I've been talking about it a lot * the week when spring started

A string of opinionated random thoughts.

dry cleaning drop off fit check

Love

• An extravagant and duly deserving moment: The luxury of a bartender who changes the glass of your martini when you are halfway through with a fresh and cold new glass.

• A podcast moment: BLOW-UP: when Liz Tilberis transformed Harper’s Bazaar, a good piece of history in six episodes. I started it, sounds promising, but I haven’t finished it, so be warned.

• A moment of collective reckoning: during the lockdown, artist Rebecca Moses launched The Stay Home Sisters, a project that weaved women from all over the world through the bond of art, resilience, joy, strength, and camaraderie. Rebecca illustrated every one of the sisters. I was one of them, portrayed with Cecilia, and we also did a live interview with my blotchy WiFi, I remember at one point sitting on the floor trying not to lose connection for the umpteenth time. Rebecca’s enthusiasm, empathy, energy, authenticity, and fearlessness are so contagious that you connect immediately and then are forever friends.

  Our story started when I wanted to interview her to feature her in the book to document her journey from graduating from SCAD to being the designer of Genny (for clarity, if you remember the brand Genny, you are Gen X) when we were both living in Italy, to her illustrations for Franca Sozzani’s Vogue Italia, to her book and her career as an artist. It was a cold email, “Hi, I am writing a book and would like to interview you.” And she was game, immediately, so fierce I couldn’t believe it.

  

• A fragrance moment: my Amber by Reminiscence perfume was discontinued, buying on eBay is not an option, they have an Ambre Soufflée one, but I am ready to find a new one. After investigating online, I found the main accords, top and base notes, but I am not a scent architect, so I was back to base. During some more digging, following the scent like a hound dog, literally enthralled by what I remember the perfume to smell: the enveloping, powdery, boudoir-sy whiff that would reminisce familiar feelings, I found a family-owned company based in the US, called Fragrance Revival dedicated to replicate discontinued fragrances. Oh, I also learned of pheromones (such a nerdy rookie, I know!) So, while working with their delightful, dedicated, and personable customer service to find something on those notes, I enlisted my resourceful IG friends and Kneale delivered!! Her profile on IG is called makeminescented for a reason; I think it’s private so that you know, I have great friends what can I say? As a result of a few DMs, we spent a Saturday afternoon at Aedes on Orchard. TBC, but this serves to confirm that I take the principle of having a personal fragrance damn seriously, and it’s no secret as I dedicated to it a whole chapter in the book.

• A quote moment:

In sottovesti we trust sempre

cit. Riccardo, the 1/2 of Lessico Familiare where you may remember or not my Ama hot pink cape comes from.

I don’t care

• For WiFi on planes, I need to start a movement. Listen to me when will you have another 3 or 6 or 10 hours to be strapped on a seat and watch amazing filmography? Also, also, not that it happened to me yesterday, but you know HOW amazing would it be not to have a fake-nail-clickety-clicking on the phone screen b*&ch?

The sustainability debrief

If everyone lived like Americans, we’d need 5.1 Earths to replenish the resources we extract.

- from Commons Earth. Source: Global Footprint Network, “How Many Earths?”

How do you say it in Italian?

Mettere i puntini sulle i: when you feel the anal necessity of clarifying things to the dots, like the dot over the letter “i”.

For all my new followers and anyone who wants to chat, feel free to check out my style diary, the book I wrote and published, and my posts on Instagram.