Capsule #1 ft. Casi Stewart Strasser

Hello hello!

Welcome to Capsule!!! This is a newsletter for people who love talking about fashion, pop culture, and the internet. It’s also for people who struggle to keep up with the pace of being online, and the fatigue of endless scrolling.

The aim is simple: to capture a week in a day. I like to think if we were to dig up an old issue in a few year’s time, we’d be transported back through a haze of memes, cult products, and articles reminding us what filled our thoughts and chats. What still matters today? What was a fleeting trend?

Here’s what you can expect each week:

• Open tabs: The links you’ll love but don’t get time for

• Adding to queue: What to read, watch, and listen to this weekend

• Guest feature: A friend of Capsule pops by to share what’s hot and what’s not

• Culture clairvoyant: We invite a very special oracle to predict the trends of the future

Big love, and thank you for being an early reader!

Holly

P.s. if you’re not already following us on Instagram, consider this a formal invitation 💌 

Spending more time than normal thinking about…

Perfume. In celeb gossip world, it is widely understood that Rihanna smells amazing, and the investigative work of tracking down her fragrance is taken very seriously. But these days the cult of perfume is a little different - less about having the on-trend cologne, and more about smelling like ‘yourself’ (that is, if you smell delightful, and seductive… but natural). In this piece, NYLON and the Digi Fairy unpack the era of signature scent - from pheromone perfumes and vabbing (look it up!), to creating your own scents at home. I’m still at the coating-yourself-with-Diptyque at the airport stage of fragrance, which I think leaves much room for growth.

Glad I made time for…

The Vintage Furniture Flea pop up market in Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton. Did I buy anything? Not this time. Did I feel pleased with myself for getting up early on a Sunday morning and getting a feel for what some stuff looks like IRL, after usually scrolling on eBay? Yes. And that’s why it was a win. Keep an eye out for the next pop up.

Pleased to see…

Another well-dressed celeb selling off her clothes in a pop up sale. This time it’s Jemima Kirke of Girls fame, whose pre-loved items will be at the Caron Callahan studio in Brooklyn this weekend. Last month, we saw Chloe Sevigny sell clothes from her excellent wardrobe to “lighten the load on the road of life”. It’s a massive vote of confidence for secondhand fashion, and while most of it is special designer stuff most of us will never afford, it shows that vintage is the moment.

Intrigued by… 

The Pear ring. Have you seen this? I’m talking about the Tiffany-turquoise rubbery ring from Pear, a startup calling itself “the world’s biggest social experiment”. The premise is simple: wearing the ring shows you are single. Considering 3 in 4 single people in the UK would prefer to meet a future partner in real life, it makes sense. But is talking to someone without an early signal really so bad? I’m yet to see one of these IRL but believe me I’m looking.

Finally caved on…

A good quality SPF, after seeing this viral TikTok about how much your skin is exposed to harmful rays on a plane. My friends in New York recently enlightened me on this Trader Joe’s dupe of the Supergoop ‘unseen sunscreen’, and if you’re hot on SPF specifics, this article will help you find if a cheaper version is right for you.

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

Casi is a stylist and founder of Kismet, a personal styling business. She also recently went viral on TikTok for using a certain theme song at her wedding…

📺 Watching: Chimp Empire on Netflix, because it felt wholesome and right in the wake of the New York smoky air.

📖Reading: Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey. The orange book you’re seeing all the girls reading in the park is actually worth the hype.

🎧 Listening to: The new Janelle Monae album, because the promo was too good, and nepo daddy Rob Grant, out of respect for Lana.

We asked Teddy about the fashion that’s been inspiring him lately. He’s actually been thinking lots about hats, not least because it’s festival season and hair washing is long. He predicts that bowler hats will make a comeback in the future, tapping into that certain Alexa-Chung-dating-Alex-Turner aesthetic. And now he’s sad again that the Big Topshop on Oxford Street is closed.