Clockwise from Top.
Milan Fashion Week
FW24 runway shows came back this week in Milan, with some of the big Italian brands showing off their offer for the coming holiday season
Bottega Veneta is settling into Matthieu Blazy’s tenure as creative director, and walked a number of oversized looks down the runway last week.
Gucci unveiled Sabato De Sarno’s second collection, further separating Gucci from it’s Alessandro Michele days, and going back to their roots of the interlocking G logos and their tri-color logo, which Raquel liked on the boot tabs.
Jil Sander also continued the oversized theme, playing with proportions and tailoring.
Marni, meanwhile, looked nothing like the typical Marni but did walk a number of cheetah looks through their cave. This would clearly be Noemi’s favorite MFW collection.
Naadam vs Quince
Cashmere sweaters used to be a category dominated at the low end by Uniqlo, and on the high end by the quiet luxury players like Loro Piana & Brunello Cucinelli. Searching right now, Uniqlo is offering 19 shades of 100% cashmere for $60 a pop. Loro Piana has 69 SKUs in its Gift of Kings cashmere collection, with jackets retailing for over $10K.
More recently, upstart direct-to-consumer brands started buying cashmere in bulk in Mongolia, knitting sweaters in China, and selling them to US customers at rock bottom prices. Naadam is one of the OG DTC brands in this space, but Quince is a newer option that popped up a few years ago offering $50 Cashmere, undercutting both Naadam (and Uniqlo!). (I used to work for Quince when we lived in California! :))
Both brands are now fighting with each other via their marketing channels. It seems to have started when Quince called out Naadam in the subject line of their email blast last Sunday.
And then this week, Naadam has been aiming at it’s social media calendar right back at Quince, posting over and over about their competitor. Over and over again.
I imagine this war will turn cold again this week, and it’s not really clear who the winner is here. Naadam clearly feels slighted, but turning the spotlight on its mortal enemy may only serve to elevate the profile of their competitor’s cheaper cashmere sweater.
Past Lives
We are (very) slowly making our way through the Academy Award nominees - about half way through!
This week we were completely absorbed by the beautiful Past Lives, which spotlights two childhood friends during a rendezvous in New York decades after their last meeting:
Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life, in this heartrending modern romance.
It was so good I didn’t even fall asleep, which Raquel quickly commented on.
Celine Song, who wrote and directed the film, shares many similar biographical elements as Nora, the film’s main character, as she also emigrated to Canada from South Korea and became a playwright in America. The theme: sometimes people may be meant for each other, but the timing might just not line up in this life.
The film’s much discussed concept of Inyeon - that people can meet in former lives, and be re-united again - is something that Raquel and have frequently talked about, and is central to the connection in the film for the main characters. It’s a very buddhist concept, and something present in many cultures in Southeast and East Asia.
And for something completely different, up next: Anatomy of a Fall.
Magazines
I had Friday off, and stopped by the closet magazine shop to pick up the latest issues from all the foreign publishers. In this quarter’s haul: Tatler, House & Garden UK, Popeye, Raquet, Apartmento, and Yolo Journal. Here’s our fave products from this weekend’s reading:
Links.
Girl breaks world record by wearing 45 sweaters at the same time.
The day I put $50K in a box and handed it to a stranger.
The End of TikTok’s infinite stroll.
Zendya’s tennis movie is coming.
Three years living in a Paul Rudolph masterpiece.
Eating raw chicken for 100 days straight.
<3
Chris & Raquel