What I Can't Live Without: April 2024 Edition
What I Can't Live Without: April 2024 Edition
A monthly catalogue of obsessions
Greetings! This dispatch of Freak Palace is coming at you from New York City, where so far I have 1) walked past the Brooklyn Mosaic house, 2) seen this bafflingDonald Trump gnome statue, and 3) serendipitously stumbled upon the Zero + Maria Cornejo sample sale.
The minute I walked past the sign, I knew I had to go in. Zero + Maria Cornejo is spiritually similar to Comrags, making highly wearable, intellectual clothes for quirky women. I fell deeply in love with this biscuit-coloured canvas skirt, however, it was too small and had some weird pulling going on at the front, so ultimately I decided to leave it behind.
I like to come to New York once or twice a year to feel ~inspired~ and each time I try to do something that I’ve never done before. This time, I visited the New York Earth Room, a living sculpture by Walter De Maria that happens to be a massive room of dirt on the second floor of a SoHo walk-up, as well as Dream House, a “sound and light environment” by La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela that involves fuchsia light, heavy drone sounds and a lot of incense. I’d like to spend what little time I have here roaming the streets as opposed to sitting in front of a computer—as Carrie Bradshaw as that would be—so without further ado I bring you everything I’m obsessed with this month.
What I’m Considering
One of my 2024 trend predictions was that bloomers would experience a massive resurgence and so far, I continue to be proven right. My favourite brand in the world, Ovate, just launched a pre-order on a pair of delicate linen bloomers with a ruffle at the bottom and I am in love. They’re even called the Isabelle! That said, I’m not totally sold on the fitted waistband. When I imagine my ideal pair of bloomers, it’s elastic waistband or bust. There are some decent—and much more affordable—pairs on Etsy so I will continue to mull over this decision.
Honourable Mention:
These Simone Rocha ‘To Have and to Hold’ bloomers, which I saw at the SoHo store. I am not actually considering them because they’re $925 and I’m not getting married but…I can dream.
What I Actually Bought
A pair of blue tie-dye Rachel Comey x Target jeans that I staked on Depop several years ago but never ended up pulling the trigger on. When I spotted these on the racks at Beacon’s Closet, I recognized the pattern immediately: JACKPOT! When I noticed they were my size, I knew it was meant to be. The best part? They were only $13.95.
What I’m Reading/Watching/Enjoying
In the past month, I’ve watched two astonishing documentaries that reignited my love of fashion. The first was The Super Models on Apple TV+, which follows the entwined career trajectories of Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista. If you’re familiar with ‘90s-era fashion there isn’t a ton of new information, but its worth the watch for the sheer number of heart-stopping archival fashion editorials alone. As a vintage fashion magazine nerd, I found myself pausing the doc every few minutes just to study the new looks they were showing on screen. My idea of heaven involves being left alone in a room with every issue of Vogue ever published.
The second was Very Ralph (2019), a portrait study documentary on Ralph Lauren available on Crave. Conversely, I learned a ton from this one. Before watching, I knew virtually nothing about Ralph Lauren besides his status as the architect of reselling prep to America and came out with a whole new reverence for the man and the label. I had no idea he was such a wife guy (seriously, half the documentary was about how much he loves his wife), his rags-to-riches success story was deeply moving and the clothes are just so damn good. Plus, now I just want to wear jeans and oversize button-down oxfords every day.
What I’ve Written
-An interior decor story about Elise Yu, who somehow manages to turn the prospect of living in a 300-square-foot studio apartment into something appealing, for Toronto Life.
What Made Me Laugh
So apparently when luxury retailer MatchesFashion shut down they offloaded all of their stock onto a retailer, who then offloaded it to…Walmart. All we can do is laugh at the absurdity of it all.
Last Word
Keep on honkin’! Until next time…
You can go to the Conde Nast archive and actually see every issue of Vogue (or you used to be able to do it if you have the right journalistic or academic credentials) I did a paper on Charm magazine in grad school and I got to spend the day there. It was actual heaven. Worth reaching out to them next time youre in NYC