What I Can’t Live Without: Jan/Feb 2024 Edition
A monthly catalogue of obsessions
This week’s dispatch comes to you from the depths of a delirious fog courtesy of the head cold that has currently taken up residence in my body. New York Fashion Week is finished, London Fashion Week is well underwear, but I have not yet looked at a single picture. I’m sorry! I prefer to engage with things on my own time as opposed to keeping up with some invented frenetic pace, which probably explains why I am not a career critic. What I am capable of, however, is chronicling my monthly obsessions.
Recently, I have found much resonance in going outside in a fur coat, sunglasses and a headscarf tied around my chin. Adding each element as I prepare to leave the house feels like draping on some kind of ritualistic armor. The fur coat signifies glamour, the headscarf nods at eccentricity and the sunglasses scream ‘do not dare perceive me.’ It’s a little bit late-stage, reclusive Greta Garbo mixed with Little Edie. Call it ‘mob wife’ meets Grey Gardens.
What I’m Considering
Issey Miyake Pleats Please pants
The only item currently on my wishlist is a pair of black Issey Miyake Pleats Please pants. I’ve wanted these pants for years and are the type of wardrobe staple I would wear multiple times a week for the remainder of my natural life. I already have a pink pair, since they are much cheaper when you buy a weird colour on sale, but obviously they are nowhere near as versatile as the black. Last year I found some sweet pleated MaxMara pants for $30 on the RealReal thinking they would do the trick but when I found out that the pleats aren’t permanent and you have to iron them in every time you wash them, I realized it was…time to reconsider.
What I Actually Bought
I came across this puffy massive headscarf by Ienki Ienki while perusing the racks at the Narwhal and thought it looked so dum had to try it on. When I looked in the mirror, not only did I did not look dumb I actually looked…kind of good? Typically I dress for pure practicality during the winter, so whatever I’m wearing gets covered up by a big puffer coat and a toque. But with the headscarf, suddenly the outerwear became part of the outfit. It screams “eccentric rich old lady who spends afternoons bringing a loaf of bread to the park to feed the birds.” I love her. It was dumb expensive but I managed to track it down on sale from a Canadian retailer, and you know what? Sometimes you need to embrace being dumb once in a while.
What I’m Reading/Watching/Enjoying
Literally Everything The Cut Published This Week
The Cut, which hasn’t been good since 2018, is finally back in full form. This week alone, they dropped several different rubbernecking personal essays, all absolutely insane in their own unique way. There was Emily Gould’s account of how a mental breakdown lef her to consider divorce (I am forever and always pro-Gould and could relate to the darkness she unfurls in this essay), a finance writer’s story about getting scammed so badly she handed a shoebox full of $50,000 cash through a car window thinking it was a “government agent,” and someone openly admitting to spending $11,000 on couples therapy. (Plus a non-personal essay on Alex Consani, the most relevant fashion model of the moment.) The takeaway? Reading about other people’s problems will never not be deeply satisfying. Welcome back, baby.
What I’ve Written
-This week I was on CBC Radio this money talking about the mob wife aesthetic. I don’t think you can listed to it online but basically, I said that mob wife for people who love and embrace femininity but are more interested in being a woman than a girl, given how much coquette discourse we’ve been subject to lately (“girl dinner,” “girl math,” hot girl walks” etc etc.)
-Rashad Rastam had me on his podcast, Wear Many Hats, where I talked about loving Nathan Fielder, hating Boygenius and more.
-For Maclean’s, I wrote a story about Audra Williams’ lovely little corner store, Rose Finch Co, in Port Medway, NS. I also interviewed a woman who created her own Barbie dream home in Halifax.
What Made Me Laugh
Last Word
So i have been to the port medway store many times under its previous ownership, on my way to visit my friend on Great Island (accessed by boat from port medway). I’ve stayed in a garage around the corner from the store and friends have stayed in the apartment above the store too. Loved that place. Are the new owners operating the post office too or did it close?
Love the hood so much!!! Inspired to wear my fur in LA, maybe in front of Peta on Sunset just for a thrill