Open tabs: May edition

My favorite reads across fashion, interior design, and culture

Happy May Day. I’m currently enjoying some family time in Atlanta and getting ready for my high school reunion (!). I was going to save this roundup for later in the month, but I already had it ready and I think maybe we need it now. Enjoy the spring weather, wherever you are!

Fashion

• One of my very kind neighbors left a stack of magazines by the elevator, and one was for the SS25 Loewe catalog, which is presented as a magazine and only available in their stores. I’m a sucker for beautiful photography and carefully considered presentation.

• Really enjoyed this dispatch from Coachella fashion. Cheeks out and cowboy boots, who knew? | Biz Sherbert

• Loved this profile of stylist Jess Xu. As a military kid, I similarly moved around a lot like Xu and related to this line: “So I was like, You know what? If kids are gonna be mean to me, I’m gonna pull up to school looking the flyest. Every time I transferred schools, I would just let the outfit speak, then it would attract people who are like-minded. I used fashion and beauty as armor.” | The Cut

• The misogyny of dismissing beauty culture | Arabelle Sicardi

  • “When you understand beauty culture you understand culture, period. It is part of being human, as much as a literary life is - oftentimes more so, because more people buy beauty and skincare than have Paris Review subscriptions. I don’t get when people are dismissive or scolding about beauty in literary conversations. It signals a dismissal of a part of life that is so interesting and telling about one’s character.”

• Imagining dressing Octavia Butler for this year’s Met Gala | Brain Matter by Gabriella Karefa-Johnson (h/t Kayla Marci)

• Derek Guy on alpha male menswear (aka why all those podcast manfluencers are wearing skintight suits) | Bloomberg (h/t Infinite Scroll)

Interior Design

photo via Socialite Family

• Love the color palette of this dreamy Parisian apartment | The Socialite Family

• On Lenny Kravitz’s mix of cultures in his home | Afritectural Digest

• On preserving old homes | World of Interiors

• The filming locations of Amy Sherman-Palladino’s new ballerina show, Étoile. I live pretty close to Lincoln Center, so seeing some of the midcentury interiors is SO interesting | Town & Country

Culture

Photo via NYT T Magazine

• NYT T Magazine did a whole series on Japanese culture. My favorites were on calligraphy brushes and convenience stores (konbinis!) | NY Times (gift links)

• Converting a U-Haul into an art gallery is brilliant | Vik’s Busy Corner

• Which Kirsten Dunst movie are you? I’m Dick, obviously. | Teniade Topics

• I did a lot of research on 2000s videos for my Y2K sci-fi style piece, and stumbled upon this Aaliyah song that I’ve been bopping to ever since | YouTube

• Non-performative ways to track your hobbies | Candice Daphne

• Can taste be taught? | Kira Klaas

• I had no idea modern art and expressionism was co-opted by a government initiative to export American art during the Cold War | Anjela Freyja

• Spiritual vacancy and political nihilism| New Statesman

• This piece was a kick in the butt that I needed to hear | Missionary Mai

• Maybe young men need better role models, but we need better examples than ones from … 70 years ago | Sigh No More

• A request: I have noticed some hybrid astrology-politics newsletters on Substack (one example here). I don’t have a settled take on this, but I find their existence fascinating and disquieting in the emergence of the new media switchup (ie, newsletters, podcasts, and alternative media becoming more important than mainstream sources for political news). I would love a longer “occultism in times of uncertainty” sociological/spirituality analysis, so if you have found a think piece along these lines, send it my way! (Or maybe I need to write it myself, tbd…)