Capsule #87 ft. Rum Jungle

Hello hello!

Hope your week has been okay… February trudges along…

To fill this awkward little gap between NYFW and LFW, I’m here with some thoughts on a current marker of luxury: spending time offline, in the real world, rather than being terminally online. A few videos and trends have signalled to it recently, and I walk you through what I think it says about our culture at the moment.

As ever, scroll for your weekend recs, a Hot & Not with Rum Jungle, and the newsy bits you may have missed this week.

If you aren’t already, follow Capsule on Instagram for some LFW content on Stories. And then enjoy your weekend. 🖤

Holly x

If your house feels boring, interior stylist Carlotta Cisternas says in a recent video, it might be because things are too manicured - perfectly designed corners and tablescapes and not a hair out of place. To combat the sense of malaise you’re feeling about your space, Cisternas advises, you should clean it up, and here’s the revelatory bit, just live in it. Living freely in your home for a few days will give space for natural untidiness to occur - half-drunk coffee cups, candles standing in wax, stacks of books on surfaces. From here, you can introduce “pretty messes”, which are basically signs of life, but more curated: products you use everyday laid out on a tray rather than tucked away in a drawer, fruit left out in the kitchen, art on the floor leaning against the wall rather than hung. Evidence that life exists, but with intentional edits.

@carlottacisternas

surrounding yourself with stuff you love = pretty messes #mcmhome #mcmhomedecor #decortips #livedinhome #eclectichome

Cisternas is not the only interiors person turning away from perfectionism — creator Ethan Gaskill coined the trend “intentional clutter” late last year, Homes & Gardens magazine are on board, and a bunch of creators are making videos of their homes tagged #cluttercore, where intentional clutter, or pretty messes, help to show “exactly who you are”.

Another video I watched this week featured Eugene Healey, a brand strategy consultant, talking about “life after brainrot”, AKA, where we all go after following microtrends. The sort of trends, as we’ve talked about in Capsule before, that exist predominantly online, and upon spotting them out and about, as Rian Phin says, you can “tell which TikTokers they follow”.

In his post-brainrot video, Healey argues that following microtrends is “low status behaviour” (lol), because it signals to people that you spend a lot of time online. As a result, the pendulum is swinging the other way, he continues, as we enter a new era where “IRL is a status symbol”. For fashion, this means dressing more “basic” (the absence of terminally online trends, see: Emma Chamberlain’s closet clear out), and for design and architecture, it means photographing spaces with, you guess it, a bit of clutter on the surfaces. I don’t love branding anything as “low status behaviour”, but Healey has a point — evidence of life is becoming a luxury signal. But not just any life.

We also see pretty messes or intentional clutter in Instagram photo dumps, the curated-to-look-not-curated type, expertly deployed by stars like Dua Lipa, Maggie Rogers, and Iris Law. They feature a perfect cocktail of gorgeous selfies, views from windows, dishes from cult restaurants, excerpts from books, funny slogans popping up in the wild. There is often some light relief, a punchline, or resolution in the final slide. The whole thing is a mini mood board – this is who I am and this is what I like – but with some crucial messiness, the proof that this is real life. I don’t spend all my time online, they verify, I’m just popping by to show you a glimpse. 

It feels pretty dystopian that a facet of luxury is just living in our physical reality. But there’s truth to it, and not just because it’s “low brow” to scroll your phone or whatever. Many of us have jobs that require us to be online a lot of the time, reachable via Slack and email and WhatsApp, plus keeping up with news, culture, social trends, trending conversations, or whatever the latest vibe shift is. You can curtail how much you keep up, of course, but there is a cost: being perceived as unreliable or less tapped in. The knock-on impact of that has the potential to be significant (career stagnancy, unfavourable treatment), so for people striving to build a good career and livelihood, being consistently online is all part of it. I know this doesn’t apply to everyone but it’s increasingly prevalent, even in less creative/social/online sectors.

And to point out the great irony: aesthetic trends that signal to real life (intentional clutter, a capsule wardrobe) are exactly that: trends. They are as considered (if not more) than other styles, and this becomes obvious when you compare actual clutter in your house to the type you see on a Pinterest board. Ditto the gap between “no makeup makeup” and your actual face in the morning. It ultimately takes a lot of effort to curate and document a life online, even when we’re trying to hide the work. I once saw a group of friends take at least 30 photos trying to get a perfect shot of that Billie Eilish kind of “I don’t care” eye roll look. Looking unbothered isn’t easy!

I’m not hard line about taking photos and sharing stuff online, but I am sceptical of any kind of sudden statement about how to behave (or not), even when that’s a direct response to something we can agree feels fatigued. The pendulum is ever swinging; veering too far one way leaves you wanting the other. Sometimes we’ll go to a buzzy event and post on our Instagram Story there and then, some days we’ll log out of social media for a few days in the countryside, committing our reflections to a paper journal. I guess the on-trend version for today would be to go on the retreat… with a disposable camera… and post the developed photos as a dump a week later. Is that any less observed? Or just more fit for the times?

And finally…

News across fashion and pop culture you may have missed this week:

• The most iconic photo of the week

• Edward Enninful is starting a media company

• Looks like Doja Cat and Joseph Quinn are still on 

• The new Bridget Jones earned the best box office opening ever for a rom-com in the UK… go see it!!!

• A new Chappell song is coming

• The Skims/Nike collab is actually a new brand, and first impressions are good

• Saint Laurent is expanding into… sushi?

• Glasto-core: another Alexa Chung x Barbour collab

• According to a Vanity Fair lie detector test, we’re getting a part two to the Lady Gaga x Beyoncé Telephone video

• Gabbriette is the face of H&M’s new White Lotus collection

• These Petra Collins photos of Nicole Kidman are great

• And London Fashion Week kicked off with a Florence Pugh dramatic monologue at Harris Reed

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

Hailing from the coastal alleyways of Newcastle, Australia, Rum Jungle brings you gritty alt-rock anthems, heartfelt ballads, and everything in between. With pop melodies, psychedelic guitars, and chilled groove beats, the songs are fun but reflective. Their debut album Recency Bias came out this week.

📺 Watching: Nightbitch on streaming, this Architectural Digest video tour of the Bridget Jones house and, at some point today, Harris Dickinson on Chicken Shop Date. A perfect guest!

📖 Reading: This really brilliant Bad Bunny profile for The Cut, which is not just an artist interview but a thoughtful look at the history and current social issues in Puerto Rico. Plus this Vittles essay from Olivia Laing about eating poorly when you have a deadline.

🎧 Listening to: Horror, the new Bartees Strange album. Plus ‘Massachusetts’ by Jensen McRae, ‘Two Times’, the new Blondshell song, and of course that Selena x Gracie song.

Between Bel Bowley at the BAFTA afterparty and photos like these, it looks like twisted buns are the next hairstyle to add to your inspo list for a bit of extra effort on the weekend. Bubbles approves, she thinks you’ll look cute.

If you’d like to adopt Bubbles 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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