What I Can’t Live Without: August 2024 Edition

A monthly catalogue of obsessions

Aug 25, 2024

August is an excellent month for thrifting. Everything feels sort of weird and janky, and if you’re not one to lecherously covet the new clothing arrivals that will land in stores soon, it can be a good time to let go of all expectations and see what secondhand treasures there are to find. Several weeks ago, I was overtaken by a tingly sensation guiding me toward the incredibly busted thrift store near my house. I barely ever go there to shop, but my uncanny sixth sense told me there would be something really good waiting for me there, so I choose to heed the call. Combing through the racks, I found a plethora of weird vintage t-shirts that I would have unquestionably bought if I ran a vintage store, an agnes b. button up shirt for $3 and a men’s cashmere sweater for $5. Deal of the century!

I’d like to think I’m a good thrifter but I really have to give all the credit to this weird spidey sense. It always strikes at an unpredictable frequency, it could be once every three months or twice in one week. Does anyone else hear Joan of Arc-style voices in their head telling them to go thrifting or…just me?

What I’m Considering

I’ve always hated Tevas. Even the platform versions that have experienced a trend renaissance over the past few years hold little appeal for me, but the Voya Infinity sandals might be the one pair of Tevas that changes my mind. Months ago, my most stylish friend Liz, the new editor-in-chief of FASHION, was hyped on a pair of naked trail running thong sandals which she referred to as “very The Row.” I could see the appeal but didn’t think they were for me until I came across this extremely similar-looking pair. They let it all hang out in a way that I hoped a pair of simple black flip flops would do for me, but I did receive a pair of FitFlops as a gift and I’ve only managed to wear them inside the house because despite being the right size, my big toe hangs off them in a deeply unattractive and unfit for public consumption type of way.

What I Bought

The aforementioned thrift finds.

A little commotion for the shirt, an amazing vintage find that has the old owner's initials embroidered into it.

A pair of perfect vintage Levi’s. Vintage jeans that actually fit your body are borderline impossible to find, so over the years, I’ve developed a habit of buying every single pair I come across. Now I’ve reached the point where my pants drawer is stuffed with “perfect” vintage jeans and I really need to learn how to accept that maybe I don’t need to be so indiscriminate about buying every single one. That said, I don’t regret buying these jeans. They’re baggier than my other styles and I’m keeping them long, since cropped silhouettes appear to be biting the dust big time.

A peacock fascinator from Lilliput Hats to attend the King’s Plate. We ended up getting rained out (see the intense grey sky in the pic) but now I have a funny little peacock feather I can clip into my hair every time I want to look inordinately fancy.

What I’m Reading/Watching/Enjoying

A sentence in this recent GQ story called “Is Nike Still Cool?” stopped me in my tracks.

I recently went on a frenzied hunt for vintage Nike Challenge Court T-shirts on eBay. Maybe I, too, was Zweig-pilled, but I scored a few and thought everything about them was just right—made in the USA, sturdy cotton that holds up over decades of washes, a good boxy fit. Even better when the Swoosh is faded.

In April 2023 I wrote a story for Harper’s Bazaar on how consumers are craving good-quality clothing more than ever, and well over a year later, this remains at the forefront of the sustainability conversation. People are desperate to buy good quality items and yet…those items no longer exist. Essentially we’ve been painted into a corner by corporations who continue to cut corners and care more about feeding the bottom line than selling products that actually fulfil their intended purpose. (Even the Margiela shoes I bought last month were visibly worse quality than the ones I purchased years before.) So how do we convince companies that we want to purchase quality items again? I truly don’t know and I feel like we’re going to be having this conversation over and over until something changes.

Journalist Alice Hines’ latest feature for Vanity Fair, “The Twisted True Love Story of Lady Betty Grafstein and José Castelo Branco” is one for the ages. It’s the incredibly juicy story of a Portuguese genderfluid social climber who falls in love with an American diamond heiress, except the whole thing is built on a bed of lies and goes awry in spectacular fashion. Alice is an incredibly talented writer who has written about everything from incels getting plastic surgery to the creepy Twin Flames universe and reported the hell out of this story.

What I’ve Written

You probably already know who maximalist content creator Sara Camposarcone is, but she was generous enough to take me on a tour of the incredible church-turned-three-bedroom apartment she moved into recently and decorated in true Freak Palace fashion for Toronto Life.