Invisible Seams, And Ottolenghi At Home, No Jackets Required
1.
When the prevailing dress code of the last two years has been “masks required,” Priya Krisha’s recent NY Times story on the return of dressing requirements at restaurants nationwide offered up some real food for thought. Personally, I usually welcome the opportunity to dress up and elevate the occasion of going-out, especially now that we can again. It feels like a gift, and a privilege—which is exactly the reason to some are calling for their demise. “I am hard-pressed to find a dress code that isn’t fraught, but I don’t want to also say that a restaurant shouldn’t inspire community of a certain kind...I just think that how we define ‘community’ often is racist, sexist or homophobic,” said Andre M. Perry, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, who was quoted in the piece. In the past, my attitude has always been: I don’t want to be a member of a club that doesn’t want me for a member, but I realize that as a straight white woman of inherent entitlement, not everyone can make that claim with such an cavalier shrug.
2.
The film director Jia Li’s work first crossed my radar thanks to my friend Jodie Chan—she suggested I watch Li’s short documentary film Spicy Village, about a small Chinatown restaurant owner’s perseverance and struggles stay in business during the height of Covid. Li’s latest documentary Invisible Seams, which Jodie executive produced, shares the stories of eight Asian pattern-makers and seamstresses working here in New York, and their experiences through the decades. From the neverending fashion cycle, to more recently the pandemic and the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes, these accounts are all the more potent coming from the women themselves, and I hope Li’s film creates an opportunity for more stories to be shared. If you have 15 minutes, hit ▶️.
3.
It seems like everyone with a passport is Puglia-bound, which makes me a tad bit nervous over how overrun the Italian region is likely to be with Americans this summer…since a few best friends and I are headed there too. Nonetheless, it’s been super helpful to read all the fun travel features and bookmark some solid recs as we course out our holiday. Also a good tip: noting where to possibly avoid because of too much coverage. When I’m in Italy, I’d prefer to hear more Italian accents around me than American, you know? D’accordo?
4.
A new (to me) recipe I’ve already made twice, and one of the tastiest ways to get your cruciferous fix: Grilled broccoli and lemon with chili and garlic—no dress-code required—courtesy of vegetable whisperer Yotam Ottolenghi.
5.
Who’s your favorite Slaysian? The comic-book persona, I mean. This Saturday, fashion designers Prabal Gurung, Laura Kim and their fellow House of Slay cohorts are curating and hosting a pop-up hype-house-meets-day/night-market down in the Market Line at Essex Crossing in celebration of AAPI Heritage Month. They won’t be there in costume (don’t be silly!), but the whole event promises to one hell of a bang-up time.