Capsule #99 ft. BEEFCAKE

Hello hello,

I’m sure we can all agree that the year 2025 is literally flashing before our eyes… It’s almost summer… How…!

With that in mind, this week’s newsletter is a fun one, and a chance to decide exactly what kind of summer you are planning to have. Excited to see your responses.

Have a gorgeous long weekend,

Holly x

P.s. click ‘read online’ at the top if your newsletter gets clipped 🥲

⋆｡𖦹 °.🐚⋆❀˖° What kind of summer are you having? 𖤓 ｡𖦹°‧ ⋆☀︎.

Spring is almost over (fastest season ever???) which begs the question: what kind of summer are we having?

There are a few vibes in the air at the moment. Some of us are feeling reflective. Some of us are having our teenage years a second time around. Some of us are just trying to get to a beach, literally any beach.

Below are a few different frameworks for summer living, inspired by the pop stars of our times.

1. Lorde summer

Of course there’s more to be revealed when the album comes out, but Lorde has given us much to chew on in her recent interviews in terms of setting a philosophy for the summer. Lorde summer is about finding yourself again after a breakup, or just after a weird few years. It will manifest in reflective moments by yourself in nature, or finding festivals to be “profound”. It is Lime biking everywhere, aware of the wind running through your hair. It is making a ritual of running yourself a bath. It’s coming off birth control and feeling more in touch with yourself. It is reading literature written by women (Sheila Heti, Annie Ernaux, Rachel Cusk). It’s exploring your sexuality and gender identity. It’s feeling like a teenager but knowing you are not. Lorde summer is saying “this is the best cigarette of my life” about absolutely anything.

2. Brat summer 2.0

It’s a lot like Brat summer the first time around except it has a bit more self awareness. It’s about knowing you’ve stayed at the party a bit too long but being cool with it because at least you considered your decision. It’s feeling pangs of broodiness but loving your weekends as they are and reminding yourself that two things can be true at once and it will figure itself out. It’s about going to day parties and shutting down conversations about it being “weird to be raving in daylight”. It’s about being unbothered about having greasy hair (but also spending Sundays doing your curly girl routine). It’s about wearing micro shorts, because you’ll never be this young again. It’s making spontaneous plans. It’s leaving the house with low phone battery. It is, of course, wearing sunglasses 24/7.

Last week I asked you all how you were feeling about Brat these days, and:

• 44% of you said you were over it, but a bunch of you clarified that was in response to the brands cashing in on it

• 21% said you were here for the music but not the other bits

• And 19% said long may it continue

Let’s see how it all lands a second summer around…

3. Addison Rae summer

Addison Rae summer is about the playful and the innocent. It’s randomly dying your hair pink because you are bored. It’s spending long journeys or long walks with your headphones on, feeling dramatic. It is of course sipping Diet Pepsi. It’s getting a weird, regrettable tattoo. It’s treating getting dressed like dipping into your dressing up box as a kid. It’s wearing a cute little hair clip. It’s smiling a lot, and being cool with the fact that people think they know you, but they don’t really. It’s seeing your life as a love affair with yourself, and knowing you’re just getting started.

4. Dua Lipa summer

This is for the true summer girls, the ones who strive to bring summer energy all year round. As the old adage goes, it’s always sunny somewhere. Dua Lipa summer is of course, about travel. It is the desire to explore new places. If you’re loaded and don’t have to work, you might literally go to 12 countries. And if you can’t do that, you carry that spirit into exploring hidden gems in your own country, making the most of every weekend you have, pausing to take snapshots of the little details other people miss. Dua Lipa summer is about committing to eating the cuisine of the place you’re in, and treating such a practice with utmost respect. It is about drinking cocktails. It is reading books and also having books as accessories. It is enjoying a cigarette with your boyfriend. It is not having FOMO, but being a distributer of FOMO to other people.

5. Zendaya summer

Zendaya summer is lowkey but luxe. Famously private but obviously having a wonderful time behind the scenes (you don’t glow like that when you’re sad). This is about being confident enough to have a boyfriend taller than you. It’s about being with a nice man full stop. It’s about hanging out with your dog. It’s not making many public appearances, but looking incredible when you do. It’s about trying new hobbies even if you suck, and just enjoying doing new and creative things with your hands. It’s about not trying to prove anyone wrong but just being present in your own life. Kind of blissful…

6. HAIM summer

This year’s iteration of HAIM summer is grounded in having a realisation that something has been weighing you down. It might of course be a relationship. But it could be something else. Either way, you’re drawn towards running away, escapism, and starting anew. You’re catching flights. You’re striving for freedom with your new-found clarity. You’re bringing your friends along for the ride. But a couple things are keeping your feet firmly planted on the ground: your appetite for millennial culture in all of its neon sign, matching outfits, and meme glory, plus your excellent taste in furniture. And when everything gets a bit too much, because it will, you focus on one thing: putting one foot in front of the other. The rest will follow.

7. Miley Cyrus summer

The fun thing about Miley summer is that the vibe is different every year. This year, a Miley summer is a sober one. It’s waking up feeling joyful that you didn’t ruin your day the night before. It’s being selective about what work you take on, respecting your health and your capacity (Miley recently said she physically can’t handle a world tour anymore). Similarly, it’s choosing not to be accessible to everyone, not telling everyone everything, because you don’t have to. It’s dressing for the mood you’re in and not the occasion you have, AKA believing there’s no such thing as being over or under dressed. It’s having a lover people don’t fully understand but being cool with that because you get it. And, importantly, it’s having an exceptional sunglasses collection.

And finally…

News from the Capsule universe this week:

• Pierpaolo Piccioli, who was at the helm of Valentino from 2008-2024, is the next creative director at Balenciaga

• Fun Dua Lipa news: a cover of Nena’s ‘99 Luftballons’ for the Hamburg show

• The Lorde Met Gala look was an Easter egg for this new single

• Cannes menswear moments worth seeing: Pedro Pascal just absolutely serving, and Alexander Skarsgård in the YSL leather thigh high boot

• Skims nipple bras now come with piercings 

• Malia Obama dyed her hair and it looks great

• Suddenly The Hunger Games is appealing again

• Jennifer Lawrence and Hailey Bieber both opened up about having kids

• Speaking of: what a lovely pregnancy announcement

• And everyone’s talking about Sentimental Value, the new Joachim Trier film that just debuted at Cannes

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

BEEFCAKE are an audio-visual duo based in London, made up of Dora, a singer-songwriter, and Nuch, a visual artist.

📺 Watching: Overcompensating on Prime Video, this Mina Le video essay on one of the fashion industry’s biggest failures: poorly fitting clothes, and the Miley Cyrus Zane Lowe interview, which is great.

📖 Reading: If the Labubu craze took you by surprise, this article explains what’s going on. And on a totally different tone, the poet Alice Notley passed this week. Poems worth your time: ‘April Not an Inventory but a Blizzard’ and ‘At Night the States.’

🎧 Listening to: If You Asked For A Picture, the new Blondshell album, ‘Elderberry Wine’ by Wednesday, and the Cat Cohen episode of Disgraceful with Grace O’Malley.

Elvis has noticed coloured mascara popping up more and more: blues, purples, greens, reds. If you’re already a fan of brown you might be ready to take it one step further. Some inspiration from this week: Dua Lipa at her Hamburg shows.

If you’d like to adopt Elvis or one of his 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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