All Caught Up: the business of influence, skincare state of the union, taking an internet walk
Are you in love with the internet?
Wow, another week! Many updates around these newsletter parts. As you may have noticed, we introduced a new content format into the mix this week: In Practice.
In Practice is a series of interviews with the people who make brands move. Not the ones with the loudest voices, but the ones with the sharpest eyes. Strategists, marketers, creatives, researchers. People whose influence shows up in campaigns, in team culture, in how a brand behaves, not just how it looks on a slide. I hope that this series can be a window into how people think. What they’re tracking. What’s shifted for them. What they’ve let go of, or started to hold more tightly. It’s a chance to see brand work not as hype or identity, but as practice—shaped by taste, context, media habits, self-awareness, and the systems we build around ourselves to keep going.
We kicked the series off with none other than
.
I’ve had this newsletter since 2021, and it has seen many iterations. I’ve been more consistent with it since around this time last year, and have steadily picked up the publishing cadence since. Moving forward, the goal is this weekly link curation, a weekly interview, and ideally an essay a month. Those have always been a cornerstone of my publishing practice, but I believe in having something to actually say when you SAY IT!
That said, I’ll only be publishing a portion of my upcoming essay here. If you’re interested in reading the rest, you can request a copy. That certainly won’t be the case for every essay I write, but it may be the case for some!
This week's picks include the musical manosphere, Addison Rae discourse and XChat.
Christina’s weekly scroll –
Fashion corner: Jonathan Anderson is Dior Men's new artistic director. Duran Lantink joins Jean Paul Gaultier. Luka Sabbat debuts his first collection for Marking Distance.
SSENSE's skincare state of the union just dropped. Welcome to the hyperoptimized era of skin care.
The musical manosphere, through the lens of my problematic fav: Drake, and the sad spectacle of his gambling era... </3
Speaking of music: A24 Music is coming! Tbh, it feels like the natural next step for them — between the vinyl drops, playlists and merch, they have been moving like an indie label for a while now.
Kelley Heyer — the creator behind Charli xcx's viral Apple dance — is suing Roblox for selling her copyrighted dance on the platform.
Addison Rae discourse is all over the timeline because she recorded a video with a third-gen iPod nano, lol. Haters are calling her forced and manufactured, but, fwiw, I think she rules. STREAM HEADPHONES ON!
Addison Rae, the genius that you are… Twitter is replacing DMs with a standalone messaging app called XChat? Lol.
Recommend reading this syllabus for taking an internet walk.
e.l.f. launched World Reborn — the first-ever adventure activism game.
We are at the epicenter of what
calls the zombie wars. Students are literally finding it too hard to think.The “boom boom aesthetic,” status games and money dysmorphia.
Ellie the Elephant x Essie!!! For the curious, her go-to shade is Dopamine Rush 💅
Sports fans are clocking 6.5 hours of audio a day. More in the Sports Audio Report.
Gabby Windey for Edie Parker Flower. That is all!
Nikita’s weekly scroll –
I agree with James. Why the fuck does Rick Rubin need a PAID Substack.
Enjoyed this piece about the OG vibe shift.
Who did the Boy Smells rebrand. I just want to talk about it. And maybe offer some notes.
Imagination is how we maintain our humanity during uncertain times. Agreed.
Sports Illustrated is launching a women’s games. For someone who has been working on female athlete initiatives for the better part of the last decade, it’s wild to see the gold rush actually kick into gear!
Thinking short term is going to kill us.
Are you in love with the internet? Really, really think about it.
I love how my friend
often talks about the physics of culture, of culture behaving in an almost elastic way. This piece about how culture doesn’t trickle down, instead if compresses on itself was so interesting.Glossier is raising more money at a lower valuation. Again, as someone who began their career in the early 2010s, it’s wild to see this brand, the reference of all references from 2014-2018 roughly become what it is. And maybe that shows us the limits of the grand utopian project that VC-backed DTC ever was.
When you build a particular cultural moment around your product, and the moment turns, your product dies.
Fashion—like anything else has always been political. And there are limits to the political impact and imagination of fashion.
If the aim of AI is to be smarter, shouldn’t the UX patterns be smarter too?
You’re welcome! Here’s a consumer beauty trends report.
Anti-intellectualism is everywhere, even in journalism.
Friend of the ‘sletter,
wrote this report about the business of influence. I know what I am reading this weekend.Do Millennial women even know how to feel about our bodies?
Erewhon has roaches, lol.
Miu Miu’s literary club… continues. No shade to this partnership specifically, but I literally cannot stop thinking what it means about society if literacy and the idea of reading is being again positioned as a luxury.
Vogue dropped a package this week about the future of appearance, and all the imagery is AI generated. I just feel like even if we’re imagining futures, perhaps engaging some of the best editorial photographers and MUAs in the game could have made this more interesting. IDK!
Alexander Wang has a new CMO. Wonder how that comeback is going.
I can’t find the Substack notes reply but someone said it’s those WGSN reports pushing us into these atrocious recession-core clothes.
Does the dream job even exist?
Netflix is testing an AI recommendation engine. Sure, whatever helps me wade through all the content please.
TV writing jobs are down 42%. Sick!
Americans are trained on cheap and disposable consumer goods, and they’re more important to us than perhaps our powers that be realized.
Coach and WNBA inked a long-term partnership. Let’s go.
I beg of you. Understand trends.
˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚Little Treat Corner ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚
Christina’s weekly report:
READING: Digital Divinity, a series of illustrated stories on how technology shapes the way people connect with faith.
EATING: Chocolate-covered butter cookies.
PLAYING:
OBSESSING: Over the long weekend.
RECOMMENDING: The Hello Kitty shower gel from Lush.
TREATING: Myself to this season’s Flamingo Estate subscription box. And a Prinsesstårta candle.
Nikita’s weekly report:
READING: Lots and lots for my upcoming lecture with Elliot at FUTURE COMMERCE!
EATING: My usual lunch of a gigantic chopped salad from Whole Foods and a protein source.
PLAYING: Presented without comment.
OBSESSING: Over the weather going above 50º.
RECOMMENDING: Writing more.
TREATING: A big cookie.
If you want to share a link, a tip, or just chat, leave a comment or email us at hello@blankprojects.co.