Five Things (2.20.26)

1. This conversation between Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, facilitated by Robin Givhan, has been reassuring in that my instinct to remain small—an attempt to combat capitalism’s chokehold—is the right move. The two greats address the current state of fashion and creativity sans pretense and instead, discuss the industry with stark vulnerability. It’s as much a reality check as it is an affirmation. The disappointment and despair we’re feeling as creatives is fully valid, but the only way out, and forward, is through art.

2. Ada Lovelace’s 1843 sentiment on the limitations of machine intelligence remains relevant and is particularly foreboding in an age of AI:

“The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform. It can follow analysis; but it has no power of anticipating any analytical relations or truths. Its province is to assist us to making available what we are already acquainted with.”

3. Currently halfway through Practice by Rosalind Brown, a slim paperback that has rekindled my appetite for books. Since college, I’ve volleyed between bouts of reading with absolute ferocity and complete inattention, a dichotomy of extremes ruled by workload and mood. It’s not for lack of wanting, to be clear; this is merely the only area of my life that isn’t ruled by discipline… yet. Worse, my focus has felt scattered as of late—so I’ve decided to be proactive by creating a personal reading curriculum.

It’s like I’m back in school again, which is truly thrilling for someone like me.

4. I can’t stop thinking about this vintage denim Chanel flap bag embroidered with their most iconic perfumes. As a fragrance editor and collector, I’m tickled. As a Jersey girl who grew up believing department stores were the epitome of glamour—particularly the designer perfume counters—I’m enamored. And as a bona fide Chanel beauty devotee, this feels like a need. Wear your perfume on your sleeves and shoulders, too.

5. Back to books (but also segueing into more out-of-production objects): I now have a copy of Madonna’s metal-bound book of Sex in my possession. It was an unexpected acquisition (from des pairs bookstore in Echo Park, now closed, unfortunately), but a rare title I simply could not pass up. I’ll thumb through it soon but for now, I’m delighted to have another seminal work in my personal reference library.

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xx