All Caught Up: The Met Gala, the return of John Galliano, North West

Everything the light touches... is your kingdom, Northie

Is everyone enjoying the nice weather in New York this week? I tried to go on a walk yesterday and was gagging on all the pollen (me and Mamie), but it felt nice otherwise. This is a jam-packed newsie today (when are they not!).

This week's picks include a $40,000 Equinox membership, dermorexia and space taxis.

Christina’s weekly scroll – 

1. TikTok is suing Washington to stop the law demanding it divest from its parent company, ByteDance. The lawsuit claims the ban violates the First Amendment.

2. Meta rolled out business tiers for verification promising better search optimization, exclusive features (like links in Reels) and semi-annual access to “an advisor who will provide guidance to improve your content strategy for your subscribed account” (lmao) if you pay $350/mo.

3. North West (yes, *the* North West) is making her Hollywood Bowl debut with a live-to-film concert for the 30th Anniversary of The Lion King. Everything the light touches... is your kingdom, Northie.

4. The Kentucky Derby’s been Gen Z-ified with creators, partnerships (see: new seating experiences for the 150th anniversary including Club SI by Sports Illustrated with admission starting at $7,500 per guest) and a glambot…

5. Skincare obsession as “dermorexia” c/o

   The Review of Beauty by Jessica DeFino

6. Glossier is coming to Space NK, starting with 48 stores across the U.K. and Ireland beginning this June.

7. Themed concerts aren't new by any means, but they are becoming tradition, as The Digital Fairy so aptly put it. Case in point: Chappell Roan (my queen) doing full-on tour themes *with* a mood board!

8. Liquid Death tricked models into thinking they were auditioning to be in a commercial for a new sugary soda brand. Lol.

9. An iconic link up 🤝 Spike Lee and Giancarlo Esposito reunite for a Fiat campaign (naturally) to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Do The Right Thing.

10. Lots of collab announcements + launches this week: Sabrina Carpenter for Marc Jacobs, Sandy Liang x Heaven x NYCB, TRUFF x Star Wars, Billie Jean King x e.l.f. Beauty and GCDS x Hello Kitty x PAN Milano to name a few.

Nikita’s weekly scroll – 

1. I could not move around NYC in like, 2012/2013 without hearing about Public School. Dao-Yi Chow is in at New Era. Curious about this!

2. Marc Jacobs is the kind of brand that always had an inherent sense of humor, and this is carrying over well to their TikTok. They’re taking a page out of the unhinged school of brand marketing but also replicating the Reformation strategy of paying viral creators to re-create their videos but feature MJ products. Rachel Karten got into it a little more in

   Link in Bio
   this week.

   Brands Are Splitting Influencer Fees

3. Two pieces of news from the Issa Rae side of the internet this week, between her mentorship/program with Tubi and her new creator marketing company, Ensemble. Very curious about the latter! I am interested to see how she links brands with talent. She got her start on YouTube, she gets it. 

4. Boeing is sending people to space, lol. [line cuts out]

5. The Met Gala was sponsored by TikTok this year. I thought that to be a bit of a cognitive dissonance, as TikTok seems kind of diametrically opposed to Capital F ‘Fashion.” This piece on the trend cycle, performative styling, and the clock app was a nice read.

6. The way we talk about sex, gender and relationships online is interesting, to say the least. I have a lot of opinions here, but they boil down to – I’m not sure we’re doing each other any favors operating in strict binaries. This piece on how confused young men are was… a read.

7. Equinox introduced a $40,000-a-year gym membership. A few weeks ago, I attended the opening of Continuum Club, which has a $10,000-a-month membership. Longevity, innit.

8. Kelly Slater launched sunscreen! A celebrity brand that makes sense! Terrible SEO though.

9. Youthforia is no longer at Ulta? 👀

10. The return of John Galliano to fashion… Orchestrated directly from the upper echelons. I saw the film about him a few weeks ago, and something the Director, Kevin MacDonald, (who himself doesn’t identify as a fashion person) said in a Q+A after has stuck with me.
    What drew MacDonald to the project is that Galliano is the first person in the public consciousness to face “cancellation” (I use this word lightly) from a cell phone video. There was a culture of deny, deny, deny before the advent of social and the smartphone, and Galliano rightfully faced the consequences for the heinous things he said – because he was caught on camera.

11. This is why the city is losing its je ne sais quoi. Wealth inequality is a policy decision.

12. Microsoft made a special GenAI for intelligence agencies.

13. I’m making my way through this piece on the Post-Individual but I appreciate how it contextualizes the now and new with history.

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˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚Little Treat Corner ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

Christina’s weekly report:

READING: All hotties have a Substack, now including my gworl,

Emily Bloch

. You can now follow her work independently of what publication it goes in –– and it’s free!

EATING: Avocado wontons from BOK BOK BABY 🥑

PLAYING: Isabella Lovestory - Botoxxx

OBSESSING: Can't stop thinking about this tweet. HAPPY BOA DAY!

RECOMMENDING: Everyone needs an expensive grocery bag. I have the cherry red “Birkin" and just copped the "Takashi Murakami Keepall" 🙂‍↕️

TREATING: I'm finishing my final laser tattoo removal session!

Nikita’s weekly report:

READING: Paused on reading Glossy for a bit and I’m back at it.

EATING: I’ve graduated from being a Vital Farms egg person to a ‘have to see my egg guy at the farmer’s market this weekend’ person so… eggs 🥚

PLAYING: You’ve probably seen me talk about this before but I fall off the wagon sometimes. Back to listening to The Mindset Mentor every morning.

OBSESSING: This rose and fennel candy ice cream my dad’s restaurant did with Humphrey Slocombe. I am 3,000 miles away, please eat it for me if you’re in the Bay.

RECOMMENDING: I’ve been thinking about my shopping habits a lot lately and I love Elysia Berman’s content about personal style, deinfluencing and spending.

TREATING: I’m thinking about re-upping Byredo Flowerhead <3

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