Capsule #102 ft. Avani Thakkar

Hello hello,

Happy Friday my loves 🫶. Also tomorrow is summer solstice - of course you already were but make sure you spend as much time as you can outside!!

Today’s issue is a bit of a Glastonbury bible ahead of next week, but there are some pearls of wisdom that apply to any time in your life when you’re at an event or just trying to have a good time. Hold them close!

As ever, scroll for the news you may have missed this week, a Hot & Not from Avani Thakkar, and recs for you weekend ahead.

Also — there will be no Capsule next week while I attempt to “live in the moment” at Glastonbury…but I’ll be back the week after!

Sending love, and thank you for being here,

Holly x

𐦂𖨆𐀪𖠋 Your Glastonbury Bible 𐦂𖨆𐀪𖠋

Last year I made a Glastonbury Survival Guide for Capsule. We’re back again, except there’s another year of experience wrapped into it so it’s all the richer.

First up: Camping Essentials ☾⋆｡𖦹 °✩🍃🏕🪵

I'm a lover of home comforts but there is a way to make the camping and festival experience feel easier if you are prepared to think about it a little bit. This list isn’t absolutely everything you need, but the details that make a difference. Here we go!!!

1. Collapsible bucket and a camping shower. If you have easy shower access then ignore! But if you’re camping and showers are hard (famously long queues at Glastonbury, for example), and you don’t feel great about a baby wipe wash (gone are the days), the bucket is your best friend. Fill it up at your nearest water point and take a flannel, and you’re able to have a pretty good wash. Washing your hair in the bucket is feasible too if you have help, but a camping shower takes that hair rinse to a new level. In terms of what to buy, the collapsible ones are easiest to pack as you can just strap it to your big bag, and these camping showers are good enough for one trip, just make sure you have someone taking the weight of the bag so it doesn’t rip.

2. Packing cubes. You get back to your dark tent, you look inside your big black bag, and you obviously can’t find what you need. This is the sort of hassle you thank yourself for thinking ahead on. Packing cubes are great for keeping stuff separated in your camping bag (underwear, socks, tops) and make finding the exact top you are looking for a breeze. This type are great because you can squeeze all the air out, but if you’ve left it too late, I’ve also used Ziploc bags in the past and labelled them with a Sharpie.

3. Earplugs. Honestly earplugs are a huge part of my regular existence but they really come into their own at a festival. Loop Experience for loud speaker protection, Loop Quiet 2 Plus (worth it I promise) for getting a good night’s sleep.

4. Birkenstocks. You deserve to step out of your tent and slide your foot into anything that’s not a boot or a trainer. My preference is a Birkenstock, but flip flops and sliders are obviously also good!

5. Disposable camera. The photos you take on your phone will soon be lost with the 25,000 others. You’ll hold the prints dear for years to come. Just don’t lose the camera 🥲. And remember the flash at night. These cameras are half price.

6. Pyjama bottoms. Shorts won’t cut it at night time when it’s deceptively cold. There’s only a few cold hours but once you get cold it’s hard to warm up. Then of course the heat hits and you’ll take them off first thing, but they are always worth having.

7. Dioralyte. Truly a godsend. Drink it daily.

8. Wee bags. I see some places calling these a portable toilet but I want to temper your expectations. It’s a bag with a shewee attached, and the bag contains some chemicals that turn your pee into a solid. You don’t want to need these but there will be times when you are glad. Like when you need to pee in the night, and you’re camped kind of far from a set of toilets and it’s dark and raining and cold. The bits of Glastonbury you don’t see on Instagram!!! And the bits that will push all of us towards glamping one day. But until then: these bags.

9. Water bottle and a carabiner. You don’t want the burden of carrying a big bag if you can help it but you absolutely need to be carrying water around. Clipping your bottle to your smaller bag is a great fix, but you need to make sure your bottle has some sort of loop to clip the carabiner to.

10. Good lip balm. I made a note to myself last year that lip balm is a MUST in future. Everyone has their own preferences but

And now: Words of Wisdom ‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡🪐༘⋆

The stuff you might need to remind yourself and your friends at different points, applicable to much of life whether you’ll be at a festival or not.

1. You can probably write “less is more” on my headstone at this point but once again it’s true. Trying to do every single thing and treating it as a tick-boxing exercise will leave you exhausted and prevent you from enjoying what’s right in front of you. A few things done well with freedom to move as you please is always the better option. I’ve said it before: an amazing lineup is a bit of a curse at a festival, better to have a few core things you care about and be a free bird for the rest of it.

2. Prepare to have no signal and don’t worry too much about trying to coordinate everyone, especially if you’re in a big group. You can spend so long trying to link everyone up only to find your friends were responding to a text from four hours ago that they only just received. It’s okay to enjoy stuff in smaller break off groups and know that you’ll link up with everyone later.

3. That lack of phone signal and battery preservation is also a blessing, because it puts you off using your phone. Enjoy your few days of being outside and away from your daily routine - that’s one of the best things about it.

4. If you’re the type that needs it, remind yourself (and people around you) that you don’t need permission to have fun. It’s not something you have to earn. Equally try not to let small inconveniences ruin your day — you will forget something, you will be too hot or too cold at some point, you will have achy legs and feet. Respond to those things quickly and kindly and move on.

5. And finally. An important one. Scope out your home comforts to eat and drink. For me that’s starting each day with a cup of tea no matter what. For you that might be a coffee and a pastry, getting a pizza, or a big icy lemonade. The lesson is to get stuff that you know sits well in your body and prioritise fuelling yourself.

And to finish: Clothes and Music ★🎸⋆｡˚୨୧₊👜👢

If you’re still struggling with what to wear, these Capsule festival outfit ideas might inspire you. I also want to say that I went to Lido festival last week to see Charli xcx and saw so much of the festival attire I’ve seen online over the past few weeks. Lots of it looked great but I also overwhelmingly felt like you don’t need to panic buy any of this stuff, it looks different IRL than in the photos, and the main thing that matters is comfort. You will be sat on wood chippings. Bear that in mind!!!

And if you want some music advice, this guide from Spotify’s music editors is a good place to start. If you have Spotify, check out your personal Glastonbury playlist which will show you stuff you’ve listened to or will like. And if you want my take, I would not miss The 1975’s first headliner set for the world.

And finally…

News you may have missed this week:

• Oklou had her baby. Let’s stream her brilliant album as a gift

• Do you remember this recent essay I wrote for Capsule about how the trend cycle actually works??? Well right on cue: Emma Chamberlain just launched a coffee collab with Pinterest, based on their “Fisherman Aesthetic” trend. It was only a matter of time! To be fair to Emma, she has been dressing like a sailor every summer for the past five years

• Miley popped up at the Cowboy Carter show in Paris. The last time Miley and Beyoncé performed together was at that iconic Stand Up To Cancer 2008 performance if you remember…

• I felt the energy in this caption from Charli at her show last week… the girl needs a break!!!

• Dua Lipa made her Diet Coke with pickle juice at her London pop up this week

• Sabrina Carpenter is flirting with banning phones at her shows

• And if you like Lorde marginalia, here’s her words on writing ‘Hammer’ and notes on Hampstead Heath where the video is shot

This week, Avani Thakkar popped into Capsule to share what’s 🔥hot🔥 and what’s not 🙅‍♀️ …

Avani is a London-based freelance writer and insight strategist whose work has appeared in publications like Vogue, ELLE, Dazed, WGSN, Refinery29 UK, i-D and more. Her writing focuses on whatever piques her interest - flitting between clothes, beauty ideals, emerging talent, art, cultural identity, digital trends and how all this informs IRL brand strategy or comms. She disassociates by dancing, watching k-dramas, yapping and napping.

📺 Watching: 28 Years Later in the cinema, Loyle Carner on Chicken Shop Date (again proving the theory that British guests work better in this format…), and this interview with Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal - a real celeb interview for the ages.

📖 Reading: This essay from Alec Leach on selling out, which unpacks why writers and creatives can’t really afford to leave brand money on the table right now, and this New Yorker article with Haim, discussing single life, relationships, and their new album.

🎧 Listening to: I quit, the new Haim album, Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers, because it turned 5 (!) this week, ‘9 2 5,’ the new Nourished By Time song, ‘Timelapse’ by Dora Jar, and ‘Hammer,’ the new Lorde single. The video comes out later today!

Lilo is here to report on the summer trend that just keeps on going: crochet. Google search data shows us that “crochet shirt” spiked every June over the last 5 years and is currently being searched more than ever this year, and “crochet set” was searched more than ever in May 2025.

If you’d like to adopt Lilo or one of her friends, click here to learn more.

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear how you’re finding Capsule - let me know here. And if you have a friend who might like it, do refer them! 🥺

See you next week 💋

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