What I Can't Live Without: May 2025
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I don’t consider myself a mystical or spiritual person, but I do believe in fate when it comes to clothes. For the past year, I’ve been searching to no avail for a pair of swishy, wide-leg black trouser pants and keep purchasing secondhand pairs that aren’t quite right. In February, I found myself squirming in the pews at a funeral thanks to the too-small waistband of the current pair digging into my body objectionably. I vowed then and there to get rid of them the second I arrived home. I let go of the dream of sumptuous pants and moved on. Then, as I was digging through mountains of discarded clothing in Laredo, Texas, I witnessed a miracle of considerable proportions: a pair of vintage Ralph Lauren 100% silk black pleated trousers in my size. I quickly snapped them up and resumed digging. Of all the incredible clothes I found in Texas, these pants are probably my favourite: a silent wardrobe workhorse whose fancy nature belies their trash bag origins. They’re the natural successor to a pair of grey Ralph Lauren trousers I thrifted in high school and wore into the ground until they no longer fit. Call it fate, I’m just glad to have new pants.
In other news, May felt like a fake month. It went by so quickly, it’s almost like it didn’t happen. Are we living in a simulation? Are friends electric? Is this air conditioner my mom? Anyways, I feel duty bound to write a little intro to my monthly obsessions posts but if I’m being completely honest, the personal ‘Substack voice’ has been driving me nuts lately. I dislike the idea of having my voice subsumed by the proliferation of low-quality drivel on this platform. However, as a Very Important Tastemaker (aka person with a Substack), here’s everything that rattled around my lightly-sauteed brain in May.
What I’m Obsessed With
Screaming crying throwing up over this incredibly heavy Elliott Smith long sleeve by screenprinter Cody Defranco. I’m a longtime fan of Defranco’s pop-culture inspired t-shirt designs but this feels like the most ‘Isabel’ one yet.
Ok, so I know I know that Julie O’Rourke of Rudy Jude is an RFK supporter, but I have to come clean here about deeply coveting the Lace-back Big jeans and the Big Baby Utility jeans. They’re a slightly roomier fit than the normal Utility jeans, which are probably my favourite pair of pants ever, which is perfect for those weeks where I eat a lot of pasta. I will not buy them for plenty of reasons (not in my budget right now, US brand, founder has bad politics, etc etc), but god I love them a lot.
La Réunion Studio, the slow fashion brand making floaty patchwork tent dresses out of scrap fabric, opened orders for their custom patchwork dresses this week. I would literally die for one of these dresses. I attempted to sew my own bootleg version of the dress a few summers ago, and while it does look dope, the finished product didn’t totally stave off my longing for the real thing. Oh well.
What I Actually Bought
I’m on a huge financial diet at the moment which involves not spending money on anything that isn’t food, so unfortunately, nothing. But here are some Reels I made about my Texas thrift haul in April.
What I Wrote
Last year, I flew to Nova Scotia to visit a row of whimsical Snow White-style cottages made entirely from concrete. The story is finally out in this month’s issue of Cottage Life.
FASHION Summer 2025 issue Between my story on skinny jeans, my adventures in vitamin IV injections, and my dear friend Liz’s heartwarming Editor’s Letter on our friendship, the Summer 2025 issue of FASHION is a very Slone-heavy endeavour.
I profiled Hyacinth Tucker, an entrepreneur who grew her laundry side hustle into a successful startup, for The Guardian.
Speaking of side hustles, I ghostwrote this Toronto Life story about a talented flight attendant who moonlights as a custom cabinetmaker.
Municipal politics isn’t my regular beat, but this Toronto Life story took a turn for the absurd when it turned out the business owners protesting dedicated bus lanes on Bathurst turned out to be using AI-generated humans to parrot their cause.
What does it take to run a successful slow fashion business? I profiled Eliza Faulkner, the one sustainable indie designer who seems to be thriving in this tough economic climate, for Business of Fashion.
What I’m Reading/Watching/Listening To
Vogue wrote about “griefcations.” I took my very own “griefcation” to Switzerland back in 2022, which you can read about here.
You ever read about somebody who seems so cool you just know you would are friends with them? That’s how I felt reading the obituary of Sandy Stagg, a Toronto-by-way-of-London vintage dealer, restaurateur and general bon vivant.
Connor Garel on jeans for SSENSE. (Permit me a moment to brag: I was the first editor to publish a story by Connor. When he pitched me a story about the semiotics of André Leon Talley, I was blown away by his prose and sensed an incandescent talent. Obviously, I’ve been proven right.)
Kind of love this shady indignancy as a form of protest. ‘You sold it – now recycle it’: the protesters mailing worn-out clothes to the shops they bought them from, The Guardian.
Getting really into Sinead O’Connor’s The Lion and The Cobra. I feel like history remembers Sinead O’Connor as the woman with a shaved head who tore up a picture of the Pope on SNL, which is a real shame because she’s clearly a one-of-a-kind generational talent.
What Made Me Laugh
Last Word
Congrats on all the publishing success! woo!! 💕
Learned about Julie O’Rourke being an RFK Jr. supporter through this post - so disappointing but ultimately glad I know now!