Capsule #33 ft. Meena Alexander

Hello hello,

Hope you are all feeling okay! I’m so pleased we’re going into the weekend. What a blessing.

In this week’s issue, there’s some chat on the cultural weathervane that is Schiaparelli, a look at some recent, excellent all-white looks, and analysis of the rise of the mob wife aesthetic. We also talk about ‘observation journalling’, and share some solid recs for your weekend ahead.

Plus the lovely Meena Alexander shares her Hot & Not with us. 🛀 

We also started a fun new Instagram feature called Chic of the Week. It’s exactly what you’d expect: an award for someone who dresses wonderfully presented in the form of an IG post. Can you guess who got the inaugural prize? Do follow us over there to keep up with the competition…

Holly x

Couture Week!

Schiaparelli, along with maybe Loewe, is the designer brand of the moment. They create some of the most avant-garde, memorable looks for red carpets, propelling their muses to best-dressed lists (or at least most talked about). And the Schiaparelli Couture Show has become a bit of a weathervane for where we’re at as a culture: last year Kylie Jenner made headlines for wearing a hyper realistic lion’s head, which was fake but uncovered how we feel about animals as a commodity. The images from that show made it on many end of year roundup lists, not just of fashion but global news more broadly.

For this year’s couture show, guests arrived in futuristic, alien-like looks. Zendaya with a Spock micro fringe, arm tentacles, and tail. Jennifer Lopez in bug glasses.  Hunter Schafer in a 3D floral necklace. The arrival shots set the scene for the show to come, which, along with the signature surreal and exaggeratedly feminine pieces, showcased looks speaking to a cyborg future. 

One dress was embellished with motherboards, microchips, and old phones. Another white look served as a clean backdrop to showcase a robot doll, adorned with electronic panels, pearls, and Swarovski crystals. Both reminded me that very rarely in luxury fashion do we see designers dip into existing materials for reuse, especially not waste. The very nature of luxury relies on newness - new ideas, new fabrics, never seen before accessories. 

But studies show that constraints increase creativity - it’s why design students with little money for materials produce innovative work year on year, it’s why having a brief on something is better than a blank piece of paper, and, I hate to admit, it’s why deadlines are a force for good. I think we all know that if we’re going to properly address climate issues - waste, overproduction - our habits will need to change. And fashion is a huge part of that. Fast fashion is the angle we talk about most commonly, but luxury fashion houses also play a huge part. Their taste-making at the top absolutely filters down to what we think is cool, and if that includes planet-friendly solutions, or at the very least some acknowledgement of the impact of our consumption habits, we should welcome it. Daniel Roseberry, Schiaparelli’s creative director, said he’d seen people online making AI versions of his designs and asking who did it better. If Haute Couture is the last handmade bastion of fashion that still exists, what better use of human skills than to respond to the most important issues of our time?

While we’re on couture, Simone Rocha’s collection for Jean Paul Gaultier is absolutely worth a watch. Reiterating once more that bows will never not be in. And watch Alex Consani (of TikTok fame) walk in the bridal look, complete with metal flower. And I need to catch up on Margiela…

Moving on! What do some of the best looks of January have in common?

They are all white. In the midst of fashion weeks, awards shows, and big cover stories, I’ve noticed something crop up again and again: the ultra chic, all-white outfit. A white or cream monochrome look is usually a spring/summer staple, but as we said last week, there’s benefit in pulling on our sunny reserves to perk up the winter darkness. And here are some of the best: 

When in doubt, monochrome.

Next up!

A note on the mob wife aesthetic before the next trend is ushered in. The Instagram page @databutmakeitfashion (ran by Madé Lapuerta, a software engineer who loves fashion) shared the insight this week that the clean girl aesthetic is falling in popularity by 16% each day, while mob wife is rising.

The rationale is fairly easy to see. The figureheads of the clean girl aesthetic are incredibly wealthy celebs and influencers who have access to world-class facials, dermatologists, and cutting edge tweakments. The whole thing exemplifies invisible labour, which most people cannot afford - either financially, or with the time left outside of work. And beyond the aesthetic quality of the clean girl is an implied lifestyle or world view, one that encourages being your best self, having a perfect routine, and manifesting your perfect future - all while sat at home with a lemon water and face mask.

By contrast, the mob wife, which references characters like Carmela Soprano and features bold make up, big jewellery, and fur coats, represents a more fun and intentional character to embody. It’s not about agonising over your face while pretending to do nothing at all. It’s play time, it’s putting on a mask and becoming a woman a little more dramatic than yourself, and admitting to it all. It’s against secrecy; effort is the whole point.

@buro247me

The #MobWife essentials. 💄✨🧥🧣 #mobwifeaesthetic #tiktokfashion #fashiontrends #mobwifeglamour

The responses to new trends/cores/aesthetics seem to be either I hate this and I hate the speed of these trend cycles, or, I love this because I see myself in it and trends are fun. But new ‘trends’ now emerge from a culture that’s hyper aware of the speed and silliness of it all. They are more like a 24-hour transportation system - always running in the background, there if you want to hop on, ample opportunities to hop off.

And finally…

Hope you feel about your weekend how Margaret Qualley feels about New Jersey.

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

Meena is an award-winning editor and writer from Bristol who's currently the Features Director at Stylist. Her first book, How To Be Curious, is out via Headline on 15 February.

📺 Watching: Daniel Kaluuya’s directorial debut, The Kitchen, a film about social housing in a not too distant future London. Also sharing this list of where to watch all the films that are nominated for Oscars.

📖 Reading: Stop Ignoring All The Mundane Miracles In Your Life, an article that encourages noting down the little things you witness each day: “I’ve made a habit of 'observation journaling' — recording everything my eye notices, including the people, sounds, smells, noises and screens. Sometimes I go out with the sole purpose of logging my surroundings, setting a timer for 15 minutes while sitting at a coffee shop, bar or other public accommodation.” The concept is about reverting back to times before we were all sucked in by blue light, and tuning into the “countless lives, hopes, dreams and fears as complicated as our own, all clustered in the same crowded shops, train cars and sidewalks.” Quite nice, no?

🎧 Listening to: Paul Mescal on the Louis Theroux Podcast, and The Breakdown, then new album from Ms. Boogie.

Did you see Kylie Jenner at the Simone Rocha Gaultier Couture show? Of course you did! And so did Sophie. Except she was at floor level, and spent more time looking at people’s feet than anything else. Naturally, she couldn’t take her eyes off Kylie’s shoes, which were fresh off the runway of that very collection. Clear chunky platforms with a sneaky addition: a built-in toe ring. Now we’re not saying built-in rings will be everywhere, per se, but the old fashion toe ring is likely to get a little more airtime than we’re used to.

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

See you next week 💋