TT Vol. 51

Tiffany Men's Engagement Rings, 90's Supermodels, Alyx, Teva & Loewe

Tourist Trapp

May 2, 2021

Clockwise from Top.

Tiffany Men’s Engagement Rings

Tiffany launched its first line of Men’s engagement rings last week. These are aimed at same-sex couples who have been left out of the traditional diamond engagement ring category:

Tiffany said its aspiration for the men’s engagement line was to offer products in support of love and inclusivity, while “paving the way for new traditions to celebrate our unique love stories and honor our most cherished commitments to one another.”

The engagement ring category is enormous for Tiffany, representing 25% of their business. You can see the full range here.

We had Raquel’s engagement ring and our wedding bands custom made by Lizzie Mandler, and definitely felt there wasn’t a lot of options in the Men’s special occasion jewelry world. Raquel vetoed me getting a Championship Ring for my wedding band, and we ended up with a much simpler signet ring.

We think this is a smart move by Tiffany, except there are no gold options! Everything is platinum (or even Black Titanium), but we would both prefer warmer gold pieces.

The Joy of 90’s Supermodels

We enjoyed the editorial that accompanied this WSJ magazine piece that caught up with 90’s supermodels Shalom Harlow, Carolyn Murphy and Amber Valletta. Lots of great images here, captured by Lachlan Bailey:

They evoke the Bruce Weber Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly’s that debuted in 1997, many copies of which are still floating around our apartment. (You can read here about some of the creepy stuff Weber was doing back then.)

We really enjoyed the intro to the story, where in the early 90’s, the three young women are sitting at a cafe in the Marais, and decide they are going to move to Paris together and share a flat.

Alyx EVA Mono Loafers

The boom in designer EVA footwear continues. We highlighted Bottega’s option a few weeks ago, and the Alyx Mono Loafers are now officially available for purchase.

Our sense of decency must be warped, because a $195 retail price for these actually seems really cheap, especially compared to the $510 Bottega option.

Raquel is partial to these Teva Hurricane Verge sandals, which are the Hummer SUV of scrappy sandals. Naturally, I’d be required to buy a matching Men’s version.

The Courts at Palm Springs

We got all excited seeing some photos from this new hotel concept in Palm Springs. It’s simple: centered around a few tennis courts, plus a clubhouse, out in the desert past Palm Springs.

We like small boutique hotels, especially when they hone in on a nice concept like this. We were a little dismayed to see that the “rooms” are really just trailers. It’s unclear what the interiors look like, but we imagine they can get pretty hot in there (even if it’s only open September-June):

Not sure we would actually stay there, but could definitely see ourselves going to the courts to hit and checking out the clubhouse. And, their merch is pretty good.

Loewe Paula’s Ibiza

We always love a splashy e-commerce feature. SSENSE has a built out development team, and can do a lot of special projects that its competitors can’t do. Case in point is its recent launch of Loewe’s newest Paula’s Ibiza resort collection:

With sound on, try toggling between “night” and “day” on the microsite to get a feel for the contrasts Loewe is trying to evoke.

Jonathan Anderson, the creative director of Loewe, used to travel to Ibiza when he was younger, and heard stories about a boutique called Paula’s that European celebrities would flock to. He decided to create a resort wear collection around this story.

As for the product, and having been to Mallorca in 2019, these palm leaf bags feel very on point for both the Balearic Islands and a bag company like Loewe. Raquel is especially into the Pineapple Shoulder Bag.

Links.

Levi’s® for Valentino.

A MS Excel influencer quit her day job and is now making $100K+.

NFT’s and luxury.

A look back at Kim and Kanye.

A twitter thread on the legendary Hagoromo Fulltouch chalk, made in Japan in 2015 and now hoarded by chalk purists.

Subversive hot sauce from Silver Lake Wine Bar Eszett.

Bomb shell reporting alleging that the Willows Inn, considered one of the country’s best farm-to-table restaurants, is rife with sexual harassment, abuse and fake ingredients, including Costco roast chickens.

This Taylor Lorenz story on the meaning of “cheugy” made me feel positively geriatric.

T-Pain accidentally discovered hundreds of unread Instagram DMs.

Bird Photo of the Year finalists.

Raquel & Chris

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