I’m back from a VERY non-working break in the motherland. Please forgive my silence. I had a really incredible few weeks of Japanese breakfasts, vintage shopping, long-ass walks (my favorite!) and sublime February in Australia weather which includes sunny days in their 90s alongside banging thunderstorms when everyone needs to chill tf out anyway. I don’t know if its just the lack of pollution, but the rain smells SO good in Australia. As a deviation from my usual fare here’s a lil list of the things that gave me immense joy from the trip;
Matcha and Onsen eggs for brekkie at Poketto in Sydney
Onigiri (and more matcha) for a snack at Parami
Power Moves class at Good Times Pilates in Fitzroy
OG pork loaf Banh Mi from N. Lee in Collingwood
Piccolina in Collingwood for mint choc chip gelato (miss me w the toothpaste flavor hate)
Bruce in Fitzroy for dreamy archive pieces
Lunch and shopping at CIBI
Matcha (and any cake) at Tori’s
100 Works From Hermannsburg in the Fed Sq. NGV- some of the most arresting depictions of Australian countryside/outback i’ve ever seen
anyway back to the bullsh!t~
our aesthetics aren’t matching the current mood
I’ve been thinking a lot about Zendaya’s viral mugler moment;
and how even though it’s an almost 30-year-old look, it kind of reflects where we’re at more fittingly than a lot of other current ‘trends’ (reheated nostalgia looks) as we approach singularity at an alarming speed. (Fun fact, did you know Stephen Hawking thought AI would end the human race? No biggie, not like he knew much about science or anything.)
To me, something about Zendaya stepping into her Dune 2 moment this way felt more contextually apropros than a lot of what has bubbled up from the fashion weeks. I saw Alexandra Hildreth tweet this and felt it deeply, because there really hasn’t been a lot of this:
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffbfc1fc0-9abf-4aa9-87f0-b8bc506a8bfb_577x432.png)
I’m craving the imagination of sci fi in fashion tbh. The downside of nostalgia permeating just about every aspect of culture and the arts is we aren’t actually bracing ourselves for where we’re at right now and stepping into it in a way that makes it feel fun, light, energizing or exciting. I’m as much of a doomer as anyone, but maybe we would feel better about the shape of things if we could put some cyborg or even futuristically utilitarian shit on? Just a thought. Anyway… relatedly
the dark side of a country comeback
Thought this lil instagram carousal essay (do people actually like this format? I hate it so much, but maybe i should be doing this too for the newsie) raised some very good points:
The hypothesis is that this cowboy renaissance is signaling a new era of conservatism or American dynamism. Coupled with the goings-on of USA right now, it doesn’t feel like a reach. Food for thought!
I’ve already seen some pretty sick expressions of the trend tbh. Love this twist from Nexus VII:
What will be done about media/journalism?
Saw this Guardian piece about how “journalism is in freefall” and obviously had to read. It maps out a few collaborative/collective co-op style models for journalism that is no longer exclusively dependent on Big Advertising. I equally don’t know if everyone paying a monthly subscription is the answer, particularly within todays economic climate (hello, cereal for dinner anyone?) but it’s certainly something.
Somewhat related, i stumbled on a lil discourse about who can afford the monetize and not these days. It raises some good points about what a lifeline Substack is for journalists and pieces that can’t be commissioned/paid by an outlet in the present moment, etc. It highlights ‘influencer’ and online voices being a legitimate economic bracket now in a way it didn’t previously used to be, and how many of our most beloved outlets were able to exist due to pure nepotism or ZIRP-era lucky hits:
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Anyway, my strongest belief around all this is that all Writers, Creators etc should take this very moment to organize and unionize. None of the major outlets did this when Facebook/Google started pillaging all their content for their own feeds and then absolutely hoovered all the possible ad revenue in the world. We are staring down the barrel of LLM’s doing the same thing for Creators.
“ultimately, i hold myself accountable” says the CEO about to layoff 1500 people but not himself
Nike is laying off 1500 people (with more to come). John Donahoe said in his memo “We are not currently performing at our best, and I ultimately hold myself and my leadership team accountable.”
Sure doesn’t seem like it, bud. I kind of want to go longform on the areas of opportunity within Swoosh (as an outsider/speculative exercise!), would there be any interest in me dropping a single-topic newsy to do that? someone reply and say yes and i’ll do it.
It seems curious to me that Nike’s challenges are being framed as a retail-sector challenge when Hoka, ON, New Balance etc are absolutely smashing their numbers and a behemoth retail business literally beat out NVIDIA stock on performance in 2023.
footwear quick hits
another gorgeous 1906R colorway via kith. I wore my 1906’s all around melbs on my trip, such a good shoe
sick racing trainers.
weirdly into the ROA Fedaia mules…. don’t judge me
Thats all everyone! see you again in a few days once the jetlag cobwebs have eased up. and to my fellow new yorkers.. only 3 more days until 7pm sunsets are back. ❤️