Business as usual: the (Substack-sized) elephant in the room, thoughts on Croissant's resale model, "Butter Yellow" everywhere.

A veritable salad of news and writing that merits some discussion, or perhaps just an iota of thought today.

Lots to discuss today, pals! Happy Monday. This is a long one, click here to read in browser.

It rained all week in NY last week, which positively sucked. Thank god for a sunny weekend! My weeks left at the beach are extremely numbered— only 2 left in town here. The summer really went by fast… and January through May went by really slow…. I hate that…

What’s been working lately: reading a few select special books in hard cover instead of Kindle, joining a new group chat with other writers, lots of low-key friend time, the absolute bacchanal that is being able to watch Too Hot to Handle, Love is Blind UK, and Love Island USA all at once…

I don’t often talk about my work at the holding company because it is a fiercely private team. (New readers, I introduced myself a bit better here.) While I can talk about my work at Prima all I want, it’s often extremely unglamorous. I really rarely find time to play or get inspired in the business— but this week I surprised myself by getting a little goofy designing these Olympics-adjacent emails. I went less Paris 2024 and more Olympia, Greece, 776 BC.

Real friends remember my 2019 podcast on Greek mythology…

I hope there is a time in my future where I don’t spend this much time in Klaviyo, it very much reminds me of my early (and late) founder days where I did everything myself… but I’m sure 5 years from now I’ll be missing when I had the freedom to just take an idea, design it, and send it out with no oversight. Machiavellian as I am, I am always reaaaaaally reluctant to give up that supreme, blissful control.

I am not a graphic designer— though I do all our design— so please don’t be mean about this. This is not me claiming that I’m excellent, but here and there I eat sometimes.

Anyways, I hope this made at least someone out there want to buy some discounted best-selling body oil… and if it didn’t, at least I enjoyed the process a little bit more than usual.

• Everyone’s pushing Butter Yellow this season— J. Crew and Clare V both ran butter yellow edits that landed in my inbox less than a week apart. I’m sure

  Sarah Shapiro
  has or will cover this. It’s not new at all, stick-of-butter dressing can be attributed (I think!) to the Man Repeller days of blogging, but consider a resurgence officially declared by brands, our dark overlords.
  
  Speaking of Clare V, Quince just launched a dupe for the bag I have written about wanting to buy myself no less then 4 times in this newsletter— as I say to my boyfriend about said bag once a month: should I do it?!! The price is right but I like the barely noticeable differences (color, texture, hardware) that make the Clare V version “better” so much…it feels like a no.

• Do you remember “Portuguese girl style”? No? Good, it was another one of those pretty unimportant trend cycles generated to create clicks and views. That said, lately I think often about two creators in particular— Caetana Botelho Afonso and Victoria Montanari— when I’m getting dressed… which is never. Because I live on the beach and all I do is play games or swim. But I think about getting dressed…
  
  I absolutely do not know for sure, but I think both creators are from Brazil, living in Lisbon, and they are so refreshingly in contrast with the content I see from American influencers of the same age. Mostly, they just seem to have fun! Lots of colors and shapes and textures. It inspired me to want to play with colors and shapes and textures and dress for joy too. Some of the things or ideas these creators have me jonesing for:

  • Cleonie Swim, with their shell and beach motifs… blargh! I wish I could spend on fun and fancy swimwear.

  • Chunky wood, plastic or glass beads, both long and short, layered over metal jewelry. Fish charms! Send any cool stuff you find my way, as you know I’m in my jewelry and bag charm making era.

  • Loud colors and prints, particularly red. I made a folder full of POP OF RED inspiration here! I am wearing a red shirt as I type this.

• Ali LaBelle
  did a really fun piece on hotel living— it was very smooth brain. Our hotels are booked for our September in Portugal and I’m giddy with excitement. I stole some hotel slippers from the hotel we stayed at for my cousin’s wedding last weekend and have been wearing them constantly. And there’s just something about a hotel robe…

Side Order: Hotel From Home

• Everyone is racing to launch a hair care brand it seems… I think all of these people watched Crown Affair crush it and now they want a piece of the pie. I think they are also all mostly at least 2 years late to the party, the party being “to market,”— or at least late to have been able to gobble up significant market share. This is old and uninteresting news to me, a little bit.

  • Issa Rae (not sure I find this very impressive or differentiated from the market)

  • Blake Lively (I agree with most sentiments shared on

    Eyewitness Beauty
    )

  • Freewill (yet another “personalized” hair care brand)

• I know that Apollo Bagels opening a real location in the East (and now West) Village was supposed to be a great thing for New Yorkers, but I had been ordering their bagels as delivery from Leo in Williamsburg and was completely spoiled by my ease of access to them. That access has since evaporated, and I’m sad.
  
  This was a great interview by

  Jake Bell
  though, on branding the bagel as a status symbol and behind the scenes of one of NY’s hottest brick & mortar businesses right now, and the bagels really are that good.

Behind the Best Bagel in New York

• Total Rec
  wrote a really interesting piece on Croissant, the resale app you may have started to see everywhere, that I noodled on for a few days before writing an absolute feature film length comment. Click here to read the piece on Croissant, click here to read my thoughts, and click here to read what I wrote several months ago about the state of resale, the white space, and what feels like it’s missing.

• In the vein of founder or freelancer advice, this note from

  Anna Mackenzie
  was well-received. One of the things I’ve learned the most about working for and with founders, and being one, is that it kind of all comes down to laser focus. The most annoying founders to work for ping pong from one idea or concept or piece of advice or feedback or podcast episode that they heard— unable to make up their own minds or choose a lane. I get it! Choosing a lane means saying goodbye to a lot of other advice or strategies that smart people encouraged you to explore. But also, you never get anywhere if you don’t choose a lane— decisiveness feels like the most important quality in a founder. Founders need to arrive at this conclusion themselves… I’ve tried to get this through to them but it has never worked— yet.

  You can build multiple things but not all at once.

I’m in a (new!) group chat with a few other writers that I love (and based on the data I see in my Substack dash, that you love too!) and the chat was popping off on Friday, discussing The Piece That Angered 10,000 Writers.

If you haven’t read the article in question, start here and meet me back in a few minutes when you’re done. Over the weekend, it allegedly became Substack’s most-read article of all-time.

The machine in the garden.

I have some semi-spicy thoughts about this piece, Substack, the proliferation of “writers”— etc. Yes, I am paywalling here! I don’t care if it’s ironic, some thoughts are best shared with a select, smaller group.