TT Vol. 111
Discover more from Tourist Trapp
TT Vol. 111
Euro Real Estate, Fashion News, South Coast Plaza & Futurism
Clockwise from Top.
Real Estate Shopping
The dollar is pushing towards all time highs against both the Euro and the British Pound, which means everything over there is effectively 15% off. This includes luxury goods, but even more fun, real estate!
The WSJ interviewed an interior designer who bought in the Golden Triangle and saved almost $100K with the better exchange rate:
Laetitia Laurent, a South Florida interior designer, has long had her heart set on a Parisian pied-à-terre. This summer, with the dollar soaring and Parisian real-estate prices holding steady, she took the leap. The 42-year-old, who lives in Boca Raton, paid 758,000 euros, or $758,606, for a 460-square-foot, one-bedroom in the Golden Triangle—the prime residential and commercial area between the Seine and the Champs-Élysées, in the French capital’s pricey 8th arrondissement.
With the dollar being so strong, Americans were traveling to Europe in droves this summer. Perhaps some of those tourists are also buying places in London and Paris.
Fashion News
Gap/Kanye: Kanye is threatening to blow up his contract with Gap after just two years. While sales have not been big enough to make a difference at such a large company, he has brought in a new customer. And then there are the Frakta bags…
Shein Pop Ups: The world’s new biggest fast fashion brand is opening brick & mortar pop up shops across the US, its biggest market. While Shein has been dogged by controversy - including trace amounts of lead found in garments, copyright infringement and poor labor practices - its price point is a hit with cost-conscious Gen Z.
Fashion Roadman: is a budding fashion critic going to school at Central Saint Martins who is publishing on TikTok and YouTube to reach his audience.
South Coast Plaza
This week I traveled down to Southern California to do some comp shopping and visit some stores. The highlight was going to South Coast Plaza for the first time ever. It’s the 4th biggest mall in the country, and has the highest concentration of luxury retailers under one roof. Built in the 1970’s, it’s owned by the Segerstrom family who converted their lima bean fields in Orange County into the biggest mall in California.
It feels nothing like the Westfield and Simon Property malls that are all over the country. Those are filled with glass, steel and marble, while South Coast Plaza has delightful warm, retro feel to it. There are lots of plants, fountains, and attractions that cater towards families. And there are a ridiculous number of luxury stores all in the same place, more so that any other place in the country. There are three Chanel boutiques, two Louis Vuitton and two Dior boutiques, to name a few.
I was staying in LA, and was able to get from the 1 Hotel down to Costa Mesa pretty quickly. But it took 2 hours (!) to get back to West Hollywood at the end of the day! Traffic down there is real.
Anticipating The Future
We’ve been thinking a lot about the future lately, both short and long term. Raquel and I were both captivated by a podcast with video game futurist Jane McGonigal. She predicts, among other things, that (1) electrification of everything: no one should ever buy anything powered by fossil-fuels ever again (including hot water heaters, stoves, cars and yard appliances) and (2) climate migration will be a thing.
Keeping up with the theme, we also decided to watch I, Robot this week, an early 2000s so-so Will Smith flick that imagines that human-like robots are the must-have technological accessory.
The dialog is pretty terrible, but we’ve always liked watching how filmmakers predict what the future will look like. I, Robot takes place in 2035, and while a lot of the futuristic elements of the film don’t seem at all realistic from our vantage point in 2022, there were a few things that are spot on. Contactless payments play a role in the film, and are already pretty normalized at this point today. Smith also drives a Mercedes that has a self-driving mode that can be overridden by the driver when needed. It feels pretty easy to predict that will be quite prevalent 10 years from now.
We chat more about McGonigal and I, Robot on this week’s podcast!
Links.
The Praying x adidas Supernova Cushion 7.
A look at the subterranean jazz club at the new Aman NYC location.
The Cut profiles Jonathan Anderson.
What 39 students, from pre-school to high school, are wearing for their first day.
Edward Enninful answers AirMail’s 54 questions.
<3
Chris & Raquel
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