Issue #145: Part of That Whirled
Good morning, shoppers!
Remember when summer being over meant that things were supposed to settle down? Great joke. Summer Fridays may be a thing of the past (pour one out), but the calendar is still mayhem. We’re here for ya on the internet, a home for us all, but dang, in person? See you in 2024, maybe. Maggie went to New Orleans! I went to Vegas! There are more weekends away in everyone’s future. It’s all mamma and none of the mia, my friends!
For now, we’re taking a deep breath, dressing up, and making plans. What does your fall look like?
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Kase + Maggie
If you haven’t read J Wortham’s brilliant piece on Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour, let me whet your appetite. Of Beyoncé’s request that attendees dress in silver for the final leg of performances, Wortham writes, “Silver is the most powerful conductor on the planet; it moves electricity faster and more efficiently than any other material. On that night, tens of thousands of people draped in that lustrous color formed a circuit of pure energy. The stadium glowed. The human disco ball of Beyoncé’s dreams was also a renewable energy source. Charging up people. Charging up ideas. Charging up momentum. The stadium twinkled, each flash of silver a reminder of the constellation of moments that we move through, that sustain us. That even if they are few and far between, they are enough.”
After seeing Beyoncé beam under the lights of New Orleans’s Superdome last month, Wortham expertly captured what it felt like to be there. From the sparkle of the crowd, glistening in metallics to Beyoncé’s unbelievable vocal range, the inherent grandeur of the evening (and all things associated with Beyoncé) is forever imprinted onto my being. The artistry, the devotion of her fans, the creativity; bearing witness to it all changes you. Makes you believe there’s better, there’s greater, there’s more to be done and no goal is unattainable or too far-reaching. For now, as I sit at my desk, seemingly lightyears away from that night, this silver holographic phone case is a tangible reminder of that feeling, one that lives within us all, if only we give it a stage. —MC
Those who know me well know that at my core, I’m a bratty little sister. But just because I spent my youth waxing curbs while my brother and his friends skateboarded does not mean that I, a grown-ass woman with an entire house and child, feel excited about wearing JNCOs in the year of our lord 2023. While I’m very excited that full-length pants are once again the thing, allowing my ankles to go back to the darkness they’ve yearned for lo these many months, I’ve been on a bit of a pantsapalooza as of late, trying to find the right balance of wide leg denim without running off to join the clown pants circus. To complicate things further, they need to be long, but not so long that they demand heels. (Normalize flats! Our feet hurt!) This pair, with its deep, trouser-like bottom hem, high waist, and minimalist styling on a maximalist silhouette, might just be the winner. —KW
Though I spent a mere 63 hours in New Orleans, I have not stopped thinking about the best thing I ate there. A rich, buttery collard green melt (I’m talking slow cooked collards, Swiss cheese, pickled cherry pepper dressing and coleslaw on toasted rye) from Turkey and the Wolf that I am convinced will haunt me until the day I die. It is sloppy, it is meatless, it is perfect. I couldn’t leave without grabbing a copy of their cookbook Turkey and the Wolf: Flavor Trippin’ in New Orleans as a souvenir for the incredible cook in my life, and now I cannot stop thinking about whether he can recreate the experience at home. —MC
I am not, shall we say, the most still of people. I have busy hands and a busy brain, and, for better or worse, I’m usually doing at least two things at once while thinking about another thing. It’s just one of those things we have to decide is “part of my charm,” and not “incredibly annoying.” I love an audiobook while I clean or run or sew or any number of things that keep my body busy, but not my brain. So when I say that I got so into an audiobook recently that I just sat and listened to it, without doing anything else, for multiple hours, that’s a biggie. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett isn’t just a sweet novel (it is that too), the audiobook version is performed by the one and only Meryl Streep. Eleven hours of Meryl Streep telling you a story about a mother recollecting the summer in her early twenties she spent dating a future movie star for the benefit of her three daughters, all around that age themselves and stuck back home on their family’s cherry farm during the pandemic. It’s gorgeously written, and Meryl doesn’t just read, she acts. She does voices without being goofy, and her signature pauses and chuckles lend an extra layer of life to what’s already a warmly written story, a long tale to pass the time, wrapped carefully in the gauze of memory, knowing that the sharp corner are still in there somewhere, but time—and your mother—keep you safe from them. My perpetual motion stopped for just a bit, and hours had passed before I realized it. The only place I wanted to be just then was Tom Lake. —KW
I’ve got Posh on the brain, but it’s got nothing to do with bingeing Beckham on Netflix. Kate Spade’s at it again, adding polish to a fall staple with their Posh Pearl Loafer, a roundtoe leather shoe adorned with pearl baubles. A pair so playful, I ordered these faster than David Beckham told Victoria to “be honest!” while recounting her upbringing. —MC
Center for Disaster Philanthropy
The Israel-Hamas war is a full-scale humanitarian crisis. The Center for Disaster Philanthropy recommends cash donations as the best way to help, as they can be used most flexibly in a constantly changing situation. Charity Navigator has a list of highly-rated charity organizations doing work on the ground in the conflict that you can contribute to.