Hi, it’s March. We’re emerging from hibernation and this newsletter is breaking through the thawing terrain of my brain. Back in January I joked that I might publish another issue around the spring equinox, and that’s actually what happened, so credit to Ostara. Jumping back into things with some trend observations from a bored mom (me).
What are we wearing this spring? It’s hard to say. People are moving from WFH sweats into warmer weather clothes as things slowly shift back to “normal” (just kidding, there is no “normal” anymore). Skinny jeans are done for now, which is fine with me (sorry, millennials, etc etc who cares). Big jeans. Baggy jeans. Flared jeans. 90s jeans. Embrace them.
And what’s on our feet? During my winter of social media timeline perusal, I noticed a common footwear denominator on stylish people across generations and genders: grey sneakers. Mostly New Balance, although I don’t think one has to be wedded to a brand. Of significance to me is the transition from loud, chunky sneakers to a more muted, “grandpa” style. This isn’t new, it’s just what speaks to me right now, and I’ve made a pair of 990s my big spring shoe purchase. I went for the new model, but you can’t go wrong with older models and styles. This is a worthy quest if you’re in the vintage market.
How are we doing our hair? Middle parts with face-framing layers. Or long bangs. I don’t know how to describe it, but you know it when you see it. Sometimes it’s choppy and blunt, other times it’s tousled and more of a gradient, but it’s what I’m noticing and it’s what I requested from my stylist last week when I got my first haircut since October.
What are we reading these days? Depends on what corners of the internet you occupy (see existential crisis below) but there’s good stuff happening at the intersection of Gen Z and younger millennial, as well as on the older millennial end of the generation spectrum (I lurk across them all). I’m intrigued by quaranzines—I’ve got a copy of Civilization coming in the mail, and Molly Young generously hooked me up with a PDF of her zine The Things They Fancied so I can print one off in Canada (don’t get me started on international distribution of cool stuff). It’s just fun to see people making things and putting them out there, whether it’s print-only zines or publishing enterprises like Deluge Press. Autofiction is taking over and it’s good (even if Joyce Carol Oates doesn’t think so).
What existential crises are we having these days? So many. This has really been a winter of discontent, grappling with reality in new ways, but it’s also very hard (impossible?) to agree with anyone about what constitutes “reality”. We’ve each got a mashup of curation and algorithm being streamed into our faces at all times and, particularly when we are not interacting with people IRL very much, it’s easy to get lulled into a sense of one’s hyperspecific reality being everyone else’s reality, too. It’s not! This doesn’t really mean anything deep, it just helps me make peace with the fact that so many “conversations” online are just people talking past one another as they project identities into the void. Stay tuned for my take on discourse as kayfabe.
Etc etc. Are we hurtling into a post-Covid Roaring 20’s? People are definitely gearing up to get out and be around others again, once it’s safe to do so, and in more vaccinated places it looks like nightlife is coming back. I’m a washed parent who doesn’t party anymore so I can only speak for the local playground, where interacting with people I know from Mother Goose baby group feels like running into old friends at the bar. As for the financial side of the Roaring 20’s vibe, I’m the last person to know anything about money but I can tell you to pay attention to NFT’s even if you think crypto is dumb.
That’s all for now. More interviews and content coming as this space activates again. Do send me thoughts or questions you have about what we’re doing, where we’re going (“we” being whatever entity you want it to be). It’s been dark, but things are looking up.
Very tuned for 'discourse as kayfabe' thoughts