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- Capsule #116 ft. Rachel Connolly
Capsule #116 ft. Rachel Connolly
Helping you get dressed for autumn plus some news.
Holly Beddingfield
October 03, 2025
Hello hello,
I hope you all had a great week!
This week has been a big one: I went to the Mayhem Ball (insane), Taylor Swift dropped a new album (highs and lows), and Paris fashion week has been somewhat impossible to keep up with. I hope we’re all taking a moment to unwind this weekend!
The news for you is this: all being well, from next week I’ll be sending Capsule from Substack. I have loved using Beehiiv, my current platform, but I want to focus on two things moving forward: connecting with you all more, and growing the newsletter. I put a lot into Capsule each week and think the network and community on Substack would be a great place for it to flourish in its next phase. I’m excited to chat to you in the comments, share recommendations with each other, and be able to get to know you all a little better. I love doing this and I want to keep doing it, but growing the readership is a vital part to keeping it all going. 🫶
Housekeeping: if you have referred a friend to the newsletter so far and not claimed your gift, now is your time to do so! You can either check back in your inbox for an email from me, or reply directly to this and we can sort it together. The referrals won’t carry over to Substack.
I also want to introduce Circe Hughes who will be supporting me with some Capsule bits moving forwards (you might recognise the name form the Lena Dunham Too Much issue). Social media is her speciality but she’s also one of those people with good taste who just gets it. If you need a film to watch or a restaurant to dine at she’s your girl. And she is not impressed with the new Taylor Swift album today I will say!!!
She’s also a perfume girl if you ever need that
And one final thing: today we are bidding farewell to Culture Clairvoyant, the final section of the newsletter. It has been fun using little dog mascots to share trend forecasts but feedback shows that many of you struggle to get to it, and I think the best insights could be better placed elsewhere. Goodbye puppies!!!
I think that’s everything. Today’s issue has some autumn outfit inspiration for you!
Enjoy it, and chat soon!
Holly x
⋆. 𐙚 ˚ Autumnal outfits 🍂˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚☕️
The below outfits fit into the category I like to think of as ‘looking good enough and nicely styled that you can wear it anywhere’. Whether you have work, a nice dinner, or your friend’s birthday drinks at the pub, they will hold up. You can leave the house at 12pm to run errands or read in a coffee shop and know that you’ll be fine in your outfit for whatever you fancy doing at 8pm.
You’ll notice a couple of shoe recommendations from schuh, who we’ve partnered with this week. We attended their supper club (more here!) and got to see the new collection, which I can really vouch for. The leather is so lovely and affordable.
Little red riding boot
Covering most of your legs with a knee-high sock and a riding boot? Absolutely yes. Wearing a little red knitted bandana as a nod to Red Riding Hood? Also yes. Making the effort to iron a shirt with a lovely collar? You’re worth it. And that green Baggu never let us down.
Links: Shirt (& Other Stories), knitted bandana (Free People), skirt (Aligne), bag (Baggu), boots (schuh), knee-high socks (Calzedonia)
Lace slip and jeans (but also a jumper)
If you haven’t yet ventured into trying a dress or skirt over jeans, autumn is actually a great time to do so, as you might feel more like yourself if you throw a jumper on too. It just seems to help. Marissa Lepps does it so well here, and it’s wild how much that little slither of lace elevates the look.
Links: Jumper (Damson Madder), slip dress (Intimissi), jeans (Levis’s), bag (Free People), boots (Miista)
Layered tops
Layered tops are everywhere and I’m such a fan BUT I have noticed them to be a bit overpriced for what they really are. That’s why we’re going to make our own. I also saw these slip on leather boots at schuh this week and can really vouch for the quality.
Links: Pink top (Organic Basics), brown top (Gap), skirt (Arket), bag (Parfois), boots (schuh)
Checkered midi and retro sport jacket
Call it a kilt or call it a midi skirt, either way you’ll find them in so many shops right now (and they very easy to source second hand!). I think this sort of skirt looks best balanced out with something less formal on top, like a retro-style track jacket or sweatshirt. Add a black trainer with a white sock and you’re ready to stomp around all weekend.
Links: Track jacket (Urban Outfitters), skirt (Superdry via ASOS), bag (Bellroy), trainers (Nike), socks (Calzedonia)
Jeans and a nice top
It truly is jeans and a nice top season… All those Virgo and Libra birthdays… The dinners… The drinks… There’s only one solution. Before it becomes deep dark winter, I think it’s nice to keep the bandanas going a while longer. Add a leather bag and ballet flat and you’re formal enough for these nice occasions.
Links: Top (& Other Stories), barrel jeans (Mango), glasses (Jimmy Fairly), bandana (Free People), bag (Massimo Dutti), leather ballerinas (schuh)
And finally…
News from the Capsule universe this week:
Jonathan Anderson’s Dior debut was just very lovely. There’s a bunch of references to dig into (like this and this), but the mini skirts did it for me
Also please look at his face after 🥲
Rosalía looking great as per
The Saint Laurent girls dressed like the nights at Glasto
And the sunglasses are big again
The best a wedding guest has ever looked?
And on weddings: Selena’s custom Ralph Lauren dress if you are so inclined
I guess the apple don't fall far from the tree!
Rumours of a “British Met Gala” popped up this week and then it was confirmed to be an India-themed event at the British Museum. The comments on @dietparatha give you a sense of the reception…
There have been so many feathers at fashion week. Here are the most lively ones so far
Best dressed queen of the week
Thought it was kind of brave for this young man to give his album the same name as Beyoncé’s masterpiece 👀
Getting the feeling Lorde’s already writing new music
And in this newsletter, we celebrate Aimee Lou Wood becoming the face of Chloé
This week, Rachel Connolly popped into Capsule to share what’s 🔥hot🔥 and what’s not 🙅♀️ …
Rachel is a novelist and critic. Her first novel Lazy City won a Betty Trask Award.
🔥🔥🔥Hot🔥🔥🔥
Cold days with no rain, second hand Armani (when he died I realised I have more than 10 such jackets, who else does it like that!), Felix Higham’s paintings, Belfast, Grace Paley’s short stories, my boyfriend’s restaurant and bar recommendation lists, always impeccable, a single anchovy on a piece of baguette with some butter, Wes Baggaley’s DJ sets, my friend Brian O’Flynn’s 14 minute voice notes in which he explains everything in the entire world in the most entertaining prose you have ever heard, so funny I re-listen to them like soundtracks while I get dressed for nights out, New Work (the readings night I co host, I promise you only the best writing, strictly no pop social justice explainers in dialogue, and the best vibes), talent/originality, Cynar, Rome, Austin Butler, a rare genuinely sexy contemporary actor, random months of sobriety, weeks or months off social media
Hot Not… 🙅♀️🙅♀️🙅♀️
Parasocial relationships, the words “my mother” in short stories and essays (indicative almost always of trash writing and a fussy, hectoring world view), heteropessimism/fatalism/men are trash, professional misogyny (grow up) , posting dating stories all over social media (grow up), vlogging in general, fast fashion, buying new clothes in general, quitting therapy in a month because you’ve “completed it”. The people around you deserve better!, grasping or grifting behaviour (tiresome/boring), didactic BIG MESSAGE novels/films/plays (causing the decline of civilisation), social justice explainers in dialogue in such novels/films/plays (likewise), those flip flop heels (you all have horrible feet and they and should be bared as little as possible, sorry)
📺 Watching: Urchin in the cinema. Also returning to the Lady Gaga Coachella performance after seeing the incredible Mayhem Ball this week 🥲, and this video from Maia Zine on why you hate everything in your closet (and how to fix it). Finally, if anyone still has the appetite for Hayley Williams talking about her solo work (and everything else), this is for us.
📖 Reading: The Laura Snapes Taylor Swift review is worth reading. Also Emma Garland on the Oasis reunion shows (life-affirming), this piece of advice for creative people (monthly reminder), and this essay on getting a landline phone to speak to your friends (honestly could be a shout). I saw this two days after telling my family I wanted a landline in case of emergencies!
🎧 Listening to: Of course strapping in for The Life of a Showgirl, the new Taylor Swift album which is out today, plus Welcome to My Blue Sky, the Momma album, and The Eldest Daughter, the new Gatlin album. The eldest daughters are everywhere rn!!!
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 💋