Trade Wars and Ankle Boots

A mind dump of everything that's been happening in the world lately, according to me.

I have to say, being ensconced in a whiplash 24-hour trade war with the USA has really dampened my appetite for shopping. The whiplash of tariffs, potential invasion, then everything suddenly going away—for 30 days at least—has made me never want to buy anything again. Of course, this feeling will pass, but the renewed sense of nationalism and ‘Buy Canadian’ sentiment that rippled throughout the culture last weekend was truly something to behold. It was like March 2020 all over again—kind of weird that it takes a massive crisis to force most people into becoming conscious consumers. I like to consider myself a “conscious consumer” but it’s an important reminder that there’s always room to be even more conscious and the work is never done. Since I feel like a walking zombie at the moment, here are some things I’ve come across the last week that I’ve been turning over in my head.

Nick Cave Despises Ankle Boots

The sentence you are about to read is a lot to take in all at once, so prepare yourself. Bella Freud, a British fashion designer best known for cheeky knits and being the daughter of painter of Lucian Freud and great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, has a podcast called Fashion Neurosis, in which she invites guests to ‘lie on a proverbial couch.’ One of her recent guests was Nick Cave, who expresses a deep, pathological hatred of ankle boots. Freud presses him on what it is he doesn’t like about ankle boots, and he says, “They basically in my view shorten of the legs. I mean, it’s just me, there’s nothing actually wrong with them.” The conversation then veers into a poignant meditation on the nature of friendship. “Friendship is a series of small forgivenesses, it’s not the end of the world. Ankle boots aren’t the end of the world. They’re adjacent to the end of the world but kind of forgivable too.” Whew! I wasn’t expecting that level of heaviness from two celebrities on a vanity podcast but this is exactly what I want from my fashion media.

Plum Sykes has a Substack

Plum Sykes being an icon while interviewing Lauren Hutton.

Plum Sykes, ‘90s Vogue editor who hilariously went viral last year for this clip in which she suggests, “The clothes people wear [at Vogue] in the day are clothes that most normal people would wear on their most glamorous night out of the year,” while wearing a *checks notes* white t-shirt, has joined Substack. Sykes is one of those fabulously kooky British aristocrats who, alongside her twin sister Lucy was profiled by the New York Times basically just for existing, and once recommended a $323 pencil to The Strategist. My favourite quote about her comes from her former Vogue colleague, Sally Singer, who said, ''I look at the Sykes sisters and I think: ‘O.K., my ancestors were born to work in the fields, and theirs were born to walk into parties.’''

Marianne Faithfull’s Shell Cottage

annasui

A post shared by @annasui

Designer Anna Sui dropped a crucial piece of lore about Marianne Faithfull, singer, actress and Mick Jagger paramour, when she posted on Instagram remembering the time she visited her cottage in Ireland entirely covered in SHELLS in the ‘90s after her passing. Major Freak Palace alert! The historic cottage was apparently built in 1750 for Emily Fitzgerald, another freaky British aristocrat (what is it with those guys???) who requested friends bring back marine life trinkets from shells, to sea urchins, to bird’s eggs, from their travels, which she would then affix to the walls. (Read more here.) While you probably won’t be able to snag a visit to Marianne Faithfull’s shell cottage, shell-lovers can book a visit to the Country Decorator House in Malden, Nova Scotia on Airbnb, and marvel at the oyster shell weeping willows on the wall and soak up the overall grandmacore vibes. (Designer Hannah Isolde tipped me off to this one.)

Wendy Goodman’s Gloria Vanderbilt Book