Capsule #36 ft. Grace Weinstein

Hello hello,

By the time you read this I’ll be bopping around London Fashion Week! Equal parts novel and tiring. For quicker updates follow Capsule on Instagram and check stories!

Lots to say in this week’s newsletter… A New York fashion show full of heart, the vital history behind Beyoncé’s cowgirl season, and the music video you absolutely must see.

Grace Weinstein is also here to share her Hot & Not list. She said what needed to be said!

Have a lovely weekend,

Holly x

One show to go and watch from NYFW…

Willy Chavarria’s Fall 2024 Menswear. With Western motifs and a show anchored around love just a few days before Valentine’s Day, it all felt very ‘of the moment’. But that makes it sound devoid of depth, which it wasn’t. 

The show featured a short film called Safe From Harm, followed by a runway of the looks. I encourage you to watch the film now if you have 10 minutes… 

Like the Margiela couture show a couple of weeks ago, the film (and runway show) asked more of its models - they are more like actors, bringing depth to the performance rather than merely providing a body off which the clothes hang. They kiss, they fight, they dance. Chavarria asks us to view his models as characters from the start, proven by the opening sequence of the film, in which each of their first names flashes onto the screen like Hollywood royalty. 

The relationships we witness in the film start out with the models wearing very little. Just underwear - briefs with a ‘Willy’ label on the front (😉) and cotton vests - or just jeans, plus a few heels and cowboy hats here and there. After watching the characters embrace, fight in a split-screen argument, and collapse into tears, we reach the crescendo moment. We’re in a church, our cast is decked out in their full, final looks, and they reach a joyful, concluding dance. I wasn’t surprised to read later that Chavarria confessed to caring more about film than fashion. 

But the clothes hold it all together: cowboy hats, exaggerated shoulder pads, long hemlines and lots of layering. Decadence in the form of houndstooth and pussy bows, practicality in hooded jackets and elasticated trousers. And again, more character from the models. They posed with peace signs, hat tips, and lapel tugging. It feels good to be given more. 

I hadn’t heard much of Willy Chavarria before this show; I looked him up after witnessing the hype. What I found was a man in his 50s, now working full-time on his own label after a career of behind the scenes design work for labels like Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. And this level of experience shines through - the collection leans not on spectacle but on delivering a solid set of clothes underpinned by human connection - the good stuff. 

Speaking of Western vibes…

A few weeks ago, we watched Pharrell’s second collection for Louis Vuitton hit the runway: a Western-inspired homage to America, featuring leather chaps, cowboy hats and boots, and fringed jackets. We listened to him say that the original cowboys “looked like me. They looked Black. They looked Native American.”

In last week’s issue of Capsule, we looked at recent looks from Beyoncé and Bella Hadid and declared “the cowgirls are coming”. And then at the Super Bowl last Sunday, Beyoncé announced two new country songs, ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ and ‘16 Carriages’. The cowgirls and cowboys are here, Beyoncé is the ringleader, most of us are excited, but some people are not. And that’s because the country music scene has an issue with Black artists creating art within the genre (see: Billboard quietly removing Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’ from the Hot Country chart in 2019, and the Recording Academy’s failure to recognise Beyoncé’s ‘Daddy Lessons’ as a country song, which if you know it, is totally ridiculous). 

While we know that the country music scene is very white and conservative, the rationale is not just racist but incorrect. As my colleague Mary pointed out in her video explainer this week, “the banjo, a staple in country music, was brought to America from West Africa by during the slave trade”, and “Black performers were pushed out and replaced with minstrels - white performers painted black.” It feels vital to share this stuff to anyone who doesn’t know.

@thenewsmovement

Renaissance Act II is coming on 29th March and it *sounds like* this could a fully country album 🎶🎸 @Beyoncé isn’t a stranger to the genre... See more

I look forward to the whole album and the process of convincing myself that chaps are an “investment piece” that I “won’t regret” because they are “timeless”. And while we’re on Beyoncé news, have you seen the Miley Cyrus AI mixes of the new singles? First two Miley versions, then a Miley x Beyoncé collab. It’s still wild to me that they can do this. The cynic in me wonders if it's PR, given the rumours that a Miley x Beyonce x Dolly Parton version of ‘Jolene’ is coming… 

Love stuff

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day this week, here are four nice things to do for a friend or lover whether it’s V Day or not: 

1. Gift them a book with a note in the front about why you choose it for them

2. Take them to a restaurant to try a new type of cuisine, even better if you’ve done your research and can tell them a bit about the food when you arrive 

3. Help them with their weekend errands, whether that’s nipping to TK Maxx for new candles or having a clothes sort out

4. Help them with a bit of life admin research that needs doing, which could be researching accommodation for a weekend away somewhere, or brainstorming outfit ideas for an upcoming event

And finally… 

The most insane thing I saw this week: the video to ‘Rich Baby Daddy’ (Drake ft. Sexyy Red & SZA). Sexyy Red’s actual waters break, Drake’s filming the whole thing on a VHS camera, SZA is asking wtf he is doing, and the three of them end up at the hospital together, shoot the rest of the video, complete with new baby appearance at the end. It’s wild! But the vibes are lowkey gorgeous, especially from SZA. What a woman to have to take care of you in that way. 

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

Grace is the voice you can’t get out of your head. She is a longtime journalist with The Recount and host of the show WTF, America? on Youtube and Snapchat.

📺 Watching: The film Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. with Rachel McAdams, adapted from the Judy Blume book.

📖 Reading: Some lovely Valentine’s reads this week: Natasha Lunn’s (of Conversations on Love) newsletter, in which 20 writers share their lessons in love. And this newsletter from Liv Little, in which she confesses to enjoying her partner’s public declarations of love, and argues that we shouldn’t suppress our desires for fear of being cringe. 

🎧 Listening to: There’s so much new stuff to go at right now… For your runs, Drop 7, the new release from Little Simz. For retreating into your room, the extended version of Caroline Polachek’s latest album (gorgeous cover as well). For getting ready to go out, the new Beyoncé songs, plus the Mariah Carey remix of ‘yes, and?’, that Ariana Grande song we thought was mid but actually slaps. 

Ralph has some wisdom for you, which is not like your regular trend prediction but still good insight. It’s unlikely to be super cold for much longer. Great, you might say. And that’s probably true. But make sure you get the most out of your beloved warm garments before it’s too late. We’re looking at that heavy wool coat and the chunky knits that turn you into a sweat box unless it’s adequately chilly.

If you’d like to adopt Ralph 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 💋