Capsule #64 ft. Georgia Meramo

Hello hello!

As summer draws to a close… I’d love to know your favourite thing from the past few months - favourite trip you went on, weekend activity you enjoyed, recipe you made, drink you bought, whatever it is that made summer feel good this year. You can share your answers here!

In this week’s newsletter, I’m issuing a note on work/life balance before the September mountain of work arrives in all its glory. Plus, we look to Kaia Gerber for some inspo on transitional dressing, and share all the juicy news you missed this week.

Have a gorgeous weekend!

Holly x

Those back to school vibes are very much revving up right now… People are circling back on those emails… Big project dates suddenly feel soon… It’s a lot! Before we’re fully back into the swing of things, I wanted to share some stuff on work - work/life balance, switching off, and generally how to manage it all.

In this interview with Kate Lindsay for Embedded, writer Emma Gannon talks about contemporary work culture and the difficulty in switching off - especially when your work is digital and can be done from all of your devices, all of the time. That closing of the gap between work and home life, plus the rising importance of documenting our lives online, has left many of us often feeling exhausted and apathetic. 1 Granary shared this image — where do you sit?

But as many of us have discovered by now, the merging of the self entirely with work is a false economy. A wise woman once told me over a glass of wine that “work can’t be your whole thing, because when it’s shit, which it sometimes will be, your whole life feels bad.” I’ve never forgotten that. At the same time, lots of the stuff that appears good from the outside can be hard to deal with when it’s just you left alone in your room. As Gannon says:

Anyone else get full body chills upon reading a sentence like “Figuring this out has changed my life.”? But really though, she’s right. And one of the best parts about getting older is figuring out what works for you - what feels right and what feels off - and living your life accordingly. This can be hard for chronic perfectionists and high achievers.

To those people with a lot on their plate, or just generally feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of September work, I want to share another quote from the Gannon interview:

This is hard to apply, I know, because it’s stuff that happens in the downtime that we can’t really plan for. We can’t guarantee that an idea will come during a walk or that sleeping more will make for a more productive day tomorrow. But we can use our past experiences as evidence to help us trust ourselves, and remember that most crucial part - “I feel my most creative when I am taking care of myself.”

Even the government (in the UK) thinks it’s a good idea. Labour wants to introduce a “right to switch off,” allowing workers to separate their work and home lives, potentially making it unlawful to contact employees outside of working hours. I’m told this doesn’t have as much impact as we’d expect in the countries that have already implemented it (e.g. France), but the sentiment is nice. And as searches for “productivity” increase (by more than 80% in the past week), let’s remember what works for us in the long run.

Next up!

If you have forgotten how to dress when your outfit is anything other than a t-shirt and shorts, Kaia Gerber’s extremely chill New York wardrobe is a good place to start. It’s not about layering (it’s not that cold yet). It’s not about expertly balancing prints and colours and textures. It’s simply about paring two good quality separates together in a way that feels totally nonchalant, but isn’t really. The length of the top and where it falls on the trouser is crucial - you’ll notice these all hit just at the hips or a little before. Ballet flats or smart trainers signal that the look is intentional. And everything is tied together with a good bag and a pair of sunglasses. Some inspiration for you…

1. For when it’s still randomly warm but your soul knows it’s September so you can’t do the summer colours and prints in the same way:

2. For when it’s a bit cooler, but still nice, and the blue sky makes you feel hopeful:

3. For when it’s actually feeling a bit cold now, or you’re heading out for the afternoon into evening:

That’s what the next couple of weeks should be: uncomplicated dressing, clinging onto our sunglasses, getting out and about because it’s good for us.

A question for the new season to aid future issues of Capsule…

What thing or things are you looking to buy this autumn/winter to bolster your wardrobe? (E.g. a specific type of coat, some boots, knitwear, a handbag - whatever is on your mind). Let me know here - I’ll use this to help decide which guides to make. 🫶

And finally…

Pop culture and fashion news you may have missed this week:

• Charli xcx has announced a collab with H&M, launching via a party at London Fashion Week 👀

• This gave the girlies full body chills this week

• Following in the footsteps of the Skims nipple bra, another ad imagining products thought up in a science laboratory. This time from Emma Chamberlain

• Naomi Osaka’s looks for the US Open have been next level 🥲

• Guess who bought new shirts for an entire year to avoid doing laundry…

• Christina Aguilera did a great shoot for Paper magazine

• This fashion relic is returning

• Ganni has officially graduated from Copenhagen Fashion Week and will show in Paris this September

• Venice Film Festival looks have been great, especially from Taylor Russell

• Here’s what happens when team Chanel heard that wired headphones are back

• And Solange shared a beautiful new set of portraits ✨

This week, Georgia Luisa Meramo (aka @glameramo) popped into Capsule to share what’s 🔥hot🔥 and what’s not 🙅‍♀️ …

Georgia is a London-based creative and photographer. She recently turned her social series ‘The Good Guide’ into a Substack, which focuses on making your wardrobe work better for you. Sign up here!

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📺 Watching: Industry, after seeing the insane reviews for season three (which drops in October in the UK), Supersonic, the Oasis documentary, for obvious reasons, and Molly Mae’s first YouTube video since the breakup.

📖 Reading: Two final Brat pieces before the close of summer, one from Lena Dunham, and the Charli profile for New York magazine.

🎧 Listening to: Girl, the new album from Coco & Clair Clair, and this episode of the Day One podcast with Emily Sundberg of Feed Me, in which she talks about her media diet and products that are in and out for her.

As you’ll see, Otto is no stranger to clothing and accessories that cinch in the body in some way. And that’s probably why he’s noticed the corset hoodie pop up on celebs like Charli xcx and Kim Kardashian this summer. It makes sense for people who want the casualness of the hoodie to feel just a little more put together. Surely these will be everywhere soon…

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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, do refer them! 🥺

See you next week 💋