TT Vol. 92

90's Film Classics, Calistoga, Cristaseya & WINDOW SHOPPING

Tourist Trapp

Apr 17, 2022

Clockwise from Top.

90’s Film Classics

We somehow ended up watching three 90’s Gwyneth movies last week: A Perfect Murder, Great Expectations and Shakespeare in Love. All of which, along with Sliding Doors, were in released in 1998 aka the Year of Gwyneth.

While Shakespeare in Love1 got the accolades and all of the Oscars, it was not great and a little cringe. Great Expectations, on the other hand, directed by the talented Alfonso Cuarón2, was really fun to watch.

The plot is transposed from the original book’s early 1800’s London setting to 1990’s New York. The famous look from the film is a matching bottle green Donna Karan set that Raquel is now feverishly trying to track down.

We dive into the year 1998 in movies and costume design in our podcast this week.

Calistoga Weekend

As we noted in our OOO last week, we were up in wine country for a few days exploring Yountville, St. Helena and Calistoga.

We stayed at Dr. Wilkinson’s Backyard Resort & Mineral Springs, a renovated wellness retreat that has been around for decades.

It’s one of many examples of vibe-y older motels being made over for a new audience. See also: Calistoga Motor Lodge (literally right down the road from Dr. W’s), the Sound View, and El Rey Court.

It is super baby friendly, with cabanas by the pool and fake grass for crawling. Not to mention Chateau Montelena on tap and crispy french fries on the room service menu. And, walking distance to the heart of Calistoga and Cafe Sarafornia. Plus, the kitchen was open late3 for fresh flatbread baked in their outdoor oven.

Cristaseya

This tiny shop in the 9th arrondissement makes beautiful oversized kaftans, custom luxury yard died pajamas and home items. Sofia Coppola and Rashida Jones are fans.

Everything arrives in small drops, twice a year, but cryptically Cristaseya claims that “ALL EDITIONS, OLD AND NEW, ARE SIMULTANEOUSLY AVAILABLE AT ANY GIVEN TIME.”

We are obsessed with tiny concept stores like this. In a world where much of retail is consolidating around really big players (luxury conglomerates, online marketplaces), it’s still fascinating to see small, independent players with a point of view thrive. These are the kinds of places that purposely don’t try to compete with the Kering’s or FarFetch’s out there, but nevertheless can still be profitable and provide a creative outlet for both the owners and the store customers. We love this quote from founder Cristina Casini:

“The aim has never been and will never be to make more and more money,” she says. Instead, it’s “to get to a safe financial point where we can all have a nice life and continue working with passion, traveling, going to the restaurants that we like, and having fun—me and all my team.”

Take a look at their completely chaotic IG account here, and a nice write up in Harper’s here.

And if you can’t make it over to the City of Light, they are at MNZ and Ouroboro in NYC.