♥ If you are in the market for new boots, select Stuart Weitzman boots are now 50% off at Nordstrom and the Stuart Weitzman website.
♥ The Power of the Yellow Vest (The New York Times): “The yellow vest is immediately visible in all of the pictures of the protests, peaceful or not, and impossible to miss even on the small screens of social media. It is easy to slip on over any outfit, and instantly transformative. It is widely understood as a distress signal … And it, or a garment very much like it, has been owned by all French motorists since 2008, when a law went into effect requiring car owners to keep a high-visibility garment in their vehicle in case of problems.”
(I’ve read hundreds of Tesla stories this year and this Wired piece is among the best.) Dr. Elon & Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla’s Production Hell (Wired): “Musk began marching through the factory. He walked along the assembly line, red-faced and urgent, interrogating workers he encountered, telling them that at Tesla excellence was a passing grade, and they were failing; that they weren’t smart enough to be working on these problems; that they were endangering the company, according to someone who observed him. Employees knew about such rampages. Sometimes Musk would terminate people; other times he would simply intimidate them. One manager had a name for these outbursts—Elon’s rage firings—and had forbidden subordinates from walking too close to Musk’s desk at the Gigafactory out of concern that a chance encounter, an unexpected question answered incorrectly, might endanger a career.”
♥ Until the end of today, take 30% off everything + enjoy free shipping on orders over $50 at Anthropologie. My picks:
♥ The Future Of Fashion Is Made-To-Order, According To Farfetch CEO José Neves (Fast Company) : “The biggest problem in fashion is overproduction. The way fashion works—where merchandisers and buyers take guesses on what people are going to buy … is extremely inefficient. The supply never meets the demand in a perfect way. That has made fashion among the most polluting industries in the world. The most powerful way to tackle this problem is to move from a system of ready-to-wear to a system of made-to-order. And if you’re going to do it made-to-order, you may as well personalize it.”
♥ Start-Ups Aren’t Cool Anymore (The Atlantic): “Research suggests entrepreneurial activity has declined among Millennials … the ordinary entrepreneur is more likely to fund a start-up using personal savings—something underemployed Millennials simply could not build as they entered the workforce during or in the immediate wake of the Great Recession.”
♥ A Generation of Digital-Media Darlings Prepares for a Frigid Winter (Vanity Fair): “[Buzzfeed, Vice, Mashable, Vox Media], which once heralded the dawn of a new media age—replete with massive valuations, large fund-raising hauls, and millennial sex appeal—now appeared to exhibit some traits of the brands that they once attempted to disrupt. They were large, less nimble, and increasingly vulnerable to Facebook and Google. They seemed virtually encircled by competitors familiar and new.”
♥ How McKinsey Has Helped Raise the Stature of Authoritarian Governments (The New York Times): “While it is not unusual for American corporations to work with China’s state-owned companies, McKinsey’s role has sometimes put it in the middle of deeply troubled deals … McKinsey defends its work around the world, saying that it will not accept jobs at odds with the company’s values. It also gives the same reason that other companies cite for working in corrupt or authoritarian nations — that change is best achieved from the inside.”
♥ Why Driving is Hard—Even for AIs (Ars Technica): “As smart as a car may be, it needs an equally smart (if not smarter) infrastructure around it … Driving is a ridiculously complicated skill, requiring experience, attention, and reflexes. Yet for all its complexity, it’s a finite skill with understandable requirements, inputs, and results.”
♥ For a limited time, everything is 50% off at Abercrombie (no code needed; prices as marked). And select styles are an extra 15% off (discount taken in cart).
♥ Self-Portrait Is Growing in the Age of Streetwear — Without Flashy Logos or Sneakers (Fashionista): “Chong attributes the success to a right place-right time combination of launching wearable dresses at a relatively affordable price point, with a bit of help from social media marketing.”
♥ Does It Matter Where You Go to College? (The Atlantic): “In the big picture, elite colleges don’t seem to do much extra for rich white guys. But if you’re not rich, not white, or not a guy, the elite-college effect is huge. It increases earnings for minorities and low-income students, and it encourages women to delay marriage and work more, even though it doesn’t raise their per-hour wages.”
♥ Cape Town’s New Masculinity (The New York Times): “The rejection of gender norms has been raging for some time all over the world, but there is something distinctly pro-African in the character of Cape Town’s sartorial resistance. It has sprung forth from the realities of life in cities and the townships that surround them: from having no choice but to fight back against daily violence, threats and intimidation these young people face for their outward expression of their sexual orientation and gender identity.”
♥ The Loneliest Generation: Americans, More Than Ever, Are Aging Alone (The Wall Street Journal): “Baby boomers are aging alone more than any generation in U.S. history, and the resulting loneliness is a looming public health threat. About one in 11 Americans age 50 and older lacks a spouse, partner or living child, census figures and other research show. That amounts to about eight million people in the U.S. without close kin, the main source of companionship in old age, and their share of the population is projected to grow.”
♥ Until 12/19/18, take 50% of your Ann Taylor purchase with code GIVE50. Shipping is free on orders over $125. My picks:
♥ Nostalgia Is Officially the Biggest Fashion Trend of 2018 (Vogue): “In [Google’s] yearly study of the most trending searches … the top four fashion searches were: 1980s fashion, grunge fashion, 1990s fashion, and 2000s fashion … Fashion Nova, the online-only fast-fashion retailer, outranked every runway brand, placing first on Google’s trending list … Fashion Nova’s rise represents something larger in fashion: community.”
♥ Can We Really Inherit Trauma? (The New York Times): “The idea is that trauma can leave a chemical mark on a person’s genes, which then is passed down to subsequent generations. The mark doesn’t directly damage the gene; there’s no mutation. Instead it alters the mechanism by which the gene is converted into functioning proteins, or expressed. The alteration isn’t genetic. It’s epigenetic.”
Recently purchased: Maje Garmi Cape-Back Wool and Cashmere-Blend Coat, Canada Goose Kensington Parka (a number of Canada Goose styles have been restocked by Shopbop this month), Topshop Tiger Printed Oversize Shirt, Something Navy Surplice Sweater, and Free People Too Good Sweater.
Have a great week, everyone!
