Issue #146: You Feel Lucky, Punkin?
Good morning, shoppers!
Things are very spooky lately. Our hottest idea as of late: less trick, more treat. You can do it.
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Kase + Maggie
There are 36 days between now and December 1st, but that has not stopped me from prematurely securing Bonne Maman’s jam advent calendar. I was reminded that such greatness exists while recently tooling around MoMa’s gift shop on a rainy afternoon, fingers pruned from my damp umbrella and deep in thought about Ed Ruscha. Upon discovering it perched on a shelf, I gasped in the way only someone who considers a cup of tea and a slice of toast the perfect meal could. Inside the calendar, you’ll find 23 jars of limited edition mini-spreads in flavors like apricot with lavender, caramel with cinnamon, fig with cardamom, lemon and yuzu, and one tiny jar of honey. I’d consider it a work of art in itself. —MC
Here we are, in that brief yet inevitable period of time every fall when I am interested in college football. I grew up in a college town, Eugene, Oregon, and it turns out that the Ducks are really good this year. Enough that I have been watching the games! On purpose! And audibly gasped when they lost recently on a missed field goal kick! (Don’t get too excited, I also have some notes for the sport overall. There don’t need to be that many people on a team, you know?) In recent decades, the Ducks have been known for their many, very modern uniform combos, but last weekend, the team played in the sunshine yellow and kelly green they wore when I was a kid, before the school had adopted the badass O logo, back when they fully embraced varsity lettering and Donald Duck’s goofy face. (How could anyone ever think he could strike fear into the hearts of our athletic rivals? Why?) Ahead of a trip home, where I will spend equal amounts of time getting to watch the game and trying to stop my kid from throwing an entire bag of cotton candy into her mouth at once, I’ve been eyeing a retro Ducks sweatshirt to share my team spirit, however fleeting, maybe something like this one. —KW
My latest obsession is Gem, a must-have for secondhand shoppers as this incredibly user-friendly app aggregates listings from a slew of retailers including eBay, Etsy, Grailed, The RealReal, Poshmark, Vestiaire Collective, Rubylane, Farfetch, Fashionphile, Garmentory, ASOS Marketplace, LiveAuctioneers, Reversible, Lampoo, GoodwillFinds and hundreds of independent online stores. Type in what you’re looking for (the more specific, the better) and sign up to receive an automated email full of finds. After recently scoring a classic, vintage Burberry trench in near pristine condition, it’s the best thing that’s happened to my inbox (and phone) in ages. —MC
A very cool thing I recently encountered on this very internet is monogrammable lip balm from French parfumerie Officine Universelle Buly 1803. Aside from the impossibly chic option to add your initials or any other three letter statement (pour moi? “OMG”) in gilt letters on leather-like paper, the Baume des Muses houses a lip balm designed to “take care of your lips gracefully, discreetly, efficiently.” Trés, trés, trés chic. –MC
When my kid started kindergarten this year, a lot changed. Real school! What a big kid! One change I didn’t anticipate: I spend a lot more time with little kids these days. We walk to school every day, then hang out until the classes line up and the teachers bring them inside and we go off to do…whatever it is we do all day while they do whatever it is they do all day. What I’m trying to say, and I apologize for this, is that I’ve sometimes started stashing fake worms in my pockets. I ask you, is there a better way to pass a few minutes with a classmate or their younger sibling than pretending that you eat live worms, may feed them a live worm, or any other worm-related shenanigans? I didn’t buy these, I snagged a few at a recent event I went to, but here I am anyway. The worm lady. We probably should have all seen this coming. —KW
Hate that it’s evergreen, hate that it has to exist, love that there are people who are so committed to ending gun violence. Check out Moms Demand Action to see how you can become one of them.