Capsule #53 ft. Lagoon Femshayma

Hiiii everyone,

Hope you had a good week 🖤

Capsule is a pretty diverse space but skews towards women’s stuff because I write it, and because the majority of the media around fashion and pop culture targets women. But I often get asked to do men’s fashion stuff, and I too want to hear from the boys. That’s why I’m pleased to bring you our third men’s edit from my friend, creative producer, and all-around stylish person, Tom Gordon-Martin.

In this issue, Tom walks us through his thoughts on the stylistic choices of the England squad ahead of the Euros, shows us a man who wears hats very well, and asks, when did it become cool to hate Coldplay?

Also super excited to have Zooey Gleaves aka Lagoon Femshayma on the Hot & Not. 🔥

Over to Tom! Usual service resumes next week.

Holly x

First up…

Football stuff, but not in the way you might expect. The Men’s Euros starts today, and for the next month, it’s all about football. The England boys are so good this year people are describing them as “generational talent”. For the first time since 1966, we might actually win something.

But, they failed their first test: missing a big style opportunity. Let me show you.

Before each tournament, the team shapes up for a squad picture. Since 2007 M&S have tailored the team, and while I’m a die hard fan of the brand (shout out phizzy pigtails), I’m disappointed with the stylistic execution this year.

Where to begin… The lighting (terrible), the colours (bland af), the creepy slip ons (why?). But the saddest thing is what I don’t see.

Since the 90s, we’ve been living through a dressed-down era in menswear and the biggest tragic casualty has been the necktie. Even politicians don’t wear them anymore. But it feels like such a missed opportunity to look exciting - for contrast, look at the Italy squad here rocking up in their Armani suits, complete with ties and embroidered badges.

As we crawl through the agony of a general election in the UK, this quote from GQ’s Editor-in-Chief, Will Welch, feels relevant: “Whatever politicians are wearing, wear the opposite.” I wish the England squad were in on this, striving for a bit of pizzazz at a time when our politicians are ultra bland. Next time?

Moving on!

To hats. For men who dress within the confines of our masculine identity, there are fewer tools at our disposal to transform a look. But one way to show personality is headwear. 

Take Dev Hynes (aka Blood Orange) at the GQ Creativity Awards. Alongside a perfectly fitted Marni suit and rubber square-toed boots, Hynes was wearing a weathered cap. The kind of thing your dad owns and seems to always wear in the car.

Dev is a master collaborator who’s worked with a range of artists including Solange, Kylie Minogue and A$AP Rocky. In April, he was on stage with Vampire Weekend, sitting cross-legged, strumming a sitar live on The Daily Show. As they say, the best players make it look easy. Pause the performance, zoom in, and you’ll notice he’s wearing that same hat again.

But it’s not just that cap. Dev has a lot of headwear. I’ve seen him in Yankees caps, Russian hats, denim bucket hats, Kangol flat caps, leather caps, and more. The man does not leave the house without a hat. On Reddit people ask “does a picture of Dev Hynes exist without a hat?”(I could find just one image of a hatless Hynes.) 

Hats tell stories, and Dev’s threadbare cap whispers, I wear what I want. It’s keys, wallet, phone and hat - a vibe worth following if you want to be as smooth with it as he is.

Next up…

After I’ve been to the pub, I love watching old videos of big bands gigging before they were famous. Classics include Oasis (1992) rehearsing ‘All Around the World’, Arctic Monkeys (undated) in a pub somewhere and Ed Sheeran (2010) playing to some mature ladies at the Southbank Centre. 

Its a nice reminder that famous people were once not famous. There’s a lot of hard work, and luck, between then and now. It wasn’t always like this! My all time favourite is this Coldplay set at a festival in Germany in 2000. 

Recently, my algorithm has been serving me the same clip, as the band are set to headline Glastonbury for the fifth time. But this time, the caption from the video felt worth sharing: “I don’t know where along the last 24 years it became cool to hate Coldplay, but I really value that first album, and if you do too, own it!”.

I hate the idea that after commercial success or a certain amount of positive acclaim, group energy seems to shift towards piling onto an act. But what does that achieve? I think there’s value in enjoying something for what they are, enjoying the history… or shutting up. I don’t necessarily think Coldplay are cool - as shown by this shocking recent performance with Sabrina Carpenter (😬) - but I do think it’s cool to like something, proudly, even if the trend curve is on the decline.

And in usual fashion…

News from the Capsule universe this week:

• Lana Del Rey interviewed Billie Eilish for Interview mag, where we learnt that she’s never been dumped 

• The Sapphic Revolution continues with the All Things Go festival lineup

• Charli XCX walked us through how she imagines ‘365’ for the Tape Notes podcast

• Speaking of Charli, Gabbriette announced her engagement to Matty Healy at her show in New York, sealed with a black diamond ring

• After the highs of her Gov Ball performance last week, Chappell Roan told fans at a show in Raleigh that she’s struggling with the quick success

• Jacquemus celebrated their 15 year anniversary with a show in Capri, attended by Dua Lipa, Peggy Gou, and Gwyneth Paltrow

• Taylor Swift fans danced so hard in Edinburgh that they set off earthquake monitors

• And ahead of Father’s Day, the GQ team shared the best clothes they got from their dads 🥲

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

Zooey is a DJ and creative from south London. He often performs in blue as the gorgeous drag queen Lagoon Femshayma, and is part of Prestige Pak, a DJ collective. Zooey performs around the world, but to name a few highlights: his own Boiler Room set (deeply iconic), warming up the crowd for the Sugababes Boiler Room, and a recent stint at Mighty Hoopla, including an interview with JoJo Siwa.

📺 Watching: Sometimes you just need a mental true story, and How to Rob a Bank on Netflix is all that and a little bit more. It tells the personal story of Scott Scurlock, aka the Hollywood Bandit, and the nomadic lifestyle which led him to become one of America’s most prolific bank robbers.

📖 Reading: Come and Get It by Kiley Reid. After finishing Reid’s debut, Such a Fun Age, I went straight into Come and Get It, her second novel. Reid forces you to connect with complicated and nuanced characters that expose important angles on racism and class. Each one literally feels like a person that exists.

🎧 Listening to: Twice Around the Sun - a recent EP from Ugly. This 6-piece band is the best new music I’ve heard in years. Their debut album is full of songs that never last less than four or five minutes; they come to you in chapters, each one like a little story. Ugly feels so refreshingly different.

Influenced by this great Substack, both Tom and Rosie agree that this summer, boys will wear things that are both in and out of fashion at the same time. 

With trend cycles so rapid and changeable, and the diversity of our algorithms, there isn’t really such a thing as a trend anymore. So, you’ll find some boys in the park in fisherman sandals and tucked in shirts, whike others rock up in gorp-y tracksuits and a 5-panel cap. Depending on who you ask, they will either be in or out of fashion, which in itself is cool.

If you’d like to adopt Rosie 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 💋