Point of contention
...or how I really feel.
I’ve had fashion themes on my mind in all sorts of unsurprising ways: NYFW (Proenza! Sandy Liang! House of Aama—all faves), the return of the Met Gala, the Emmys, and soon Paris Fashion Week. Somewhere between all the show notes and red carpet turns, I arrived at a sliiiiightly unexpected idea for a podcast or interview series (more on that—perhaps—later!). It feels a little unrefined and uncomfortable because it’s new and unfamiliar, and that’s precisely why I’m obsessing over it.
And I probably want to do it myself, because, if I’m being honest as a professional writer, I’m so tired of gatekeepers and editors who don’t get it. I’m exasperated by analytics and clicks (and the cliques too) driving decisions that used to be gut-based. I’m exhausted watching established magazines and outlets sit on good ideas, then urgently chase trends instead of remembering they used to dictate them. And I’m even wearier of the echoing emptiness of the word content. I’ve actually been having this separate discussion with a lot of writers lately: how much we’ve come to loathe that word and how, at its worst, it’s become synonymous with meaningless drivel produced for the sake of output or ad bucks. Ok, let’s go.
1.
The New York Public Library wanted my borrowed copy of The Recent East back last week, but I’m too engrossed to hand it over before savoring every remaining word. I’ll delightfully pay the fines for this gracefully-told first novel about a young mother who, with her two children, leaves her quiet, somewhat languishing life in upstate New York to reclaim her family’s abandoned home in eastern Germany.
2.
The medium is the message, especially when it’s coming from Graydon Carter…the new, old-fashioned way.
3.
Twitter has never really been my preferred social media platform, but every once in a while, I’ll stumble down some random and very niche rabbit hole delving into a lurid controversy or episodic tell-all. I don’t remember how I came across this thread about Keanu Reeves’ off-camera life, which has been marked by tremendous sadness and equally notable acts of kindness. The fact that many of these details aren’t as commonly known as, say, a celebrity spending a few hours at a soup kitchen (with a camera person in tow) makes me respect Reeves even more; he’s not interested in the “likes.” Just living a meaningful life.
4.
I was actually going to mention the city of San Francisco’s weird and obsessive hunt for the perfect garbage can, but then I got my hands on a fresh copy of the Carolina Herrera x Interview: 40 Years collector’s book last night, and all trash talk is out the window. To celebrate the fashion brand’s 40th anniversary, Interview magazine teamed up with the House of Herrera to produce this colorful, of-the-moment tome. Rendered in Interview’s trademark style—with drag supernova SYMONE(!) looking superbly fierce on the back cover and throughout its pages—the book includes a discussion between current creative director Wes Gordon and Sandra Bernhard, while Ms. Herrera revisits—and revises—an early interview for the magazine with André Leon Talley. I heard this project was in the works a few months ago, and I’m truly impressed by the outcome, and how true it stayed to both brands, without seeming the slightest bit like a massive advertorial.
5.
Michaela Coel’s powerful Emmy acceptance speech on Sunday night (she dedicated it to writers) was one for the books: “Write the tale that scares you, that makes you feel uncertain, that isn't comfortable. I dare you. In a world that entices us to browse through the lives of others to help us better determine how we feel about ourselves, and to in turn feel the need to be constantly visible, for visibility these days seems to somehow equate to success—do not be afraid to disappear. From it. From us. For a while. And see what comes to you in the silence.” The phrase ‘MIKE DROP’ should be re-dubbed in her namesake.