♥ Final sale styles are an extra 60% off at J. Crew until 06/21/2020 with code SHOPSALE. Now on further sale are some 170+ adorable swimwear styles, including the gingham printed Scalloped Ruffle One-Piece Swimsuit and Scalloped Ruffle Bandeau Bikini Top/High-Waisted Bikini Bottom pictured here. These styles all fit a little large to size, especially on the bottom, so size down if you have a narrower lower body.
♥ The Dress Codes of the Uprising (The New York Times): “Almost every protest movement has its visual signifiers: images etched in the collective memory that crystallize the causes for which they were fought. The white dresses of the suffragists and the women’s rights movements. The neat black suits and white button-up shirts of the original civil rights protests. The Black Panthers in leathers and turtlenecks. The followers of Mahatma Gandhi in Gandhi caps and khadi shirts. The sans-culottes of the French Revolution and the yellow vests of the French revolt centuries later. But the current moment, in part because of its extraordinary reach and multiracial, multinational dimensions, as well as the fact it has been organized largely over social media without a strategic centralized body, has been notably diffuse … They have been resplendent in the uniform of no uniform.”
♥ Chanel Sees Trouble Through 2021: What Happens Now? (The Business of Fashion): “Chanel announced 2019 sales of nearly $12.3 billion, up 10 percent from $11.1 billion in 2018 … Operating profit for the period was $3.5 billion, up close to 17 percent on the previous year … Despite the positive momentum, Chanel’s 2020 results are set to be significantly down due to the Covid-19 crisis … The overall market for personal luxury goods is expected to contract by up to 35 percent in 2020 … Currently, 15 percent of Chanel’s stores remain closed, mostly in the US, where the pandemic has hit hard … The company has seen tremendous growth in sales of beauty and fragrance products made via its own online channels, up by 60 percent year to date, with significant spikes in April and May. This, combined with its sales through Alibaba’s Tmall in China, has resulted in a tripling of total online sales in beauty and fragrance … Chanel remains adamant that it doesn’t need e-commerce for fashion and accessories, and that its customers value the in-store experience. Instead, the brand has put an increased emphasis on digitally ‘augmented’ physical retail, making it easier for store employees to sell products virtually through customer relationship management systems, if not a website.”
♥ Businesses Brace for Possible Limits on Foreign Worker Visas (The New York Times): “President Trump is expected to issue an executive order within days to temporarily suspend various work visas that businesses rely on to hire foreigners, and also lay the groundwork for regulatory changes that would limit employment opportunities for foreign graduates of U.S. universities … The details and scope of the plan remain unclear, and it is still a work in progress. But the coming order has elicited an extraordinary response from a diverse coalition … which have been inundating the White House with letters and phone calls … A key target is expected to be the H-1B visa, often issued to computer programmers and other skilled workers … The order is also expected to temporarily halt other visas, including L-1s, for executives transferred within companies; H-2Bs, for seasonal workers who often work in landscaping and hospitality; and J-1s, issued to au pairs, students on work-study summer programs and others.”
♥ (Video Link) Building the Perfect Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder (Mark Rober on YouTube)
♥ When Your Best Friend in Quarantine Is a Squirrel, You May Be Going Nuts (The Wall Street Journal): “For people whose social lives have ground to a halt during the pandemic, squirrels are a cheap date. Sales of squirrel feeders are up. A video featuring a squirrel obstacle course designed by a former NASA engineer scored more than 28 million views in less than a month. Some squirrel watchers are bonding with the rodents, even welcoming them into their homes … squirrel love could pose dangers to humans. No matter how tame a squirrel might seem … it is still a wild animal that can carry disease and behave unpredictably.”
♥ What Fashion Investors Are Betting on Now (The Business of Fashion): “What many of the start-ups raising money these days have in common: they are seen by investors as recession-proof … It’s a 180-degree shift from the mentality in Silicon Valley before the pandemic, when growth was often prioritised at the expense of profitability … The global pandemic has exacerbated investor’s hesitance in investing in consumer brands, since consumer spending is on the decline. Investors are now looking at brands that have a proven track record for organically building audiences, and are creating products that are unique and not just another direct-to-consumer copycat … In a down economy, founders also need to be further along in product development … And just like their customers, start-ups need to be frugal.”
♥ Harry Potter Fans Reimagine Their World Without Its Creator (The New York Times): “… J.K. Rowling … followed commentators on Twitter who described transgender women as men. In December, she made her personal views more clear when she expressed enthusiastic support for a British researcher who filed a lawsuit against her former employer, claiming that she had been discriminated against for her ‘gender critical’ views.”
♥ Until 06/21/2020, take an extra 25% off clearance styles at Nordstrom (prices as marked) for up to 70% off. Shipping and returns are free on all orders. My picks:
♥ Why Gravity Is Not Like the Other Forces (Quanta Magazine): “As one approaches the singularity at the center of a black hole, or the Big Bang singularity, the predictions inferred from general relativity stop providing the correct answers … our understanding of black holes so far suggests that any theory of quantum gravity should have substantially fewer degrees of freedom than we would expect based on experience with the other forces. This idea is codified in the ‘holographic principle,’ which says … that the number of degrees of freedom in a spatial region is proportional to its surface area instead of its volume.”
♥ The Future of Suits (The Business of Fashion): “The US market for suits … [inched] down to $1.9 billion in 2019 from $2.1 billion in 2014 and from $2.7 billion in 2005 … In order to combat this dip, brands known for suiting may attempt to expand their businesses in Asian markets, where casual workplace attire has yet to reach the C-suite, and demand continues to grow. In the Asia Pacific region, the mens suiting market was worth $23 billion in 2019, up from $11 billion in 2005 with a compound annual growth rate of 3 percent over a five year period from 2019.”
♥ Rising Seas Threaten an American Institution: The 30-Year Mortgage (The New York Times): “Home buyers are increasingly using mortgages that make it easier for them to … walk away from the loan if the home floods or becomes unsellable or unlivable. More banks are getting buyers in coastal areas to make bigger down payments — often as much as 40 percent of the purchase price, up from the traditional 20 percent — a sign that lenders have awakened to climate dangers and want to put less of their own money at risk … banks … are increasingly getting these mortgages off their own books by selling them to government-backed buyers like Fannie Mae, where taxpayers would be on the hook financially if any of the loans fail … If climate change makes coastal homes uninsurable … their value could fall to nothing … In 30 years from now, if global-warming emissions follow their current trajectory, almost half a million existing homes will be on land that floods at least once a year … In 2009, local banks sold off 43 percent of their mortgages in vulnerable zones … about the same share as other areas. But by 2017, the share had jumped by one-third, to 57 percent, despite staying flat in less vulnerable neighborhoods.”
♥ Flushing the Toilet May Fling Coronavirus Aerosols All Over (The New York Times): “Scientists have found that in addition to clearing out whatever business you’ve left behind, flushing a toilet can generate a cloud of aerosol droplets that rises nearly three feet. Those droplets may linger in the air long enough to be inhaled by a shared toilet’s next user, or land on surfaces in the bathroom. This toilet plume isn’t just gross. In simulations, it can carry infectious coronavirus particles that are already present in the surrounding air or recently shed in a person’s stool. The research … adds to growing evidence that the coronavirus can be passed not only through respiratory droplets, but through virus-laden feces, too.”
♥ How to Deal With Public Bathrooms During Coronavirus (The New York Times): “Many parents are finding creative ways to avoid public restrooms during the novel coronavirus pandemic, either from fear of infection or because many public restrooms and highway stops are closed. Still, experts say that with the right supplies and careful hygiene, restrooms can be a reasonable risk to take this summer … Since many public restrooms are small, poorly ventilated spaces with a high volume of traffic, they feel like a place where people could potentially be exposed to viral material. But … the overall risk of a public bathroom is probably not as high as people imagine it to be. It’s not about the contact in an area, it’s more about the amount of time a person has had contact there.”
♥ At $18,000 Per Banker, Cost of Returning to Wall Street Will Sting (Bloomberg): “… keeping the workplace virus-free isn’t going to be cheap. Air-conditioning systems need to be outfitted with better filters and bring in more outside air. Lids might have to be added inside bathroom stalls to avoid the spread of coronavirus-carrying toilet plume. Covered trash cans should be placed at entrances and exits for employees to dispose of masks … In all, the amount of money they spend for each employee to work in their office towers could jump as much as 50% because of coronavirus-related changes … According to Deloitte, companies typically spend $7,000 to $12,000 a year in occupancy costs per employee. So 10,000 employees could mean an extra $60 million a year in expenses tied to making sure their offices are ready and safe. The biggest U.S. banks all have at least that many on staff in the New York metro area alone.”
♥ How 2 Lives Collided in Central Park, Rattling the Nation (The New York Times): “The two Memorial Day incidents captured on video two facets of entrenched racism black people experience: one the horrors of police brutality, the other the routine humiliations and threats in daily life … That morning, aware that the police would most likely be arriving shortly, Mr. Cooper recalled his next steps clearly. He picked back up his Swarovski binoculars that hung around his neck and continued to look for splashes of feathers atop the London plane trees. ‘I was adamant about that … I birded my way out as I normally do.'”
♥ What Will the Retail Experience of the Future Look Like? (HBR): “… brands need more than a checklist of sanitization practices. They need actionable vision that will set them apart and entice people people back inside their stores … Retailers outside of the essential category need to think about space as a service … given that contactless shopping will be the new normal, retailers should consider looking to other industries that already offer similar services. If you can book a dinner reservation for 7:30, why can’t you book a shopping experience for 6:30 nearby? … Most online shopping experiences were built on generic templates, but with millennials and Gen-Z funneling themselves into ever-narrower aesthetic tribes, online shopping no longer has to cater to the masses. Maybe stores are only one typology in an array of ways we could interact with products. Could online shopping exist as a surreal world of discovery … Imaginative installations, rich materials, and a uniting storyline allow the space to speak for itself — the physical details, which go beyond a one-dimensional Instagram backdrop, embody the same feelings you associate with the brand.”
♥ Anna Wintour Is Not Resigning, Says Condé Nast Chief (The Business of Fashion): “In a town hall Zoom meeting with Condé Nast employees … Chief Executive Officer Roger Lynch confirmed that Anna Wintour will not be resigning from her roles at the publisher … Condé Nast executives laughed off the rumours about Wintour.”
♥ The Pandemic Sent Young New Yorkers Packing. Will They Return? (The New York Times): “Young people who came to the city from elsewhere in their 20s and 30s to pursue their dreams have packed up and left in waves. Many of them are unemployed, were furloughed or have taken big pay cuts. More than two out of every five unemployment claims filed in New York State since late March were submitted by workers under 35. Their places of work — from the service industry to Broadway — have gone out of business or shut down indefinitely. Moving trucks have dotted blocks all over the city, especially in Lower Manhattan, an area with many younger residents.”
♥ Recently ordered: Yves Saint Laurent Water Stain Lip Stain, Self-Portrait Lace Cape Crepe Midi Dress, Uniqlo Linen Cotton Wide Cropped Pants, Ted Baker Corvala High/Low Dress, Roller Rabbit Valley Floral Dress, and Uniqlo Chiffon Pleated Skirt Pants.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend (and Happy Father’s Day!), everyone!
