Weekly Link Roundup

J Crew Striped Button-Shoulder Turtleneck

▪ One of J. Crew's bestsellers from last fall is the Striped Button-Shoulder Turtleneck (solid-colored version here), a copycat of runway styles from Fall 2015. It sold out quickly when it debuted online, but has been restocked for spring in the original navy/ivory combination, along with new colorways. And it's now on sale in all colors, and you can use code TAKE2030 for an extra 40% off. I couldn't resist picking up a new color ("Dark Seaweed") now that it's only $25.79 after the additional discount.

▪ My other J. Crew sale picks (note that the code will only work on styles with prices ending in .99): Cropped Fatigue Jacket, Two-Tone Pointed-Toe Loafers, Drapey Wrap-Back Jumpsuit, The Teddy Coat in Plush Fleece, Long-Sleeve Belted Knit Dress, Lace Ruffle-Neck Top, Sophia Mules (55mm) with Glitter Heel, Résumé Dress in Stretch Ponte, and Drapey Tie-Waist Dress.

▪ "Unknown Tech Brands Aren’t Like Groceries. Don’t Just Grab Them." (The New York Times): "That’s not to say the tech behemoths are innocent ... [take] extra caution with obscure tech brands because it is something under your control."

▪ "What Beauty Players Can Teach the Consumer Sector About Digital Disruption" (McKinsey & Company): "The beauty sector is advanced because of the way beauty-loving consumers engage with the category. For decades, they have sought out innovations, embraced the stories behind brands, and enjoyed the shopping experience, solo and with others."

▪ "Vitamins for Your Hair, Nails, And Skin Are Everywhere on Instagram. Don’t Fall for Them." (Vox): "Take away the shiny packaging and celebrity endorsers, though, and you’re left with products plagued by the same problems as dietary supplements: There’s no good evidence that they can deliver on the results they promise, and a lack of government oversight and clear standards puts consumers at risk ... these supplements often contain multiple ingredients, and while one or two may have small studies supporting a benefit, there are no large, well-designed studies to demonstrate how they all work in tandem."

▪ "Glossies So White: The Data That Reveals the Problem with British Magazine Covers" (The Guardian): "Of 214 covers published by the 19 bestselling glossies last year, only 20 featured a person of colour. That’s only 9.3%, although 13.7% of the UK are BAME."

▪ "The RealReal — The Fashion Site That Sells Secondhand Gucci and Louis Vuitton — Wants To Raise a New $100 Million Investment" (Recode): "Wainwright, the founder ... is currently pitching investors about raising a fresh $100 million in new funding, multiple sources have told Recode. The company has already raised more than $170 million since it launched seven years ago."

▪ (Video Link) "Crisis Pregnancy Centers: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" (YouTube)

▪ "Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit" (The New York Times): "Long-term use of antidepressants is surging in the United States ... Some 15.5 million Americans have been taking the medications for at least five years. The rate has almost doubled since 2010, and more than tripled since 2000. Nearly 25 million adults ... have been on antidepressants for at least two years, a 60 percent increase since 2010 ... Antidepressants were originally considered a short-term treatment for episodic mood problems, to be taken for six to nine months: enough to get through a crisis, and no more."

▪ "The Murder that Shook Iceland" (The Guardian): "With a small, mostly homogenous population of 340,000 and a high degree of economic equality, Iceland is one of the world’s safest nations. It is the only NATO member without a standing army. Gun ownership is high ... but the weapons are purchased for hunting rather than self-defence, and very seldom misused. Violent crime is rare. Between 2000 and 2015 there were an average of just 1.6 murders a year, with most of the perpetrators and victims young men known to each other. In 2008, there were no homicides at all. Police are not armed, and the Reykjavík force’s Instagram feed shows officers eating ice-cream, sledding and posing for selfies. The feeling of security is bolstered by Icelanders’ tendency to look out for one another, a tradition that dates back to times when close collaboration was essential to make it through the long, brutal winters."

▪ Dresses and other one-pieces are now 30% off with code 30OFFDRESSES at Forever 21 . My picks: Polka Dot Tulip Dress (in my cart), Palm Tree Print Cami Dress (also in my cart), Heart Print Surplice Wrap Dress, Gingham Tie-Front Cami Dress, Plunging Self-Tie Chiffon Dress, Ruffled Tropical High-Low Dress, Polka Dot Ruffle Wrap Dress, and Floral Skater Dress.

▪ (After every AliExpress visit, I am often overcome with the desire to decamp to the woods for good. But maybe some of you will appreciate this rec.) "Letter of Recommendation: AliExpress" (The New York Times): "AliExpress is not a destination so much as a hobby ... AliExpress taps you directly into manufacturing hubs and supply chains."

▪ "Elastic Waistbands Are Back in Fashion at Lands’ End" (The Wall Street Journal): "The company posted a profit for the year ended in February after two years of losses. Sales in that year rose 5.3% to $1.41 billion. And the number of customers who shopped with Lands’ End for the first time jumped 30% in the fourth quarter, compared with the same period a year ago ... new products customers didn’t want had crowded out best-sellers such as walking shoes, elastic waistband Starfish pants, and canvas totes ... Lands’ End’s catalog has reverted to its utilitarian style with product shots and descriptive text ... Lands’ End is still dependent on Sears, which has been shrinking. It operates roughly 174 shops at Sears stores, representing 11% of its overall sales."

▪ "Bitcoin’s Hype Vanishes Just Like That: ‘We’re in the Boring Phase’" (The Wall Street Journal): "Bitcoin’s average daily trading volume this month is about 70% lower than on the most active days at the end of last year ... Mainstream interest in the cryptocurrency market has diminished."

▪ (Mute the tab; the video on top autoplayed for me.) "I Downloaded the Information That Facebook Has on Me. Yikes." (The New York Times):"With a few clicks, I learned that about 500 advertisers ... had my contact information, which could include my email address, phone number and full name. Facebook also had my entire phone book, including the number to ring my apartment buzzer. The social network had even kept a permanent record of the roughly 100 people I had deleted from my friends list over the last 14 years, including my exes."

▪ Recently purchased: Ann Taylor Gingham Moto Jacket, Salvatore Ferragamo Jelly Ballerina Flat, and Valentino Rainbow Rockstud Bow Pump .

Have a great week, everyone!

No comments

, by Unknown

WLR

Weekend Link Roundup

BP. Crop Trench Coat // Beige Nougat //XXS

▪ A few people recently reached out to me and asked for crop trench recommendations so I thought I'd share some of the options that I found with you all. I recently picked up the BP. Crop Trench Coat--which runs 1-2 sizes big, but I kind of like the bagginess which works well with fitted bottoms--and the ASOS Swing Button Mac--which is a delightful shade of pink and would be perfect for spring. The Brooks Brothers Water-Repellent Twill Cropped Swing Jacket, Jack Wills Hathershaw Cropped Trench, Avec Les Filles Cropped Trench Coat, Draper James Utility Jacket, and Target Cropped Ruffle Trench Coat also look promising.

▪ "I Love My Unique, Personalized Stitch Fix Shirt—Oh, You Have One Too" (The Wall Street Journal): "In conference rooms, courtrooms and offices, professional men and women who use the online service say they are seeing fashion doppelgängers."

▪ (I've, in the last few months, become a loyal subscriber of Bon Appétit's YouTube channel. In particular, I love Pastry Chef Claire's segments, because of how effortless she makes extremely painstaking recipes look.) "What the ‘Pivot to Video’ Looks Like at Condé Nast" (The New York Times): "Over the last two years, Bon Appétit’s YouTube subscriber base increased from 34,000 to more than 1 million. In the same period, the number of monthly unique viewers for the videos on its website grew by nearly 2.5 million ... Over all, video now makes up a quarter of revenue for The Lifestyle Collection — that’s Bon Appétit, Architectural Digest, Epicurious, Condé Nast Traveler and ... Self. All told, these brands produce about 40 to 50 videos per week, and that doesn’t include those made for advertisers."

▪ "The Un-Cuddly Truth About Pandas" (The Wall Street Journal): "The image of the pathetic panda ... is a very modern myth ... The real panda is a secret stud, with a taste for flesh and a fearsome bite ... The real threat to pandas isn’t their incompetence but our mythology ... We need to let the pandas take care of themselves, something they can only do if we leave them with enough forest to live their secretly sexy lives."

▪ "Four Ways to Fix Facebook" (ProPublica): "... four concrete, practical reforms that could address some of Facebook’s main problems ... Impose Fines for Data Breaches ... Police Political Advertising ... Make Tech Companies Liable for Objectionable Content ... Install Ethics Review Boards."

▪ "These New Pharma Bros Are Wreaking Havoc on Prescription Drug Prices" (Bloomberg): "They tend to work with smaller, privately held companies and rarely post on social media. Patients haven’t raised much of a stink about prices, either, because they pay little or no money at the drugstore to get their drugs. Some of the largest insurers and pharmacy benefit managers have blocked ... high-priced drugs from coverage. Others allow exceptions or aren’t closely monitoring all claims. Smith’s and Bove’s approach depends on enough health plans covering the drugs to make a profit."

▪ All sale styles are an extra 40% off at Anthropologie, no code needed (discount reflects in cart). My picks: Dog Trinket Dish (ordered!), Skate Park Buttondown, Everyday Mock Neck Top, Tracy Reese Pleated Midi Dress, Cityscape Stapler, Maeve Mod Striped Knit Skirt, Dolan Left Coast Sanibel Tie-Waist Dress, and Plenty By Tracy Reese Vivid Stripe Column Dress.

▪ "Middle-Class Families Increasingly Look to Community Colleges" (The New York Times): "Already, some free community college initiatives have become magnets for middle-class students ... Middle-class parents who send their children to community colleges say it can send a powerful message to them about personal finance."

▪ "The Instagram Moodboard Community Is Having a Breakdown Over Polyvore Closing Down" (The Daily Beast): "... online shopping platform Polyvore suddenly shut down on Thursday afternoon, after being acquired by Montreal-based online fashion retailer Ssense ... moodboarders said that their creations allowed them a form of easy creative expression. Unlike other aesthetic-based accounts, creating moodboards does not require a high level of skill or artistic abilities. The community was also very welcoming and open to new members."

▪ "Invisibilia: Do the Patterns in Your Past Predict Your Future?" (NPR): "... being more realistic about patterns is important but hard to pull off because it involves accepting something that feels like a contradiction: that patterns are important and predictive ... but you can't say for sure whether those same things would influence the life of any individual kid because randomness has a lot more power over complex things like life than we like to think. Randomness ... is as important as pattern, though obviously it doesn't get the same respect in our algorithmic world."

▪ (I couldn't decide how seriously to take this claim, but found two articles that seem to support the idea that many institutions and establishments providing lodging don't use fitted sheets. I am not ready to call fitted sheets a scam though.) "Fitted Sheets Are a Scam" (Motherboard/Vice): "Most hotels, prisons, and the American military don’t use fitted sheets for various reasons."

▪ "Fashion Forward and Uncomfortable" (Vanity Fair): "The pressure on women to keep up with fashion and current style seems so much greater than it is for men that many of us go along with whatever ridiculousness the runway sends our way."

▪ "In a Disposable Age, Luxury Is Something Old, Worn, And Beautiful" (Quartzy) "In many wealthy countries, clothes have become practically disposable. Between 2000 and 2014, global clothing production roughly doubled, but the average number of times a person wore a garment before discarding it steadily fell ... Part of the reason we accept the low quality of a lot of clothing we buy today is because, ultimately, it doesn’t matter much."

▪ "Men’s Wear Just Had a Huge Designer Reshuffle: What Does It Mean?" (The New York Times): "... while the men’s wear market is healthy, it is still small compared to women’s, especially when leather goods such as bags and shoes are factored in; changing designers creates a sense of anticipation and excitement that calls attention to a brand, especially when ... the designers are famously master marketeers."

▪ Select styles are 50% off (and sale styles an extra 40% off) at Ann Taylor until 4/10 with code REFRESH. My picks: Cargo Joggers (own and love), Wide Scalloped Trouser Belt, Pointelle Mock Neck Poncho, Flounce Sleeve Sweater, Pointelle Turtleneck, Faux Wrap Knit Dress, and Liya Leather Block Heel Sandals.

▪ "Southeast Asia Fashion Startup Zilingo Continues Its Meteoric Rise with $54M Series C" (TechCrunch): "Raising this much money is rare over the life cycle of any startup in Southeast Asia, but to do it in less than 2.5 years after launching your product is unprecedented ... That platform strategy goes some way to explaining why investors are doubling down on the business."

▪ (This article draws heavily from a report released by Thredup, a resale site; I would advise taking these numbers with a grain of salt.) "Resale Is Expected to Be Bigger Than Fast Fashion Within 10 Years" (Fashionista): "... resale market will be worth $41 billion by 2022, and 49 percent of that will be apparel."

▪ Recently purchased: Ted Baker Women's Caprila Dress, Leith Cold Shoulder Midi Dress, UGG® Year Round Down Comforter , J.O.A. Tie Side Pants, and BB Dakota Lisanne Top.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

No comments

, by Unknown

WLR

Weekly Link Roundup

LOFT Bouquet Split Flutter Sleeve Top (Size XXS) || Bouquet Flounce Skirt (size 00P)
(Note that these two pieces are not coordinates.)

▪ Everything is 40% off at LOFT with code HELLO, including the Skinny Tie Waist Pants which are my new favorite pants. More picks: Swingy Raincoat, Tie Waist Pocket Skirt, Polka Dot Die Waist Dress, Peplum Utility Jacket, Wildflower Jacquard Wrap Skirt, Modern Loafers, Floral Midi Wrap Skirt, Flowerbed Mixed Media Flutter Sweater, and Boucle Pocket Skirt.

▪ "Cheapskate Wardrobe Secrets from Ballerinas" (The Wall Street Journal): "Most outfits require strong base layers, and when it comes to finding the best ones, shopping experts get creative ... Enter the humble dance shop, where clever women since the Madonna era have joined actual ballerinas in scoring leotards, leggings and wrap tops for everyday use. Pieces from authentic brands like Capezio and Bloch usually cost less than $50. Highly functional, these stretch-imbued basics were made to grand jeté but can easily handle le subway."

▪ "H&M, a Fashion Giant, Has a Problem: $4.3 Billion in Unsold Clothes" (The New York Times): "H&M outlined the buildup in its latest quarterly report on Tuesday, prompting questions of whether the company is able to adapt to the fierce competition and changing consumer demands reshaping the global apparel market. Signs of its expanding unsold inventory began emerging last year, when it reported an unexpected quarterly drop in sales. The decline was the first in two decades ... Foot traffic in the past year fell as customers eschewed crowded shop floors in favor of online shopping, or lower-cost offerings elsewhere ... On Tuesday, the company said the pile of unsold stock had grown 7 percent in the past year and was now worth nearly 35 billion Swedish kronor."

▪ "What Are Screens Doing to Our Eyes—And Our Ability to See" (Wired): "If computer vision syndrome has been invented as a catch-all to express a whole range of fears, those fears may not be confined to what blue light or too much close-range texting are doing to the eyesight. Maybe the syndrome is a broader blindness—eyes that don’t know how to see and minds that increasingly don’t know how to recognize nondigital artifacts, especially nature."

▪ "The Rise, and Demise, of 'Basic Bitch' Fashion" (Fashionista): "To be 'basic' now is to be whatever you want ... In fact, the 'basic bitch' never existed. She was a myth dreamed up by us to explain our resentment for and animosity toward mass popularity. She was our insecurities, drummed up into a physical form we used to crucify certain trends we didn't like."

▪ Everything is 50% off at J. Crew Factory, no coded need. (Use code GOODIES to take an extra 50% off clearance styles.) My picks: Scalloped Cami Top, 3" Tie-Waist Short, Tiered Ruffle-Sleeve Cardigan Sweater, Hooded Anorak Pullover, Sawyer Suede Boots, Winnie Pant with Scalloped Hem, Wool Sidewalk Skirt, and Cold-Shoulder Tank Top.

▪ "How Shyp Sunk: The Rise And Fall Of An On-Demand Startup" (Fast Company): "Shyp has often been described as 'the Uber of shipping,' but creating the Uber-of-something is no longer a way to get venture capitalists to write checks. That doesn’t mean that sanity prevails in Silicon Valley, just that its irrational exuberance has moved on to other domains."

▪ "Some Marine Layer Stores Are Getting Second Jobs as Airbnbs" (Racked): "Marine Layer, a California-based fashion brand that’s been around since 2011 and is known for super-soft T-shirts and a chill West Coast sensibility, is dipping its toes into something Instagram-crazed millennials will appreciate: The brand is renting out apartments on Airbnb. And not just any apartments; apartments in touristy cities filled with interior design porn like mode vintage furniture, fiddle-leaf fig trees, and kitschy tchotchkes. Oh, and free snacks."

▪ "How a Young Woman Lost Her Identity" (The New Yorker): "... dissociative fugue, a rare condition in which people lose access to their autobiographical memory and personal identity, occasionally adopting a new one, and may abruptly embark on a long journey. The state is typically triggered by trauma—often sexual or physical abuse, a combat experience, or exposure to a natural disaster—or by an unbearable internal conflict. "

▪ "The Myth Of Traveling Light" (Buzzfeed): "... traveling light is, at heart, about going solo ... the real trick to traveling light is ... only that you accustom yourself to leaving things behind."

▪ Sale styles have been further discounted at H&M, and are now up to 80% off. Shipping is free on orders over $40 with code 0040. My picks: Crêped Dress, Shaping Skinny Regular Jeans, Draped Bodysuit, Jumpsuit, Short Lace Dress, Cashmere Scarf, Ankle Boots, Knit Dress, and Satin Top.

▪ "Globalization’s Backlash Is Here, at Just the Wrong Time" (The New York Times): "In short, the anti-globalization drive that is spreading across the Western world may be coming at exactly the wrong time — too late to do much to save the working-class jobs that were lost, but early enough to risk damaging the ability of rich nations to sell advanced goods and services to the rapidly expanding global middle class."

▪ "Nothing You Say Online Is Private" (Bloomberg): "The best way for individuals to safeguard their information is to limit what they share in the first place."

▪ "MoviePass’s All-You-Can-See Deal: The Pros and Cons" (The Wall Street Journal): "MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe recently described it to me as 'bad movie insurance,' even while admitting that might not be the best marketing speak."

▪ Join the A&F Club (membership is free; as a new member, you will also be sent a $20 off a $50 purchaes code) and take 50% off everything at Abecrombie & Fitch, no code needed. My picks: Shirt Jacket, Tie Waist High-Rise Shorts, Utility Jumpsuit, Low-Rise Ankle Jeans, Classic Raincoat, Low-Rise Chino Pants, and High-Rise Super Skinny Jeans.

▪ "Here’s What Really Happens to Your Used Clothes" (Racked): "... of the 4.7 billion pounds of clothing that Americans donate every year, only 10 percent of it is fit for resale at US thrift stores ... the rest is sold to commercial used clothing dealers and textile recyclers at bulk prices, who in turn export it — 1.6 billion pounds annually with a value of more than $550 million — for resale or recycling around the world, making the United States the world’s largest exporter of used clothing."

▪ A subreddit that I recently subscribed to and now can't get enough of is r/Awwducational; it's a must for anyone who enjoys obscure or fun animal facts. For instance, I recently learned that "hippos can't really swim. Their big bones are too dense and heavy, so they just push off the ground, walking or bouncing off the bottom."

▪ "Is Saudi Arabia Ready for Runway Fashion Shows?" (The New York Times): "... last Friday, just three days before an opening-night gala was to celebrate Saudi Arabia’s first fashion week, the event was abruptly postponed ... the fashion shows in Riyadh will come at a time when Saudi Arabia’s religiously conservative rules constraining the attire of women outside their homes are showing signs of relaxing. In an interview with '60 Minutes' on CBS this month, the crown prince said that women should be able to choose what they wear."

▪ Everything is 40% off at Ann Taylor with code HOPTOIT until 3/31/18. A recent order: Scallop Trim Blouse (a new fav), Stripe Ruffle Shoulder Sweater, Scallop Trim Flare Sleeve Shift Dress, Flutter Sheath Dress, Belted Pleated Wide Leg Pants, and Box Pleat Tee.

▪ "What It's Like to Die Online" (Marie Claire): "In a way, YouTube has allowed people like Castellano to cheat death. At any time, her family and followers can go back and watch her hundreds of videos as if she were still here."

▪ "Self-Storage: How Warehouses For Personal Junk Became a $38 Billion Industry" (Curbed): "One in 11 Americans pays an average of $91.14 per month to use self-storage ... the United States boasts more than 50,000 facilities and roughly 2.311 billion square feet of rentable space. In other words, the volume of self-storage units in the country could fill the Hoover Dam with old clothing, skis, and keepsakes more than 26 times."

▪ Recently purchased: 1901 Seersucker Shirtdress, Madewell Silk Fleur Bow Back Dress (also here), ASOS Bow Jumpsuit In Structured Fabric, Boohoo Printed Tie Front Playsuit, and Tibi Flap Detail Urban Stretch Skirt.

Enjoy the rest of your week, everyone!

No comments

, by Unknown

WLR

Weekly Link Roundup

Ann Taylor Button Cuff Wrap Dress // 00P // Rich Red Velvet

▪ Until the end of today, take 40% off everything at Ann Taylor with code HELLOSPRING. The well-reviewed Button Cuff Wrap Dress, which fits true to size, is still fully stocked online. More picks: Tie Neck Ruffle Blouse (from this post), Ruffle Tweed Jacket (love!), Puff Sleeve Sweatshirt, Ruffle Stitch Sweater, and Liya Leather Sandals.

▪ "Getting the Cartier Crowd Hooked on Cheap Credit" (Bloomberg): "The company hasn't said how much it will issue, but it will probably be big ... Richemont's single A+ grade at S&P Global Ratings makes it a natural candidate for the central bank's 143 billion euro ($176 billion) portfolio ... the luxury market has been turbo-charged by a revival in Chinese demand and confidence among U.S. consumers, and this has elevated valuations. "

▪ "The Trench Coat: An Obsessive, Comprehensive Guide" (The Wall Street Journal): "Despite its more vulgar connotations, the style is rooted in British aristocracy, having been originally developed as a sporting coat for the upper crust. It soared to broader popularity during World War I, when British officers adopted the weatherproofed, double-breasted, oft-belted style (typically in khaki) for use on the front lines ... Easily dressed up or down, the trench has unswervingly stayed in fashion—nearly every designer worth his salt has riffed on the theme."

▪ "What's Acne Studios Worth?" (The Business of Fashion): "Acne co-founders Jonny Johansson and Mikael Schiller have reportedly been in conversation with the American investment bank for several months now and are likely to launch a formal sale process after the summer ... The company could fetch a valuation of €400 million to €500 million in an outright sale — and maybe more if there is competition from multiple bidders. This would imply a valuation multiple of 2 to 2.5 times revenue."

▪ "A Lesson in American Greatness" (The Economist): "Since [the Refugee Admissions Programme] was launched in 1980 it has had an average quota of 95,000 refugees a year, more than that of any other rich country. America has also tended to take the most forlorn cases. Some were victims of its foreign-policy blunders ... Yet this tendency also reflected the values and self-confidence of a country founded by fugitives, which, over the ensuing four centuries, has been relentlessly successful at turning them into productive citizens ... For though it is true that refugees represent a bigger upfront cost than other migrants—America spends between $10,000 and $20,000 resettling each one—they repay that in spades. A decade after their arrival, the average income of a refugee family is close to the American average. "

▪ Until the end of today, take 60% off select styles at Abercrombie & Fitch. My picks: Shirt Jacket, Silk Button-Up Shirt, Button Mock Sweater, Wool-Blend Swing Coat, Lace Hem Tee, and Pleated Cami.

▪ "Marijuana Is the New Gold for Mining Companies Going to Pot" (Bloomberg): "The number of companies that started in the mining or oil and gas sectors that are now part of Canada’s burgeoning marijuana industry has jumped to more than 40. In all, almost half of the country’s marijuana firms started out in the resource sector before many converted to pot via reverse takeovers and spinoffs."

▪ "China’s New Frontiers in Dystopian Tech" (The Atlantic): "Quietly and very rapidly, facial recognition has enabled China to become the world’s most advanced surveillance state. A hugely ambitious new government program called the 'social credit system' aims to compile unprecedented data sets ... for all Chinese citizens. Based on this information, each person could be assigned a numerical score ... The goal of the program, as stated in government documents, is to 'allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step.'"

▪ "Why Isn’t Wall Street Freaking Out About Trump?" (Politico): "To Wall Street pros, the story of Trump’s bull market is part luck, part policy and possibly a whole lot of irrational exuberance. When investors look past the daily theater, they mostly love Trump’s embrace of traditional Republican policies. He’s slashed regulations and cut corporate tax rates nearly in half, juicing profits and pumping cash into the economy. And they’ve guessed—correctly so far—that Trump the trade warrior and nuclear saber-rattler would remain mostly a cartoon character with little or no real-world impact."

▪ All sale styles are an extra 25% off with code SOEXTRA at Shopbop. My sale picks: MLM Label Mesa Shoulder Top, Black Halo Jackie Jumpsuit, Kate Spade New York Scalloped Bandeau One Piece, Endless Rose Tiered Ruffle Sleeve Peplum Blouse, Jade Swim Wrapped One Piece, Eugenia Kim Lina Bow Beanie Hat, and Loeffler Randall Mini Rider Bag.

▪ "Do Antidepressants Work?" (The New York Times): "... the effectiveness of antidepressants had been overstated, and that the benefit might be limited to far fewer patients than were actually using the drugs ... while many studies achieved statistical significance, they failed to achieve clinical significance ... The bad news is that even though there were statistically significant differences, the effect sizes were still mostly modest. The benefits also applied only to people who were suffering from major depression, specifically in the short term. In other words, this study provides evidence that when people are found to have acute major depression, treatment with antidepressants works to improve outcomes in the first two months of therapy.."

▪ "Nordstrom’s Biggest Bet Ever" (The Wall Street Journal): "The company’s decision to build in Manhattan’s saturated retail market presents a concerted risk ... Male shoppers are particularly sought after as one of the fastest-growing segments in apparel ... the company plans to subvert department store tenets ... Instead of siloing high fashion away in upper-floor shop-in-shops, Nordstrom will eschew hard partitions, using see-through floor-to-ceiling lengths of industrial chain mail to separate brands. Plans for a storewide liquor license will enable shoppers to roam with a tumbler of single malt from a second-floor bar called Clubhouse. VIP dressing rooms will be available for those who wish to linger, while those in a rush can order goods online ... and find them waiting in a dressing room located conveniently near an exit."

▪ "#deletefacebook" (TechCrunch): "Tools like Facebook were designed to connect us to the world, giving us an almost angelic view of daily happenstance. We replaced the churchyard with the 'timeline.' But our efforts failed. We are still as closed, still full of superstition, as we were a hundred years ago. We traded a market square for the Internet but all of the closed-mindedness and cynicism came with it. We still disparage the outsider, we still rant against invisible enemies, and we still keep our friends close and fear what lies beyond our door. Only now we have the whole world on which to reflect our terror."

▪ "Getting Ready Faster: Secrets From Stylish Women" (The Wall Street Journal): "... the smartest women take advantage of a zeitgeist that is endorsing ease, while they develop specific get-ready strategies of their own."

▪ "The Surprising Sweetness of Menswear Reddit" (Racked): "... a lack of style expertise is what makes MFA tick: if everyone already knew how to dress, there’d be no one to, y’know, advise. It’s also what gives the community its trademark niceness — a subreddit that’s all about people asking for help inherently rewards vulnerability."

▪ "More Families Feel Insecure. That’s Because They Are." (Slate): "General economic insecurity is worsening because Americans have earned less money over time, and benefits that previously shielded them from shocks ... have shifted from government and employers to individuals. People are less able to save and tackle both daily expenses and emergency costs when they come up. The result: People are both anticipating and experiencing hardship up and down the economic ladder."

▪ "Scrunchies, Scourge of the 1980s, Are Back" (The Wall Street Journal): "Women are wearing scrunchies again—in public, and most notably, to the office, where their presence is producing reactions ranging from unbridled enthusiasm, to jokes that might not be jokes, to silent judgment. Some scrunchie fans wonder if they will be taken seriously while wearing one."

▪ Recently purchased: A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo (from this video), Tularosa Marley Jumper, Ted Baker Lynetta Skater Dress, and Alice + Olivia Issa Blouse.

Have a great week, everyone!

No comments

, by Unknown

WLR

Weekly Link Roundup

Source: Style.com

▪ 24 Sèvres, the online store of Le Bon Marché, an LVMH subsidiary, started selling Céline merchandise yesterday. And it is a dangerous development. I was thisclose to pulling the trigger on a Classic Medium Bag before the colorway I wanted became unavailable.

▪ "The Skin Care Wars, Explained" (Vox): "... when we talk about skin care, we’re not just talking about cosmetics. We’re also talking about our anxieties about women, their bodies, their money, and their pleasure."

▪ "Betsy DeVos On Guns, School Choice And Why People Don't Like Her" (CBS News): "Lesley Stahl: Have you seen the really bad schools? Maybe try to figure out what they're doing? Betsy DeVos: I have not-- I have not-- I have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming. Lesley Stahl: Maybe you should. Betsy DeVos: Maybe I should. Yes."

▪ (Heartened by Reddit's collective humanity, I struggled to blink back tears reading the last few paragraphs.) "Reddit and the Quest to Detoxify the Internet" (The New Yorker): "Last April Fools’, instead of a parody announcement, Reddit unveiled a genuine social experiment. It was called r/Place, and it was a blank square, a thousand pixels by a thousand pixels. In the beginning, all million pixels were white. Once the experiment started, anyone could change a single pixel, anywhere on the grid, to one of sixteen colors ... In his office, Huffman met with Chris Slowe, Reddit’s first employee, who is now the chief technical officer. 'How is Place going?' Huffman asked. 'Pretty much as expected,' Slowe said. 'A lot of memes, some Pokémon, and a barrage of dicks.' 'If there’s ever a Reddit musical, that wouldn’t be a bad title,' Huffman said."

▪ "The Financial Whisperer to Trump’s America" (Politico): " 'There’s more of a hopelessness than I think there was,' Ramsey says. 'If you don’t believe you can do it, you won’t do it. So as cheesy as it sounds, there’s a real reality in this discussion to hope. Does somebody believe that if I plant corn, I’m going to grow corn? That if I sell my car, take an extra job, get on a budget, don’t go on vacation, don’t go out to eat, and use all of that to clean up my debt, will it actually work? … That has more to do with hope than it does math.' "

▪ J. Crew is currently running a buy more, save more event: use code NEWNEW to take 40% off any 4+ styles, 30% any 3 styles, 20% off any 2 styles, and 10% off any 1 style. Recently ordered: Perfect Rainjacket (TTS), Slingback Bow Pumps (40mm) in Suede, New Lightweight Sweater-Blazer, Drapey Open-Front Blazer, and Bow-Neck Sweater.

▪ "New York Is Confiscating Delivery Bikes, Hurting Immigrants, And Helping No One" (Fast Company): "Technically, due to a mismatch in the law, electric bikes are legal to own but illegal to operate, in New York."

▪ "The Tipping Equation" (The New York Times): "A 'customer is always right' ethos often tilts the equation — creating the kind of power imbalance that has become front and center in a broader conversation about sex and gender in the workplace ... Working for tips means that each shift comes with questions that do not apply to millions of other workers around the country: How much money will I make, and how much will I tolerate to make it? ... Seventy percent of servers are women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and nearly half are younger than 25."

▪ (This was an unnecessarily long piece, imo, but contains some interesting bits of history.) "The Last Temptation" (The Atlantic): "The president won four-fifths of the votes of white evangelical Christians. This was a higher level of support than either Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush, an outspoken evangelical himself, ever received ... Trump consistently depicts evangelicals as they depict themselves: a mistreated minority ... He has treated evangelicalism as an interest group in need of protection and preferences."

▪ "Your State’s Teachers Are Underpaid. Find Out By How Much." (Vox)

▪ "How Your Returns Are Used Against You at Best Buy, Other Retailers" (The Wall Street Journal): "Retailers estimate 11% of their sales are returned, and of those, 11% are likely fraudulent returns, according to a 2017 survey of 63 retailers by the National Retail Federation."

▪ "The Truth About Putin" (The Weekly Standard): "The domain name 'putin2018.ru' was registered in 2010, during the Obama administration’s infamous 'Reset' with Russia and its dreams of Dmitry Medvedev liberalization. Putin2024.ru, putin2030.ru, and putin36.ru have also been locked up, in case you were wondering."

▪ H&M's spring sale (take up to 70% off thousands of styles) is now live. In my cart: Crêped Jersey Dress, Knit Sweater, Faux Suede Skirt (I own this in a different color; runs a size small), Pea Coat, Faux Fur Jacket, Felted Jacket, Leather Belt, Long Cardigan, and Crêped Dress.

▪ (I generally dislike Andrew Sullivan's work, but have been forcing myself to read more conservative viewpoints; his is actually more tolerable than some others I read recently.) "The World Is Better Than Ever. Why Are We Miserable?" (New York Magazine): "As we have slowly and surely attained more progress, we have lost something that undergirds all of it: meaning, cohesion, and a different, deeper kind of happiness than the satiation of all our earthly needs. We’ve forgotten the human flourishing that comes from a common idea of virtue, and a concept of virtue that is based on our nature."

▪ "Why Even Control Freaks Are Opting for ‘Surprise Vacations’" (The Wall Street Journal): "When people become so set on ensuring that every experience is a peak experience, they get consumed with worry that they might 'come back from somewhere and haven’t done it quite right.'"

▪ "How Psychopaths See the World" (The Atlantic): "Like most psychiatric problems, it’s a complex mess of genetic and environmental influences, all impinging on our most complex (and perhaps least understood) organ—the brain. Psychopaths may show a lack of automatic perspective-taking, but 'the interesting question is: Why?' "

▪ "Bitcoin Is Ridiculous. Blockchain Is Dangerous" (Bloomberg): "What Bitcoin actually accomplished is the financialization of a few genuinely joyous ideas ... What Silicon Valley loves most isn’t the products, or the platforms underneath them, but markets."

▪ "Where Is Barack Obama?" (The Atlantic): "His reticence reflects one of the problems that constrained his presidency—his hesitation and resistance to getting down and dirty in the muck of partisan politics. He aimed high, but American politics went low."

▪ "In Fashion and Beauty Ads, Less Skin and More Empowerment" (The Wall Street Journal): "The #MeToo movement and the rise of socially conscious millennials who support brands they like have intensified discussions of how women are portrayed in fashion ads. The fashion industry also is grappling with published allegations of sexual misconduct among its ranks."

▪ Recently purchased: Self-Portrait Floral Pleated Tiered Dress, Banana Republic Soft Pleated Long Trench, H&M Loafers, J. Crew Perfect Rainjacket, and LOFT Camellia Garden Shirtdress.

Have a great week, everyone!

No comments

, by Unknown

WLR

Weekly Link Roundup

J. Crew Portfolio Dress in Navy // size 00

▪ Workwear is 30% off at J. Crew with code WORKIT until 3/10/18. My picks: Portfolio Dress (above from 2016; brought back again this year), Résumé Dress (reviewed here), New Lightweight Sweater Blazer (ordered!), Lurex® Wrap Sweater, Relaxed Boy Shirt, Cashmere Cardigan Sweater with Shawl Collar, and Drapey Popover.

▪ "Nordstrom Family’s Bid to Buy the Retailer Is Rejected" (The New York Times): "A special committee of the retailer’s board rejected a roughly $8.4 billion offer from the Nordstrom family to buy the company ... the committee said the cash offer of $50 a share was 'inadequate,' and it threatened to cut off further discussions with the family group ... Nordstrom shares closed at $51.90 on Monday."

▪ "China Is Turning Ethiopia Into a Giant Fast-Fashion Factory" (Bloomberg): "We’ve arrived at a new moment for the global apparel industry. This drought-afflicted, landlocked country of 100 million on the Horn of Africa is transforming itself into the lowest rung on the supply chain that pours out fast fashion and five-for-$12.99 tube socks."

▪ "The Design Theory Behind Amazon’s $5.6 Billion Success" (Co.Design): "From an aesthetic point of view, Amazon’s web store is neither simple nor beautiful ... Instead, it focuses on simplicity of experience, process, and functionality ... Amazon’s design succeeds because it makes use of four key principles that all great shopping experiences embody ... transparent ... tangible ... trustworthy ... helpful."

▪ "Eight Years Later, Google Fiber Is A Faint Echo Of The Disruption We Were Promised" (Vice): "Even without anti-competitive roadblocks, progress was slow. Digging up city streets and burying fiber was already a time-consuming and expensive process ... By late 2016, Google executives clearly started becoming disenfranchised by the slow pace and high costs of digging up the nation’s streets and challenging politically-powerful incumbents."

▪ "Dorm Living for Professionals Comes to San Francisco" (The New York Times): "Shared bathrooms at the end of the hall and having no individual kitchen or living room is becoming less weird for some of the city’s workers thanks to Starcity, a new development company that is expressly creating dorms for many of the non-tech population."

▪"How Everlane Is Building The Next-Gen Clothing Brand" (Fast Company): "Everlane has functioned without a creative director since Rebekka Bay ... left for Uniqlo last February. Preysman prefers a more diffuse structure. A team of designers presents ideas to him, along with head of creative Alexandra Spunt ... and a handful of other department heads. Together they decide what to add to the lineup ... Everlane uses its waiting lists, along with real-time data and customer feedback, to make inventory decisions. When in doubt, it stocks less."

▪ "What Stores Do With $90 Billion in Merchandise Returns" (The Wall Street Journal): "Often, retailers offload rejected clothes, appliances and toys for pennies on the dollar through a vast ecosystem of resellers, ranging from outlet stores and online auctions to flea markets and salvage dealers ... These post-retail sales, including both returns and overstocked items, totaled $554 billion in 2016, and have been growing at about 7.5% a year ... January and February are the busiest months for resellers and the so-called reverse supply chain ... The most common returns are clothing and apparel, followed by electronics, beauty products and sports or outdoor gear ... Roughly half of holiday-season returns go back on the shelf, much of it to be sold again at a discount ... The other half winds its way through various secondary channels over the next several months, depending on the goods’ resale value and seasonality."

▪ "LL Bean, Citing Abuse, Tightens Its Generous Policy on Returns" (The New York Times):"L. L. Bean ... famous for its 100 percent satisfaction guarantee, said that a growing number of customers had abused the policy by treating it as a 'lifetime product-replacement program.' The retailer will immediately begin enforcing stricter rules for shoppers seeking to exchange items or obtain or get refunds. Under the new policy, consumers will have a year to make returns, and will be required to provide proof of purchase."

▪ "How Trump’s Hudson Tunnel Feud Threatens the National Economy" (Bloomberg): "Northeast Corridor ... the most heavily used passenger rail line in the U.S, both in ridership and service frequency. It extends 457 miles from Union Station in Washington to South Station in Boston, carrying more than 2,200 trains daily ... the North River Tunnel, the only passenger-rail connection between Manhattan and New Jersey, and the northern and southern portions of the Northeast Corridor ... has deteriorated because of age, exhaustive use and saltwater infiltration during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. In 2014, Amtrak estimated that the passage had up to 20 years of service left. It needs an overhaul that will require each tube to be taken out of service for 18 months. Closing just one would reduce capacity to six trains per hour, a 75 percent cut."

▪ "The Rich Have Abandoned Rich-People Rugs" (The New York Times): "Blame our increasingly casual culture, one in which the perfect pair of jeans replaced the ornate Christian Lacroix gown as a status object. There has in fact been a 40-year move toward folkloric, less formal carpets. Wool is the new silk. Established imperfections are part of the sales pitch."

▪ "Retweets Are Trash" (The Atlantic): "Every layer of the digital-media economy has been reconfigured to produce shareable stuff ... Over time, this emphasis on shareability has created an enormous change in what all of us, not just social-media users, see on our screens ... Two Wharton professors have found that anger tops the list of shareable emotions in the social-media world, and a study of the Chinese internet service Weibo found that rage spreads faster than joy, sadness, and disgust."

▪ Take 30% off everything at Express today (3/6/18; no code needed). My picks; Gingham Tie Waist Ruffled Shirt Dress, High Waisted Clean Front Pencil Skirt, Striped Cotton Ruffle Wrap Shirt Dress, Floral Off The Shoulder Fit And Flare Maxi Dress, Long Sleeve Tie Front Shirt Dress, and Slim Fit Gingham Portofino Shirt.

▪ "Can There Be Good Porn?" (The New York Times): "Context reminds people of all the things they don’t see in the final product. It underscores that pornography is a performance, that just as in ballet or professional wrestling, we are putting on a show ... Sex and sexual fantasies are complicated. So much of emotionally safer sex is dependent on knowing and paying attention to your partner. We in the industry can add context to our work, but I don’t know that it’s possible, at the end of the day, for what is meant to be an entertainment medium to regularly demonstrate concepts as intangible as these. We cannot rely on pornography to teach empathy, the ability to read body language, or how to discuss sexual boundaries — especially when we’re talking about young people who have never had sex. Porn will never be a replacement for sex education."

▪ "To Get Rich In Crypto You Just Need An Idea, And a Coin" (Wired): "ICOs are monumental marketing efforts. Their websites are glitzy, brimming with facile sci-fi rhetoric, and featuring anxiety-inducing countdown timers ... ICOs have less to fear from regulation than they have from their own self-contradictions ... As the price of Bitcoin and Ether skyrockets, founders might find it more convenient to latch onto their ever-more-valuable cryptocurrency stash rather than use it to build their project."

▪ "Bitcoin Is Falling Out of Favor on the Dark Web" (The Atlantic): "... problems with using bitcoin on the dark web ... have piled up. Purchasers and vendors are cancelling orders, losing money, and fleeing to other forms of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin remains in wide use for drugs and other illegal goods, but the shadowy markets that made it famous, and infamous, are turning on it ... The first issue lies in the extreme volatility of the price of bitcoin ... the mechanics of buying drugs on the dark web. A purchaser buys bitcoin, reviews vendors’ offers on a marketplace, and then pays for his goods. His money generally goes into escrow before it is released to his vendor. This introduces a number of financial choke points and transaction delays ... The second reason bitcoin is falling out of favor on the dark web has to do with the sudden increase in the cost of transacting in bitcoin ... the price of a bitcoin transaction recently spiked as high as $55 ... A third issue has to do with anonymity—or really, a lack of it."

▪ "Donald Glover Can’t Save You" (The New Yorker): "Noting that he often spoke about how life would be different if he were White Donald, I asked Glover how our conversations would be different if I were black. He gave me a considering look. 'We’d have a language we both understood, and you’d know me better,' he said. 'But as Black Tad you’d only be in a position of talking to me because you were good at placating a white audience. As a black person, you have to sell the black culture to succeed. So I’d try to trust Black Tad, but it’s really up to him whether he’d sell us out' ... I asked Glover if there was a possibility, given his belief that the black experience was more interesting—albeit far more painful—than the white experience, that White Donald wouldn’t have ended up where Black Donald has. Very softly, he said, 'Would you rather be a person who has all the opportunities but can’t see them? Or a person who can see all the opportunities but can’t have them?' Probably the latter, I said. You? 'Yeah, there’s something beautiful about being able to see it all.' "

▪ "Silicon Valley Is Over, Says Silicon Valley" (The New York Times): "In recent months, a growing number of tech leaders have been flirting with the idea of leaving Silicon Valley. Some cite the exorbitant cost of living in San Francisco and its suburbs, where even a million-dollar salary can feel middle class. Others complain about local criticism of the tech industry and a left-wing echo chamber that stifles opposing views. And yet others feel that better innovation is happening elsewhere ... This isn’t a full-blown exodus yet. But in the last three months of 2017, San Francisco lost more residents to outward migration than any other city in the country."

▪ Recently purchased: Forever 21 Transparent Faux Leather Crossbody Bag, H&M Lace Dress, Yves Saint Laurent Volupté Liquid Balm, Dolce & Gabbana Queen of Hearts Graphic Tee, and Ann Taylor Ruffle Tweed Jacket. .

Have a great week, everyone!

No comments

, by Unknown