I’ve been up to since the last send… Arrived in Bombay on the 23rd of April and was hit with jet lag, a migraine, and an early morning flight to Meghalaya where I spent five days surrounded by waterfalls and fog, the wifi scant. Then, there was another 3AM flight back to Bombay, where I bopped from Bandra to Khar to Lower Parel. As a whole, Bombay is hot: awash with dust, construction, and new cafes. 

On May 2nd, I took another 3am flight—this time to Amristar. I spent five days at my grandmother’s where, bereft of wifi, I finished Henry Van Dyke’s Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes and Alexandra Tanner’s debut Worry.* If you can believe it, it was even more hot in Punjab. I’m talking over 100°F (37°C).

Now, I’m back in Bombay. I’d like to tell you guys that I was basking in the cool, artificial breeze of AC, but, one night, we lost power for more than five hours and I was suffering. Things got better but then there was the sand storm and some very loud construction…

In terms of my reading life, I’ve put a pause on Middlemarch and don’t know what to read next though I did read some of Truman Capote’s Answered Prayers and finished Percival Everett’s James. Also, thinking of reading Susan Sontag’s “Notes On “Camp.””

On the heels of the Met, where many attendees wore gowns designed by John Galliano, I wanted to take a moment for High & Low: John Galliano—the recent documentary detailing the artist’s rise, fall, and subsequent return.

From the opening scenes, where clips of Galliano are interspersed with shots from Abel Gance’s silent film Napoleon, Director Kevin Macdonald presents his analogy: Galliano is Napoleon. After all, both men had vision and verve. Both men were kings. 

As a viewer, this bit gets old quick and even Galliano, in one of his interviews with the director, asks something along the lines of “Why do you keep on bringing him up?”

Beyond the Napoleon stuff, the documentary does take us through Galliano’s childhood and early career before delving into his addiction. As his success increased, so too did his reliance on drugs and alcohol. The bulk of the film is spent highlighting the pressures placed upon Galliano, in the years leading up to his racist tirades, when he was at the helm of Dior and creating 32 collections a year!

One of the more harrowing moments from the documentary is learning how, days before the Dior Couture show, Galliano’s father died. Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH, in a moment that seems benevolent and cruel, arranges for a private jet to transport Galliano from Paris to the funeral in Gibraltar and back again—all in one day. There is archival footage of an interview where an out-of-it Galliano tells a reporter after the fashion show that his father died. It was heartbreaking. I tried to find the clip to share with you guys, but had no such luck.

As we learn about Galliano’s post-scandal moves and his attempts at redemption, the film asks the viewer to consider what redemption looks like. There will be many who will finish the documentary wondering if redemption is even possible. Personally, I look forward to a documentary or book that delves deeper into the artist’s creative process.

I finally watched the film that everyone has been talking about. Yeah, it was fun. But, also a little hollow.** I found myself yearning for a little something more from what is, at its core, a very simple story. One thing I could not get behind was Tashi having a kid. All those scenes could have been cut imo.

RECENT READS:

• A fascinating read on India’s recent assassination attempt on US soil—there’s a lot to digest and think about with this read. Would highly recommend.

• This was a fun and interesting read about the history of Haikus in America. It all started in 1904 when Yone Noguchi wrote, ““Pray, you try Japanese Hokku, my American poets! You say far too much, I should say.” We also learn that Richard Wright, at the end of his life, had taken up a daily practice of haiku-writing. As a writing challenge, I have also been writing a haiku-a-day since reading this. I also found this article which asks if the English language is distorting the haiku form.

• Rachel Tashjian explores clothes as one of the battlegrounds for the upcoming US election.

  • “She [Jill Biden] eschews the pleasures and expressiveness of fashion, instead standing by a few principles: modesty, tastefulness, relatability.”

• It took me a long time to read this piece by Andrew Norman Wilson which details his art career. It’s pretty bleak. Then, I read a follow-up interview.

• I often think a lot about kindness, charm, charisma… Who has it and who doesn’t. This was an old article I stumbled upon discussing the rise and fall of charm in regards to American men.

  • “In short, Grant suddenly and fully developed charm, a quality that is tantalizing because it simultaneously demands detachment and engagement. Only the self-aware can have charm: It’s bound up with a sensibility that at best approaches wisdom, or at least worldliness, and at worst goes well beyond cynicism. It can’t exist in the undeveloped personality. It’s an attribute foreign to many men because most are, for better and for worse, childlike.”

• An old interview where SSENSE’S Brigitte Chartrand chatted with 1Granary about the relationship between e-commerce and emerging designers.

• Lot’s happening with TikTok… This NYTimes article looks into the company’s rise following the leak of some court documents.

• Inside look at Kasuri: an avant garde boutique in Hudson, New York that is more than just a brick-and-mortar retailer.

• New England Supremacy: Writing from Peaks Island, Maine, Rusty Foster’s newsletter Today in Tabs tracks all things media with an outsider POV.

  • “There aren’t a lot of tech leaders that I find interesting,” he said in his kitchen. “I’m a language person. Media people come from words. I like their approach to the world. They have skeptical curiosity.”

• I’m not sure how I found this but here’s: A History of Taste with academically-cited zingers like: “Will material progress result in luxury, effeminacy and decline?”

  • “Today, Taste has returned as a point of social discourse. Far from the “greatest single social issue” of the 21st century, it is nonetheless an area of contention. As Scott Belsky points out, in the age of AI-generation, Taste will become the critical skill one has to learn to parse through the towering wave of new things that will emerge from technological acceleration. Our situation resembles that of 18th century England. At the eve of a new Industrial Revolution, inundated by foreign products, lacking the central authority of an Elite to dictate and inspire mimesis, we are left wandering in endless store aisles and webpages, wondering how to properly consume.”

*Not monetized
**I said the same thing for Dune 2 didn’t I? Lol

Special shout out to Owen for their edits. Any errors are mine and mine only.