Capsule #56 ft. Pavel Davison

Hello hello,

Hope you all had a lovely week! ❣️ I’m just about caught up on sleep from Glastonbury… just about…

With that in mind, today I bring you some festival wisdom to drip-feed into the rest of our lives, plus a look at the renewed Britpop aesthetic, and some great recs for your weekend ahead. I hope you enjoy!

Pavel Davison is also here to share his Hot & Not list with us :)))

Have the best weekend!

Holly x

First up…

The Great Glasto Debrief, by which I mean: lessons established on Worthy Farm for us to take into the rest of our lives, festival or no festival. Here we go!

1️⃣ Glastonbury is an opportunity to learn how you like to have fun. I had many thoughts over the few days there but this one kept coming back: The whole thing is a constant process of learning how to have fun in your world. Do you like to do fewer things but do them well? Do you like to follow a crowd to buzzy spots? Do you like to plan your day around food and drink? Do you need a lot of sleep to enjoy anything? Being thrown into a festival allows you to figure all of this out. Once you get to know a few of your non-negotiables, you open the door to orchestrating more fun for yourself in future. Knowing when to say yes and when to say no! Similarly…

2️⃣ Having fun sometimes requires effort. Embrace it. I think we fantasise about spontaneous, life-affirming experiences that just happen without weeks of planning, or any kind of effort. A big festival is the opposite of that. They don’t happen by accident. You need so much stuff just to be there. It’s a lot! And yet, it pays off. When I got home and started unpacking my stuff, I felt over and over how “worth it” it was to give the occasion so much energy and thought. Sometimes more is more, and planning your fun means you reap the rewards.

3️⃣ Accessible dress codes are a force for good. This year my friends and I had a Red Day, which is exactly what it sounds like: everyone wears red. A far cry from expensive and niche themes, this was something most of us already had a good baseline for, and could choose to level up with accessories or a new piece to feel good in. The result was moving around like a pack, easily spotting each other in crowds, and a few communal chants. It was great. It brought us all way more joy than I had expected. I recommend it!

4️⃣ The best way to disconnect is to be in your body and off your phone. I felt more switched off from work at Glastonbury than I had on most of my previous trips, and besides the site being as magical as they say, I think this was in large part due to spending less time on my phone. Having to conserve battery means you can’t lose hours to scrolling, and constantly being with people IRL puts the group chat on pause. Combine this with doing more than 30,000 steps each day, thinking more about knees and feet and toes and how to dance with your arms when you feel tired, and you’ve found a great way to stop worrying about your usual stuff. Be where your feet are!

5️⃣ And finally: talk to people. Strangers, friends of friends, people you know a little bit. Talking to new people and getting a positive response back, even for a couple of minutes, is really life affirming. It’s not something we do all the time - especially not in London - but we should lean into it. People are nice and that moment of connection reminds you why we’re all here.

And while we’re on Glasto, please enjoy the Capsule roundup of the best looks of the festival. So impressed by Olivia Dean!!! And with every Dua outfit change I thought of us all here in this newsletter, swiping through with our critic lenses on the next day. Knowing the Loewe belt. Wondering whether stuff is custom or vintage. This was our moment!

A little extension…

Another thing I saw a lot at Glastonbury, and expect to see more over summer: union jacks.

Ziwe wore a union jack skirt to the festival. Dua Lipa, Nia Archives, and Rachel Chinouriri are talking about the influence of Britpop on their music. AG Cook has an album and song of the same name with Charli xcx. Azealia Banks even called her UK tour ‘Back in the Union Jack.’ And the UK has just got a new government, with it the promise of change and calls for optimism - the core facet of Britpop.

The union jack hasn’t always felt like a cool thing to wear, and has been a particular no-go since Brexit. But artists and tastemakers are leaning on Britpop iconography once more, attempting to reclaim it with new values. Rachel Chinouriri told the Guardian:

We see this reclamation too with football culture - unlikely fans styling shirts in new ways, pub gatherings enjoyed without drama - their playfulness stronger and more joyful than uncomfortable nationalism.

So Britpop aesthetic is back, and should you wish to dabble, now is the time. I went down a rabbit hole of searching for vintage union jack skirts to get us started… Here are some of the best! Let me know if you get one.

Links: Vivienne Westwood, Junya Watanabe, Fake London, Punkyfish.

And finally…

News from the Capsule universe to keep you in the loop:

• During her stint in the UK, SZA made time for Chicken Shop Date 

• Dua Lipa being serenaded by the ukulele guy at Glasto has gone from meme to comic book art

• Celebs are dressing up for Wimbledon, but there’s no transformation quite like Dave Grohl

• Vanessa Hudgens and her new baby are happy and healthy 🥺

• David and Victoria Beckham celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in a wonderful way 

• Caesar salad turned 100 years old this week, which means the TL has been flooded with this kind of content

• And a story concerning a Gwyneth Paltrow party, a celeb guest, and 💩 has done the rounds this week. Click to dive in…

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

Pavel is a fashion-obsessed brand manager and content creator on the side. A Manc who’s found himself trapped in London, he lives life through TikTok references and fit checks. You’ll find him featuring as the face of many of the Chilly’s content campaigns - he even spent nine days at Glastonbury this year with the brand.

📺 Watching: Glastonbury highlights of course… make time for Little Simz, Dua Lipa, Kasabian, Avril Lavigne, and Remi Wolf.

📖 Reading: This lovely profile of Suki Waterhouse in Vogue, where she talks about new motherhood, how her thirties are different from her twenties, and Robert Pattinson’s new love for pans. I like these pieces where celebs who have everything you could want and more still say that the simple things (family, love, stability) are the best part of their life. Also this photo diary showcasing Black joy at Glastonbury.

🎧 Listening to: ‘Nomad’ by Clairo, the extended version of ‘Falling Forever’ by Dua Lipa, and the new Camilla Cabello song with Drake. Summer bops!

Reading has always been in fashion, but being a ‘Kindle girlie’ is specifically having a moment right now. Kindle sales have grown in double-digit percentages the past two years and are on track for similar gains this year, and we’re seeing people adorn their beloved e-readers with pop sockets and stickers. Bob’s only request is that you take yours to the park so you can read and play fetch at the same time. 🐕

If you’d like to adopt Bob 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 💋