What I Can’t Live Without: April 2025 Edition
A monthly catalogue of obsessions
Greetings from Laredo, Texas. I’m here to check out Laredo Thrifting Tours, an organization that aims to divert waste from the landfill by bringing tourists out to dig through massive piles of unwanted clothing. All told, there are somewhere between 20-40 ropa usadas (or, giant used clothing warehouses) where thrift stores in Dallas, Atlanta etc. truck their unsold stuff and let me tell you, I have struck gold at these places. I often complain about how thrifting isn’t fun anymore because 1) prices are too high and 2) basically everything you’re sorting through is Shein and Fashion Nova, but this experience of going straight to the source had none of those disappointments. Prices for the warehouses ranged between $0.25-$1/pound of items and I’m pretty sure I didn’t spend more than $20 in two days. I found: handmade antique quilts, embroidered napkins, a kids’ Bart Simpson sleeping bag from the ‘90s, Ralph Lauren silk pants, Beetlejuice-themed overalls, a quilted coat. There was so much bounty I had to ship two big boxes home because it wouldn’t all fit in my suitcase. I hope to write more about it soon. In the meantime, you can book a tour or donate to the guide Heather’s Gofundme so she can get her own warehouse and save these incredible textiles.
Without further ado, here’s everything I’m obsessed with this month.
What I’m Considering
Lately I’ve been asking myself, what if I became the kind of person who started wearing a chef’s jacket everyday and just made it my thing? I finished up my culinary course at the beginning of this month and every time I went to class I would admire the crisp mandarin collar, the plethora of buttons and the double breasted construction of the jacket worn by the instructor. They’re made of virtually indestructible cotton-poly material that 1) doesn’t wrinkle and 2) appears to be very easy to get stains out of. Plus, I think they’d look great with jeans and a dainty shoe. Am I insane?
Every single time I see my friend Kate styling these jeans in an incredible way, I’m influenced a little bit more. I recently “grew out of” my Everlane Way High Curve jeans (aka I need the next size up) and there is now a gaping hole in my wardrobe for a pair of gigantic pants. Almost every time I get dressed, I wish I was wearing these.*
*Editor’s note: Alas, I loved them so much I did end up purchasing them and they made me look like a gnome wearing JNCOS so I had to send them back. Bummer.
What I Actually Bought
My dear friend Niko Stratis launches her debut book, The Dad Rock That Made Me A Woman, on May 6th and I’ve never seen book merch I felt more instantly compelled to buy. This t-shirt a play on one Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth wore in the ‘90s that reads “Girls invented punk rock not England.” Considering my love of Steve Miller Band and Electric Light Orchestra, this inside joke feels like it was made for me, which probably explains why we’re such good friends in the first place.
After attending one of their press previews, Rudsak kindly sent me this magnificent jacket which makes me look like a marshmallow or a cloud. I tried the black one on at a press preview last year and have been dreaming about it ever since. I was almost about to buy it too, so thank you Rudsak for being very cool and generous.
Knix launched some new swimwear for the season and were kind enough to gift me this leopard print bikini and a zippered tankini (haven’t heard that in a while, have you?) I’m a sucker for anything leopard print and I love the sporty wetsuit energy of the zippered one. If these don’t get me out to Toronto Island this summer, nothing will.
What I Wrote
-An interiors story about a boho paradise with hand painted walls in east end Toronto for Toronto Life.
-I was lucky enough to have work included in Notes, an art book produced by Dirt that consolidates the iPhone notes of a bunch of contributors to create a portrait of bizarre, stilted, yet thought-provoking interiority spurred by the app. My entry is, of course, about clothes.
What I’m Reading
This 2003 New Yorker story by Judith Thurman on the Marchesa Luisa Casati is possibly the most entertaining thing I have ever read. Here are some highlights:
The Marchesa was exceptionally tall and cadaverous, with a head shaped like a dagger and a little, feral face that was swamped by incandescent eyes.
SWAMPED! She continues…
For a summer of drug abuse and sorcery on Capri, in 1920, she packed a wardrobe of black dresses with cathedral trains, dyed her hair green, painted the body of her servant gold (he collapsed in the heat and was saved from suffocation by her landlord, who scraped off the gilding), and paraded through the village streets carrying a crystal ball.
What Made Me Laugh
Last Word
