Capsule #25 ft. Daisy Jones

Hiii everyone,

Happy Thanksgiving to our US babies 🫂 

A quick note on Black Friday: if it’s not a hell yes it’s a no, if you’re tempted to splurge, wait a little before actually buying to see if the idea sticks, and finally, let this panic be a signal for shifting how you approach shopping in future. It helps to have a note in your phone of things you think you want. Sit on it for a while and return to it when you can afford to if the desire is still there. We’ll talk more on shopping habits in the future…

In today’s issue, we’re throwing out some old fashion rules that suck, flirting with red hair dye and listening to some wisdom from Alexa Chung.

Writer Daisy Jones is also here to share her Hot & Not with you. This one is super exciting, and you should go and read some of Daisy’s writing after this. Her recent work for British Vogue has been bang on the money about so much, especially on drinking, tricking your brain to alter bad feelings, and embracing your flop era.

All love, and thank you for reading!

Holly

On clothes that do nothing for you

So much of the fashion “advice” from the 90s and 00s (and the current day in lots of places) revolves around choosing clothes that accentuate the ‘good’ aspect of your figure and hide the ‘bad’ bits. Many of us grew up with an awareness of categories like ‘apple’ and ‘pear’, we knew ‘hourglass’ was sexy but less high fashion, and that certain looks could only be sported if you had long legs. Let’s actually just bury those customs for good, and give a moment of praise for clothes that do nothing for you. No worries about waist accentuation. No hiding the squishy bits of our arms. No avoiding colours that attract attention for being loud. Indianna Kent shows it well below:

indiannakent

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That’s not to say it’s not okay to have colours and fabrics and silhouettes we love - in fact, these comfort zones are often the route to joy in getting dressed and help us feel like ourselves. But the rules we inherited from bygone conventions shouldn’t be taken for gospel, especially if they are deterring you from wearing something you secretly love, but think is only for other people. There is sometimes no greater delight than wearing a big jumper, a long skirt, and your hair pulled back. Be free and let the fabric swaddle you! 

Abandoning another convention…

We’re so accustomed to looking at young creatives for inspiration and we know that highly visual industries like fashion, beauty, and entertainment have a weird obsession with youth. But at the moment, we’re seeing so many examples of older people just looking incredibly chic or bringing us a rebellious-yet-settled energy that makes ageing seem so fun.

Let’s begin with André 3000, who has just released a woodwind album, the first song on which is titled: ‘I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time.’ As told to GQ: “It actually feels…sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way. I’m 48 years old.” This is a man who is wedded to his creative practice, feeling his way forwards, not clinging on to a passed youth even though it would likely be a commercial hotbed. And he looks incredible doing it - the glasses, the overalls, the grey hair peeking out of the beanie. People talk about “knowing yourself” more as you age, and this is a lovely vignette of just that.

Next up is Maggie Smith, who is the latest face of Loewe at 88 years old. In a move not dissimilar to Celine’s Joan Didion campaign, this is a middle finger to Botox culture and touched up photos; the visible signs of ageing are what make it special. As Tom said to me, it’s been a while since a celeb campaign seemed to garner so much love, particularly among young people. I wish more brands knew that young people don’t just want to look at other young people.

And finally, Dolly Parton. To be fair this woman hasn’t taken a single day off in about five decades (make your own 9-5 joke there), but her new album Rockstar feels like peak fun. 30 songs, mostly classic rock covers, and collabs with the industry’s biggest names: Stevie Nicks, Sting, Paul McCartney. Is it a musical masterpiece? Nope. Is it pretty much a karaoke album? Yes. Will it save a lacklustre party at 11:30pm with a woman brave enough to discard the experimental Spotify queue? Absolutely. Again, this is an example of getting older, choosing to do what makes you feel good, and owning it. Also yesterday she performed at the Dallas Cowboys halftime show dressed as a cheerleader. Godspeed, queen.

If you’re feeling a bit bored…

It really feels like red hair is the way to go. Once you look for it, you’ll notice the Dula Peep red popping up more and more on the streets, and rightly so. Particularly with a black leather coat, it just works. Also extremely fun with a red lip, à la Zendaya circa 2019. For further inspo, look at Lily Allen, Marj Moore, Ciara Gan, and Barbie Ferreira (circa 2021).

And finally…

Alexa Chung turned 40 a couple of weeks ago and kindly shared 40 pearls of wisdom with British Vogue to mark the occasion. I’m curious to know what you think - there’s definitely a mix of “life is beautiful and freeing in these ways” plus the type of fashion rules we allude to above - “don’t do this if you look like this”. I’ll let you read the full list here, but here are five highlights: 

• Your friends will be one of the great romances of your life. I spent a lot of my 30s – a lot of my life, to be honest – preoccupied with romantic entanglements and the pursuit of everlasting, undying love. During that time, and the heartbreak I both endured and delivered, I am grateful to have had the luxury of friends I could spill my guts to and vice versa. I was once so heartbroken I had a spontaneous nosebleed in a Mexican restaurant when my friend asked me, “How are you?” The point is: the people who nurse you through the great loves of your life are the great loves of your life! You are not without love.

• New accessories can revolutionise a tired wardrobe. Bored of your coat? Tie a belt or a scarf around it. Sick of your shoes? Consider a weird colour sock – red, white or ribbed grey are my favourites. Boring shirt? What does it look like with a turtleneck under it or teamed with a nice bra and barely done up? Dull sweater? Add a brooch or anything else a magpie might enjoy, such as thrifted, ridiculous clip-on earrings. In the same way you can strong-arm pasta into tasting delicious by slathering it in cheese, never overlook the power of a well-applied accessory.

• I used to live in fear of seeming stupid if I didn’t know something. One of the most rewarding things I have come to know is that nothing bad happens if you say, “I don’t understand what you mean.”

• How you decorate your home is up to you, and social media trends are an expensive trap. You have your best taste.

• If I’m staying somewhere strange and want to make it feel like home, I hang my dresses on the walls like paintings.

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

Daisy is a writer, editor and author of the book All the Things She Said. Formerly Senior Editor at VICE, she now writes for GQ, British Vogue and the Guardian among others.

📺 Watching: Escaping Twin Flames, a three-part Netflix doc that looks at a cult-like dating empire hinged around finding your ‘twin flame’. A good watch for anyone getting too introspective over cuffing season...

📖 Reading: Daisy’s articles for British Vogue, plus Patricia Lockwood on meeting the pope for the London Review of Books.

🎧 Listening to: André 3000’s flute album as mentioned (🥹), and the Britney episode of the Celebrity Memoir Book Club podcast, which is ideal whether or not you’ve read the book yourself. It’s nice to listen to two comedians go off on father Spears.

On his regular TikTok scroll, Elton stumbled on this video predicting that boxing shoes will transition from a micro trend to a macro trend over the next year or so. As a big Rocky fan, Elton felt excited. And not only are boxing shoes comfortable for traversing the city, they make great dancing shoes too…

If you’d like to adopt Elton 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, please forward on 🥺

See you next week 💋