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Capsule #83 ft. Ying-Di Yin
A late-January check in. Plus, the good bits from Men's Fashion Week and recs for your weekend
Holly Beddingfield
January 24, 2025
Hello!
Happy Friday đ«¶.
If you havenât yet seen A Real Pain, add that to your agenda this weekend. Iâve watched a few films recently and that was the best.
In todayâs issue, weâre doing a little circling back to the New Yearâs vibes and seeing how weâre getting on a few weeks later, plus highlights from Menâs Fashion Week and some recs for your weekend.
Delighted to have Ying-Di Yin on the Hot & Not! Itâs a good one.
Enjoy your weekend,
Holly x
January check inâŠ
Weâre still in January and I hope youâre keeping well. I wanted us to have a quick vibe check because itâs wild how quickly the early January renewal can shift back into normality. The first week of the year feels big, expansive, filled with opportunity. Itâs refreshing. It feels clean, almost. But it only lasts for a short bit of time, unless we intentionally return to it.
The sky on January 2nd. Taking photos of the sky is exactly the sort of thing you do in the first week of the year
In the first few days of the year, my friend asked me and other people we saw to choose a word to describe 2024. Itâs hard to pick one, of course, but the challenge was to select a word that could encompass the most dominant vibe, energy, or event of the year. Some that came up in my circle: pressure, survive, change. After settling on a word for 2024, itâs time to choose a word youâd like to take into 2025 with you. The year is yet to unfold, of course, but this is about proactively choosing a guiding principle that can help you navigate whatever lies ahead. Some words that came up: intentional, softness, confidence, balance. If you havenât done a task like this yet, I recommend it.
In the first issue of Capsule of the year, I made a point about resolutions that a few of you have said really resonated. It was this:
âEvery resolution has an inverse, and sometimes prioritising one side leaves you wanting the opposite. For example: âsay yes moreâ is the inverse of âlearn how to say no,â being more spontaneous is on the other side of being more organised and making plans, and exercising more might means you have less time for other stuff that matters to you like reading or seeing friends. This is not a bad thing, itâs just to say that feeling pulled to certain ways of living now is a good way of identifying your desires, but may not be a fixed thing. A few weeks of saying yes to everything leaves you wanting rest, and being great at the gym is all well and good until you realise you havenât read much or seen many movies this year. I find life easier to navigate when I see it as a series of ebbs and flows across different areas - topping up some cups while others falter, then switching so the pendulum can swing back a different way.â
Once youâve lived a few weeks post-resolution period, you see this play out. Like the struggle to save money and also organise a year ahead for which youâre excited, or the competing priorities of catching up with everyone you know versus carving out time for a creative hobby. (A note on that one specifically: doing stuff you find fulfilling - workouts, crafting, classic films - with friends is maybe the best way to go).
A week or so later, I saw the Google Trend data for the top trending âHow to be moreâŠâ queries in the first half of January. These were the most searched words:
Organised
Glamorous
Present
Flexible
Photogenic
Patient with kids
Romantic
Relaxed
Decisive
Frugal
I smiled, not only because lots of them are relatable, but because the inverse theory is present once more. Being more organised can be at odds with being more flexible, being more relaxed can be at odds with being more decisive, and itâs hard to be present if youâre focusing on a bunch of other things. The cycle continues.
I think then, when it comes to choosing your word for 2025, it might be good to optimise towards a feeling or way of being that can cut across a range of different priorities. The aim is not to siphon yourself off for a year, but feel more fulfilled across a variety of experiences, both challenging and joyful. I think doing so will help us bottle that early year buoyancy for a longer period.
đ If you feel compelled to share any January vibes you are feeling, please reply to this email â I would love to hear about it. đ
Next up: highlights from Menâs Fashion WeekâŠ
Behind the inauguration noise this week has been Menâs Fashion Week, in Milan and Paris. Here are three things worth seeing from the shows, to warm us up for Copenhagen and Couture next week, then fashion month in February.
Fun celeb appearances
Unless youâre super tapped in to fashion, itâs the celebrity appearances that will pull you into fashion week. And the menâs collections are no different. Our men of the moment this season: Harris Dickinson at Prada, John Turturro (Irving in Severance) on the runway at Zegna, and Will Poulter at 424.
Harris Dickinson, John Turturro, Will Poulter
And while weâre hereâŠ
Co-ed elegance
Itâs not unusual to see female models and womenswear pop up at Menâs Fashion Week, and some designers choose to present a co-ed collection. Lemaire is one of those, and the Fall 2025 collection felt elegant, quietly confident, and genuinely wearable. Elegance is something I feel is often missing from menswear â how frequently do you hear a man described as elegant? Not enough! And Lemaire is a good example of how to do it: blurring the gendered lines of silhouettes, not always trying to shout so loudly, but offering a calmness, a soft assurance that youâre comfortable in your skin (and clothes). The collection showed us what we know to be true: good fabrics, colours you trust, and layering with items from your partnerâs closet are the ingredients for feeling good in what you wear.
Lemaire Fall 2025. Sexy, elegant, confident andâŠ. no gimmicks
Little delights
First delight: boat necks. Underrated in menswear, a gorgeous way of adding a little femininity and adding an extra dimension to layering. Great versions at Prada, Giorgio Armani, and Dries Van Noten.
Prada, Giorgio Armani, Dries Van Noten
Next delight: colour combinations. The menâs collections arenât short on black, navy, and grey, but there were a few instances of really pleasant colour combos to add levity. Some favourites here from Prada, Giorgio Armani, Auralee, and Solid Homme. Loving that pale yellow and the layered lilacs.
Prada, Giorgio Armani, Auralee, Solid Homme
And the final delight: formal embellishments. Formal and corporate-adjacent looks were present at a few shows, and I was pulled to the little flourishes of personality within them. Like youâre going to the office, or a formal event, but you want to show people a little bit of who you really are. At the Fall 2025 shows, we saw boutonnieres (male corsages) at Prada and Dries Van Noten, silk neck scarves at EgonLab, and a bunch of inspiration at Auralee. I really like the little tie clip and cardigan.
Prada, Dries Van Noten, EgonLab, Auralee
Some other good bits: loved the older models at Zegna, baby tees and shorts at Acne, and 70s LA glamour at Amiri, which landed with so much more depth in the wake of the fires.
And finallyâŠ
News you may have missed from the Capsule universe this week:
People had thoughts about Melania Trumpâs look for the inauguration
Itâs celebs in Aspen season
Still enjoying the David Lynch quotes circulating online, and loved this interpretation from Margaret Qualley
Guess who Troye Sivan would want to play him in a biopic
According to Gracie Abrams and plenty others, Meta is making Instagram accounts follow @potus and @vpâŠ
Is Daniel Lee leaving Burberry for Jil Sander?
The Oscar noms are in. Enjoyed this from Jazz Charton (Kieran Culkinâs wife) and was invested in Arianaâs reaction, of course
The next Addison Rae single sounds fun
Saw this and then found out Bruno Mars just left his 13-year relationship. Thot eraâŠ
Medieval Charli xcx just dropped
And Robert Pattinson said something worth listening to
This week, Ying-Di Yin popped into Capsule to share whatâs đ„hotđ„ and whatâs not đ ââïž âŠ
Ying-Di is a London-based film curator, comms professional, producer and freelance writer. She also runs Special Projects for Girls in Film, a platform and international community for the next generation of female, trans and non-binary filmmakers.
đ„đ„đ„Hotđ„đ„đ„
Tarot readings, holidaying in Greece, drinking Guinness all year long, buying more vintage, taking mental health days, going to the cinema regularly, donating more, gua shas, feng shui your home, very dirty gin martinis, trusting your gut instinct always, wearing a helmet, speaking directly but with kindness, spending ÂŁ on experiences rather than material things, sheer tights, learning about your family history, speaking another language, Yeo's Soy Bean Drink, saunas
Hot Not⊠đ ââïžđ ââïžđ ââïž
Celebrity look-alike competitions, the word 'slayâ, gatekeeping, describing someone you're seeing as 'nice' (itâs a prerequisite), vaping, cyclists being dicks to other cyclists, being the only POC in the room đ, assuming the worst outcome, thinking that the pie is not big enough for everyone (it is!) , not doing what you actually want to do, funding and job cuts in the Arts, hating musicals with a passion, booking in a catch-up a month in advance
đș Watching: A Complete Unknown in the cinema. Plus Lola Young on Jimmy Fallon (the performance and the interview, which is funny), this amazing live performance of âlast nightâs mascaraâ by Griff (play it to get out of a funk), and this episode of the Criterion Closet with Malcolm and John David Washington (Denzelâs sons). These guys know their stuff! I noted down a bunch of recs.
đ Reading: The Addison Rae profile for Rolling Stone. Plus this newsletter from Beth McColl on being âin big troubleâ as an adult (spoiler: you canât be), and this piece about why anthropomorphism helps humanise characters (cc: Better Man and Bojack Horseman).
đ§ Listening to: Eusexua, the new FKA twigs album. Plus Jade Thirlwall on the Louis Theroux podcast, and I wonât lie to you, Iâve been listening to The Pussycat Dolls on my runs this week. Pure joy.
Tara :)
You wonât be surprised to hear that everyone is thinking about holidays this week. âhow yo use reward pointsâ and âairline pointsâ hit an all-time high on Google search this week, and we also saw top trending queries of âbudget travel tipsâ and âhow to use credit card points for travelâ. In the UK specifically, the top trending query was âhottest Canary Island in Februaryâ. Tara says hang on tight, loves, brighter days are coming.
If youâd like to adopt Tara or one of her friends, click here to learn more.
Thanks for reading! Iâd love to hear how youâre finding Capsule - let me know here. And if you have a friend who might like it, do refer them! đ„ș
See you next week đ