A few snippets of digital ephemera and IRL recommendations I’ve enjoyed lately…
1/ LUCIAN FREUD’s ink brush drawingsscrawly illustrated love letters, etchings and early paintings are a major highlight of Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting (above and below) just opened at the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition is huge and the best bit is no wire barriers to trip over, letting you get super close to examine Freud’s meticulous hatching technique. P.S. the merch is fab (below); I’m going back for the mini daffodil tray. Bella Freud’s tees and totes are fun too.
2/ PETER YORK guesting on Radio Free Pimlico is a delightful wander down memory lane to the years of the Official Sloane Ranger Handbook‘Thems’, and the emergence of new money sloshing into London. Educational and entertaining. Listen here. I also recommend fashion paparazzo Richard Young’s entertaining storytelling on Desert Island Discs in which he talks about being Marc Bolan’s childhood friend and his time working for Ritz newspaper.
3/ STUDIO NICHOLSON x PERFUMER H. A collaboration that makes sense, Soapthe new Studio Nicholson eau de parfum (below) created by Lyn Harris aka Perfumer H combines clean yet sensual notes of white pepper, orange flower and white musk – surely the perfect olfactory accompaniment to your Studio Nicholson Ria coat and Ruthe jeans. Buy it here. If you prefer your fragrances on the smokier, sexier side, Maya Njie’s latest Aeithi Opum* edp (below) mingles coffee, vetiver and leather notes with incense for intoxicating Tom-Ford-at-Gucci vibes.
4/ INDUSTRY, but make it true crime. If you enjoy watching Industryyou should definitely watch Scandal! Bringing Down Wirecard on Netflix. A true crime documentary unravelling the mystery of a German payment start-up that’s not all it seems, it makes the WTF plotlines of industry season four almost believable.
5/ How AI is transforming freelance journalism. Do we need to start logging our work in progress on Google Docs as proof on non-A.I. use?
6/ Double tees. Adding to my recent tally on ways to double up, Pieter Mulier’s pristine long-sleeve tees (below) are a lesson in casual yet refined layering. (via Line Sheet and Twitter)
7/ BLANK STREET and STARBUCKS court fashion weeks. In case you missed it, here’s my 2022 rant about Blank Street Coffee’s London infiltration. It seems I was very wrong in my thesis that the cost-of-living crisis would price Gen Z out of £££ aesthetic drinks. Instead, this week we’ve seen Blank Street ramp things up with a LFW pop-up coffee stop for visitors and an ‘art installation’ for the public, along with a ‘puffer sleeve’ for your hot drink (below) as part of its merch line. “A quick scroll through our tagged photos will show you that people are including their Blank Street cups in their OOTD videos,” Mohammad Rabaa, global creative director of Blank Street told Vogue Business. Meanwhile, at NYFW Starbucks sponsored five designer shows including Hill Road and Corner house Latta with a view to co-create merch. It’s a sure sign of the times; if you can’t afford a designer’s RTW line, you can likely stretch to a branded coffee cup or sleeve. As Vogue Business put it, “Small luxuries like matcha, coffee, or $25 smoothies have become status symbols to the Gen Zs and millennials priced out of traditional luxury goods, who enjoy romanticizing their daily lives while posting about it online. In turn, brands like Blank Streetor … Erewhonhave become lifestyle labels, while food and drink pose as a key marketing vehicle for luxury brands looking to stay connected with young people.”
8/ Can somebody please save the paperbacks!
WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla
IMAGES: Lucian Freud x 2; Lucian Freud merch; Perfumer h for Studio Nicholson x 2; Maya Njie; Pieter Mulier; Blank Street
NOTE: Most images are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate links* and PR samples. Please read my privacy and cookies policy here.
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