Random recs: Arthur Elgort the movie, Harvey Nichols, Siri Hustvedt, peak merch and more
A few snippets of digital ephemera and IRL recommendations I’ve enjoyed lately…
1/ Merch as clothing systems. This is a great read on the evolution of merch. (Anyone for a Palantir hoodie?)
“Which brings us back to peak merch. If the last wave was about identity as consumption – proof of taste, proof of experience, proof-you-were-there – this next phase feels more like identity as positioning. The shift isn’t that merch signals allegiance (it always has), but what that allegiance points to. Not scenes, subcultures or shared memories – but systems, ideologies and power structures that are much harder to decode.”
2/ HARVEY NICHOLS had a glow up a couple of years ago, but you’d never know it. The store and the buy look fab. All the grown up contemporary brands I like – Lemaire, Another Tomorrow, Wardrobe NYC, plus Calvin Klein, Lisa Yang, B.B. Wallace and Dario Vitale’s Versace – are here for physical try-on, as well as new beauty brands like Bob Beauté* and a Violet Grey year-long pop-up in the window. I’m here for this 90s beauty editor deskscape (top and below) and I love the Madame Grey Virgo astrology candle* – a subtle breeze of pink pepper, violet and musk. And there’s a vast selection of other lifestyle desirables on the ground floor – this Redduo jug and mug have been living rent free in my head for weeks (below).
But. The place is deserted! Maybe it’s not chronically-online-Gen-Z-friendly enough. Does it need a – can’t believe I’m saying this – Blank Street Coffee concession? An Erewhon pop-up? Knightsbridge is usually a magnet for Dubai transplants, but Harrods has cornered that market and Harvey Nichols clearly wants to court a fresh customer. Anyway. If you like having a well-merchandised store all to yourself, get there while it’s still quiet.
3/ I’ve been sleeping on the Waitrose Dish podcast with Angela Hartnett and Nick Grimshaw. But I’m fully invested now. Come for Louis Theroux (with Angela’s short ribs and rhubarb and pear crumble recipe) and stay for Gemma Arterton and the crab linguine. Unsurprisingly, Louis can’t help slipping into interviewer mode and he’s a massive foodie, so if Grimmy ever left, he could easily take over.
4/ ARTHUR ELGORT’S MODELS MANUAL – the movie. The Devil Wears Prada 2, who?! I’m (im)patiently waiting for the Arthur Elgort doc, Arthur Elgort: Models & Muses from filmmaker Warren Elgort.
5/ Corpcore comparisons. And in loosely related news, Arthur’s daughter Sophie Elgort has a great piece in the Financial Times revisiting her corpcore street style photos from 15 years ago and comparing them to now. I couldn’t help but wonder… if companies will start incentivising employees back to the office with carrot dangles of higher salaries or other perks (maybe they are already? LMK in the comments…). And if that’s the case, would dressing up for the office again feel like a desirable status grab, a symbol of being at the top of your game (or simply having a job at all), signalling being ‘worth’ the office real estate versus being a ‘wfh loser’? Read more here.
6/ Micro make-up. I still love my Chanel Les Beiges Water Fresh Tint foundation*, but I don’t love it coming off on my white tees. So, this micro make-up look piqued my interest and I like the look of the Kraum Micro Brushes (below). (H/T Emily Morello.)
7/ Fashion and the art school connection. This Shelley Fox interview is so detailed and fascinating. And relatable too. “The fashion students really dressed down and were probably scruffier than some of the art students. I think there is that connection – where Westminster used to be Harrow School of Art, Middlesex University used to be Hornsey School of Arts, Saint Martin’s School of Art, Kingston School of Art. I mean, they’re all art schools. I think that training, going back to the 1960s, the music, fashion photography, image making, the way of fashion coming out of the youth movement has kind of never left it. As I said before, not everything in the sixties was swinging but there was this movement where music and clothes were so interconnected.”
8/ Free the Alphonso mango! Lizzie Paton in the FT newsletter has unearthed the root of a mysterious mango shortage in London. No wonder I’ve not spotted a single box during what’s meant to be peak season!
9/ Siri Hustvedt, Ghost Stories. Finally, a last-minute addition. I was listening to Sam Baker’s podcast, The Shift and her guest was writer, Siri Hustvedt. I was aware of her new memoir and was interested to hear her talk about it. (Side note: I interviewed her wonderful daughter Sophie Auster for The New Garconne* in 2015. I wasn’t familiar with Siri and her famous writer husband Paul Auster at the time. But Sophie’s stories about them were warm and endearing.) While listening to the podcast, I was killing time in Waterstones and discovered a pile of Ghost Stories* – signed. It did indeed feel like a ‘sign’! I bought my copy and have been loving reading Siri’s musings on life, death (trigger warning: there’s cancer talk), companionship and much more to come, I’m sure. I guess you could compare it a little to Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, but it’s really its own precious thing. A beautiful, contemplative nighttime read.
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WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla
IMAGES: Harvey Nichols/Disneyrollergirl x 3; Arthur Elgort Models & Muses; Kraum; Disneyrollergirl;
NOTE: Most images are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate links* and PR samples. Please read my privacy and cookies policy here.
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