Capsule #103 ft. Salad Days Market

Hello hello!

Thank you for allowing me a break to be at Glastonbury last week!!! I’m exhausted but my cup is full. More on that later. Also happy 4th to those of you in the US :)))

I was on the fence about doing a post-Glasto issue on the grounds of literally-who-cares but then a few readers said they were looking forward to it and I simply had to oblige. I’ve tried to come at it in a way that holds value for all of us, whether at the festival or not.

And also a big hello to our new subscribers! Capsule was recommended in a Reddit thread recently and it’s been so nice to see new faces pop up!! Welcome!!

Enjoy your weekends,

Holly x

P.S. This issue is quite long! If you’re not seeing it all click ‘read online’ in the top corner. I don’t want you to miss the Hot & Not from the Salad Days girls or the recommendations for your weekend 🫶.

To let you into a secret that makes me sound extremely annoying, I wasn’t super hyped for Glastonbury this year. I put that down to a few things: some stuff going on in my personal life adding pressure all around, a busy run-up period making all the preparation feel too much, and a general sense that I already knew what the festival would feel like (which I had summarised as “some great bits obviously but some hard bits too”). I’d jumped a million steps ahead before even arriving, and focused on the problems that needed solving and the aspects that would feel challenging.

We spend our lives repeatedly learning the same lessons over and over, vowing to remember those epiphanies in future. This is another one of those, because what happened in response to feeling lacklustre about an event was enjoyment on a scale way beyond my normal realm.

I’m not going to bore you with a blow-by-blow of what happened but I do want to share some core themes and experiences that feel worth airing, because they were unexpected and actually the most impactful when I look back. Come on the journey!!!

1. On being offline

The days at Glastonbury felt so big, so open, and so long. That might be due to the sheer daylight of the summer solstice period, and how tricky it is to sleep in a tent in the heat. But I don’t think that’s the only thing. With phone battery conservation as a top priority, I was forced to use my phone for either a) absolute necessities, or b) as a little treat. This is wildly different to my phone usage at home. I rarely miss an Instagram post from a star I follow, and I catch 95% of online “moments” as they happen. I tell myself this is for work, and it is, but it’s way more than that. It’s a compulsion, an addiction, a way of life that blocks certain thoughts from flowering into something more.

My phone battery is terrible at the best of times, and a couple of the portable chargers we brought turned out to be broken, which meant I had to be stricter than usual. I had to physically stop myself from scrolling and spend a lot of time on airplane mode. Doing so made me realise just how much of my normal life is lived online: the culture I consume is mostly digital - Instagram for updates, Spotify for music, Pinterest for inspiration, the conversations I have take place on messaging apps, and the number little tasks I complete online (a grocery order, a birthday reminder, repeat ordering my SPF or magnesium) vastly outweigh my IRL errands (ad-hoc dry cleaner visits, a trip to M&S for the specific bits I like).

The resulting experience felt like crawling back to an earlier self but with a more appreciative mindset. At 28, I remember my life before smartphones and I remember what it felt like to spend long days with friends, pre-working life, pre-bills to pay, pre-general responsibility. To experience a period of this once you’re on the other side of it all is really special, and the most compelling push I’ve experienced so far to reassess my phone usage. I think we’ll come back to this!

2. On Lorde

In an interview with Rolling Stone in May, Lorde talked about doing things that made her feel like a teenager, like listening to music in headphones, laying on the grass in Hampstead Heath, and trying a cigarette. Last Friday morning I also felt like a teenager again when I pulled up to the Woodsies tent at Glastonbury at 8:45am (!) to wait for a Lorde performance that would start at 11:30am. I knew from my scarcely allotted screen time that she would be there, and made it a non-negotiable (I recommend you only have 1-2 of these per day max).

The waiting hours were both sweet and unhinged. Other fans started to gather and we did nice things like get coffees for each other. My friend brought me an incredible breakfast bap. Another Lorde-curious friend sat with me and asked me to just Explain Lorde, so I did. A dad arrived with his two daughters and spent the time reiterating the ways in which they would all keep safe in the crowd. And then about an hour before the performance, everyone charged forward in a Lion King-style stampede to get a spot in the tent. Sprinting as an adult is not the same as when you are younger… But I secured a spot on the barrier, and felt both pleased (this would literally never happen again) and embarrassed (I’m 30 next year).

Before Lorde came out I focused on the set design. Clear polythene created an unfinished curtain backdrop, and the stage was also plastic wrapped. Some people wondered if this would be pulled off for the performance to reveal something more ornate, but weeks of following pre-album interviews meant I knew it was intentional. The ‘colour’ of Virgin, the new album, is clear - hence the x-rays, silver clothing, and images of mirrors. The point is stripping things back and seeing them for what they really are, trying to create something real.

Lorde appeared in a white t-shirt, white jeans, and a few little silver accessories. It gave me the same feeling as when you show up to an event wearing an outfit that makes you feel exactly like yourself, even if a little underdressed. For the girls who don’t do dresses and heels but make effort in a different, more sentimental way.

As for the music, she played Virgin front to back, for the first and possibly last time. The first two songs - ‘Hammer’ and ‘What Was That’ - are already hits. The crowd bounced, and many of us wept. Seeing an artist you admire play songs you love and being overcome with emotion is also something that used to happen to me much more as a teenager. At the Lorde show it was there in buckets, and I was surprised when it continued during songs I had never heard before.

It is extremely rare for your first listen of an album happen to happen live. I think the tears continued to flow because the format forced me to really focus on the lyrics, to try and understand what this project was all about, and to be taken by total surprise each time a sonic shift happened. It felt like being let in on a secret, shielded from the tweets and reviews and all the other noise you face with a normal release. The songs I remembered most from the live set a few days later were ‘Shapeshifter,’ ‘Favourite Daughter,’ ‘Broken Glass,’ and ‘GRWN,’ and when I listened to them in headphones this week, the album felt like a space that I could use to continually return to myself. Worth the early get up after all.

3. On being a grown up

I said to my friend a little bashfully that this was the first Glastonbury where I felt like a proper adult woman. My own person, a grown up. I’m 28, that should have happened years ago, right? But for whatever reason I think a lot of us can agree that our late 20s bring with us a genuine shift, a realisation that life is happening here now and it’s ours for the taking. We understand that if we don’t live on our own terms now, we might never get to it. Call it a Saturn return or just what it feels like to grow up, but the result is a powerful, confidence boosting turn towards our desires. What if it genuinely just keeps on getting better?

4. On fashion

I thought about taking photos of people’s outfits for you while I was there but I decided against it because in certain environments it felt invasive, and I wanted to allow myself some proper headspace. Luckily there were some strong recurring themes! The girls were wearing: micro shorts, low slung waist belts, denim jorts, baby tees, slogan tees and shorts, biker boots, walking boots, Salomons, Adidas shorts, chunky silver chains, crocheted dresses, slinky off the shoulder jersey dresses, bikini tops, push up bras, sheer skirts, lace trousers, cowboy hats, novelty bucket hats, FROG HATS, oversized furry hats (even in the heat), safari hats, slogan caps, coloured 70s glasses, small brown and black 90s sunglasses, sparkly and metallic things, and fleeces from outdoor brands.

As for the stars, there was a lot of great British fashion, as is tradition. See the Capsule roundup here.

5. On making effort

One thing you cannot fight people on about Glastonbury is how much effort it is to go. It’s extremely difficult to get tickets. You have to be able to carry everything you’ll need for five days on your back. The site is enormous and tackling it means trebling your regular step count each day. Sets and stages reach capacity so you have to plan ahead if you’re invested. Food lines at peak times can be 30+ minutes. It’s a lot!

And yet what you don’t realise when you’re anticipating these difficulties, or struggling with them in real time, is that the effort you put in comes back to you twice over. I genuinely think the amount of fun you’re able to have in this circumstance is a reward for all the effort put in - both by attendees and from the festival organisers and staff for making it happen. It’s wild what they pull off on a literal farm for a week. I guess the lesson here is to not be afraid of things that require a lot of upfront work from you. Not every trip or weekend needs to feel like this, obviously, but when you’re offered opportunities that do, flirt with saying yes and taking it on, and watch the rewards come floating back to you.

And finally…

News from the Capsule universe:

• Trust Anna Wintour to step down on the week Capsule takes a break! She’ll still oversee all things Condé Nast, I think it’s good to pass the baton before people are begging you to do so, and her first ever cover is worth a revisit

• Jonathan Anderson showed his first collection for Dior men. Loved this detail from his invitations

• Alexa Chung is selling her clothes on Vinted to raise money for Endometriosis UK

• A peak Dua Lipa travelling photo dump

• Denise Welch should have been the Glastonbury Apple girl

• That free flowing festival energy made Gracie Abrams and Paul Mescal go public with their relationship

• Speaking of which, this is so sweet

• Here’s Olivia Rodrigo in Manchester (my hometown 🥲) wearing a Damson Madder dress that’s still in stock

• Khloe is the next Kardashian-Jenner to share details of her cosmetic work

• Rhode made another accessory to hold a lip gloss (swipe right)

• Addison and Lana performed Diet Pepsi together in London

• And Miley got her star on the walk of fame 🌟

This week, Daisy and Liv from Salad Days Market popped into Capsule to share what’s 🔥hot🔥 and what’s not 🙅‍♀️ …

Salad Days Market is an award-winning markets market run by twin sisters Daisy and Liv. They host monthly pop-up markets every month in South London showcasing the UK's most talented up-and-coming small brands and makers. Their next market is on 5th & 6th July at Gipsy Hill Brewery Taproom (where they've just created on their own beer which will be available to drink at the market!).

📺 Watching: The Glastonbury sets (here is a cheeky link to Doechii), this video of Lena Dunham on the advice she’d give to people in their 20s, this sweet video of the woman behind the stage outfits for Blossoms, and Lorde on Fashion Neurosis.

📖 Reading: This photo diary of George Daniel’s dh2 takeover at Glastonbury, and a few Melissa Febos interviews in the wake of her new book, The Dry Season, including this one on the unexpected joys and sexiness of celibacy, and this Interview mag chat with Emily Ratajkowski.

🎧 Listening to: Virgin, the new Lorde album in full, Blush, the new Kevin Abstract album, and ‘The Field,’ the new Blood Orange song. Listen out for the Caroline Polachek vocals!

It seems being offline is not just on the minds of festival goers! Some intel for you, delivered by Poppadom: Google search interest in “landline mode” broke out in the past month and is at an all-time high, “social media cleanse” rose +130% in the past month, and “social media detox” hit an all-time high in 2025, “nokia brick phone” spiked +190% in the past month, and “how to break my phone addiction” was a breakout search. Tis the season to log off…

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

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See you next week 💋

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