What I Can’t Live Without: November/December 2024 Edition

A monthly catalogue of obsessions

It’s early in December, I’m drinking coffee spiked with egg nog and feeling a deep sense of peace and contentment with the world. Sure, there are the regular fears and anxieties lurking in the background, but today I have packed them away safely so I can enjoy my day and gingerly unwrap them another time.

My first reaction upon scrolling past this tweet was to burst into laughter. Aren’t these jeans the most classic style of denim there is? The "ugly, light wash, unflattering, masculine” jeans in question strongly resemble Levi’s 501s, which are the original blue jeans. If I can call to mind an image of the most unadulterated by trends pair of jeans on earth, they would probably look like these pants. I regret to inform Ms. Stock that these jeans won’t be banned by Project 2025 or any year thereafter, for that matter.

Without further ado, here is everything I was obsessed with this month.

What I’m Considering

These metallic bronze Ecco loafers have lodged themselves into my consciousness so firmly that I visit the tab I have open multiple times a week, like I’m checking in on some baby animal livestream. For the uninitiated, Ecco made the lace-up ballerina sneakers Chloe Sevigny wore in an instantly-iconic street style pic from earlier this year, and their shoes are incredibly comfortable, high-quality and just the right amount of weird. The bronze shoes are he apple of my eye but I can’t stop thinking about the black ones either.

What I Bought

Gone are the days of puffer coats. I’ve noticed a massive upswing in the number of people wearing oversize, cocoon-like wool duffel coats as winter outerwear. I used to eschew this style as impractical for frigid Canadian winters, but as the baseline temperature gets less and less cold every year, wool coats now seem like more than enough warmth. I’ve wanted this wool coat by Ahiri the minute I tried it on at a preview earlier this year and finally pulled the trigger in their recent Black Friday sale.

I’ve always admired the traditional elegance of a Mason Pearson brush, but figured the fine boar bristles weren’t for me, as my hair looks like I just touched a Van de Graaff generator every time I use a brush. But my hair has been getting longer lately and the unrelenting snaggles have broken off two tines in my regular comb, so I desperately needed a replacement. I did a deep-dive, rereading Marlowe Granados’ lovely essay on Mason Pearson brushes, and found that Crown Affair has a virtually identical nylon and boar’s bristle brush, which they kindly offered to send me. This new brush has elevated my hair brushing into an art. The bristles are soft, gentle and doesn’t remove the shape of my curls. I’m a convert.

Tried on this super-sexy silk dress at Reformation, ended up with the way more practical red cashmere cardigan instead.

What I’m Reading/Watching/Enjoying

• Didion & Babitz by Lili Anolik

I tore through the effervescent, raunchy Didion & Babitz in less than 48 hours. Based on a trove of letters writer Eve Babitz wrote to mentor/frenemy Joan Didion that were discovered after her death, writer Lili Anolik maps the complex relationship that existed between the two writers. If you love literary women, glitz, and glamour you will no doubt be enamoured by this book. Start here if you need an Eve Babitz primer.

• Online Shopping Can’t Be Trusted by The Walrus

A strong interest of mine is the precipitous decline in clothing quality over the past 10 years, so I was delighted to see this story in The Walrus on how addressing poor product quality is disincentivized by businesses like Amazon because it ultimately conflicts with business growth. I’m ready for a full-scale revolution. Companies used to exist to serve consumers and make products that improve and enhance our lives. Now they exist to proffer useless garbage and bleed us dry. It’s shameful.

• Bad Influence by The Verge

Each paragraph of this feature about an influencer allegedly ripping off another' influencer’s beige-forward aesthetic is more insane than the next. I won’t ruin it any more for you but this one quote really sums it up for me.

If the argument is that Sheil is duplicating Gifford’s existence, there’s something to be said about the fact that the items both of them promote are also imitations of someone else’s work.

What I’ve Written

• A guide to highly-giftable coffee table books for Chatelaine

What Made Me Laugh

Last Word