♥ Yahoo Answers, a Haven for the Confused, Is Shutting Down (The New York Times): “Yahoo, which is owned by Verizon Media, will be shutting down the question-and-answer service and deleting its archives on May 4, erasing a corner of the internet that will be widely remembered for its — to be charitable — less-than-enriching contributions to human knowledge since its arrival in 2005 … It’s not the first time Yahoo and other tech companies have killed off once-popular products without the benefit of archiving; 20 years of content posted to Yahoo Groups was deleted in 2019, the same year Flickr deleted 15 years of photos.”
♥ Americans Are Turning Spare Bedrooms Into Giant Closets (The Atlantic): “The closet has transformed both spatially and spiritually, from cramped afterthought to personal sanctuary. At the very high end, closets can span multiple rooms and comprise a near-limitless set of amenities … They can even bear an uncanny resemblance to boutiques. As shopping continues to shift online, the ultimate luxury might be building a store of your own … extreme closets may be starting to resemble those of, say, 16th-century Europe: a collection of prized things on loving display, a comfortable seating area in the innermost sanctum of one’s home, maybe a little desk area to work in solitude.”
♥ Low-rise Jeans Are Back. Don’t Panic. (Vox): “… how fashion trends operate: A new look starts bubbling up and, at first, it’s met with disdain and fear and seen as something only meant for the young and professionally beautiful. Gradually, though, it becomes so ubiquitous and watered down that even people who don’t give all that much thought to what they put on their bodies are buying it at the store … this is an undeniable fact: Low-rise jeans are cool again.”
♥ A New ‘Denim Cycle’? After a Decade, Jeans Move From Skinny to Loose (The New York Times): “The style at hand — or leg — is often referred to as ‘mom jeans,’ including on the Levi’s website where they are prominently showcased. They have become more visible in the past year on Instagram fashionistas and teens in Netflix shows, and championed by youths on TikTok … younger customers were often pairing tighter tops with the jeans … Skinny jeans still make up the largest share of women’s jeans at 34 percent of sales in the United States … But the style lost seven share points in the 12 months ending in February.”
♥ LVMH’s First-Quarter Fashion Sales Jump 37 Percent On 2019 (The Business of Fashion): “LVMH’s revenue climbed 8 percent over 2019 levels during the first-quarter … The company saw fast-growing sales for wine and spirits, as well for the fashion and leather goods division that is powered by Louis Vuitton and Dior. That key division saw sales rise 37 percent on 2019.”
♥ “I Felt Hate More Than Anything”: How an Active Duty Airman Tried to Start a Civil War (ProPublica): “… the rise of a violent insurrection movement across America led by increasingly extreme and aggressive militias that seek out opportunities to confront and even attack the government … While militias have long been active in the United States, groups tracking extremist violence have reported notable increases in paramilitary activity over the past year, and the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the director of national intelligence have all issued stark warnings in recent months about an elevated threat of violence from domestic extremist groups.”
♥ Buying Diamonds in Lockdown? Shoppers Turn To Whatsapp (The Business of Fashion): “The pandemic has forced luxury goods companies to use social media, video and virtual showrooms to woo their wealthy customers in Europe and keep them shopping at a time when tourists, especially from China, have been absent for more than a year … Online revenues for the industry have doubled to nearly 20 percent of sales in the past year alone … Boston Consulting Group expects that percentage to rise to 25 percent by 2023.”
♥ A Guide to Neopronouns (The New York Times): “A neopronoun can be a word a created to serve as pronoun without expressing gender, like ‘ze’ and ‘zir.’ A neopronoun can also be a so-called “noun-self pronoun,” in which a pre-existing word is drafted into use as a pronoun. Noun-self pronouns can refer to animals — so your pronouns can be ‘bun/bunself’ and ‘kitten/kittenself.’ Others refer to fantasy characters — ‘vamp/vampself,’ ‘prin/cess/princesself,’ ‘fae/faer/faeself’ — or even just common slang, like ‘Innit/Innits/Innitself.’ … Many people who use neopronouns don’t just use one set. They select a handful, and show off their collections on websites like Pronouny.xyz, a site that provides usage examples for neopronouns.”
♥ After A Deal That Wasn’t, Bally Tries To Get Back on Track (The Business of Fashion): “This time around, Bally is trying to grow with a more financially disciplined approach … Rather than reentering blue-chip shopping avenues … the brand is moving into locations whose mix of fashion, culture and restaurants are more aligned with the industry’s current focus on selling to local clients. While domestic luxury shopping is bouncing back after coronavirus lockdowns, long-haul tourism is expected to take longer to recover … As for its design, rather than bringing a new, top-down creative vision to the market … Bally is relying on a bottom-up, customer-led approach to its repositioning. It’s carrying out consumer surveys, A/B testing for campaigns and social media posts, and even testing out prototypes and prices on consumers for items in development before moving ahead with merchandising and production.”
♥ Fentanyl Has Spread West and Overdoses Are Surging (The Wall Street Journal): “Long a scourge on the East Coast, fentanyl is now driving a rapid increase in overdose deaths in the Western U.S. … The problem is particularly acute in San Francisco, where a record 708 people died of drug overdoses in 2020, a 61% increase from the previous year … So far, this year has been worse: 135 died by overdose in January and February, on pace for more than 800 deaths by the end of the year … Fentanyl can be 50 times more potent than heroin, making it possible to overdose on tiny amounts … A projected 90,237 people in the U.S. died from overdoses in the 12-month period that ran through last September … In all of 2019, there were 70,630 drug deaths, a record that was likely broken last year. Opioids including fentanyl were involved in about 70% of overdose deaths in 2019, according to the CDC.”
♥ Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez Are Single Again (The New York Times): “It is a great and terrible and majestic time for New York. And now, this: A split of two eminences with the city at the core of their identities … Their relationship was extensively documented on internet gossip sites. They fed the fire by offering extensive glimpses on social media, in ways both touching and seemingly promotional.”
♥ Experience: I’ve Had the Same Supper for 10 Years (The Guardian): “I have a routine, just like nature. That extends to what I eat. I’ve had the same supper for 10 years, even on Christmas Day: two pieces of fish, one big onion, an egg, baked beans and a few biscuits at the end. For lunch I have a pear, an orange and four sandwiches with paste. But I allow myself a bit more variety; I’ll sometimes have soup if it’s cold.”
♥ What Ever Happened to Toms Shoes? (Bloomberg): “To connect with today’s teens and early 20-somethings—a group dubbed Generation Z—the brand has ended the footwear donations that keyed its breakthrough a decade ago and is now giving a third of profit to causes it says this younger cohort cares about, such as gun violence. Marketing has been revamped to focus on teens. It’s also pushing further into sneakers.”
♥ Stitch Fix CEO, Among Youngest Female Founders to Go IPO, Moves to Executive Chair (The Wall Street Journal): “… founder and Chief Executive Katrina Lake will step down from her role and assume a position as executive chairwoman … Stitch Fix’s shares have increased more than threefold in the past 12 months … Stitch Fix generated sales of $1.71 billion last year boosted by a rise in online shopping spurred by the coronavirus pandemic and popularity among young consumers.”
♥ Why, Despite Everything, You Should Have Kids (if You Want Them) (The New York Times): “What if hope exists not for any individual human being now living — but rather for the members of future generations, who though powerless to redeem us, might nevertheless be able to overturn the injustices we have been subject to and carve out a better existence for themselves? In this view, hope is not for ‘us’ but it is nevertheless related to us, by means of our connection to other, future human beings … In the wake of the pandemic, we must work to reverse the ways in which … we have become increasingly isolated from one another, reduced to atomized cocoons of individuals and their families. And kids, if nothing else, can be a huge part of that resistance. Children, in truth, require many people, not just their parents, to help them flourish: Raising children need not mean … forming a private home to keep them safely contained in, away from the world. They must be raised to participate in it.”
♥ It’s Time to Retire the Idea of Women’s Watches (Bloomberg): “… gender-free timepieces would make women feel more included in what has typically been a dude-driven industry and hobby. Readers ask me all the time: Why aren’t more women working in or wearing watches? Well, probably because watch companies market potentially unisex pieces with male race car drivers and fighter pilots.”
♥ Does SoHo, Haven for Art and Wealth, Have Room for Affordable Housing? (The New York Times): “SoHo is now better known as a glitzy retail and dining district, one where it is easier to find a table at a restaurant than a reasonably priced apartment. And it is decidedly white. A plan to bring new development to SoHo and NoHo … aspires to change that. A proposed rezoning would allow 3,200 additional apartments over the next 10 years, including approximately 800 affordable units in an area that had fewer than 8,000 residents in the 2010 census. And by doing so in a place internationally synonymous with affluence and style, it could also become a symbol for racial and economic integration everywhere … The rezoning proposal is nowhere near final. In the meantime, residents of all opinions are trying to make their voices heard before the planning department presents a proposal that will go to the City Council and the mayor later this year. For those who oppose the plan, the debate has put them in an uncomfortable position: Their opposition can be seen as a barrier to diversifying the neighborhood.”
♥ The Future of High Heels Looks Wobbly—at Least for Now (The Wall Street Journal): “Sales of high-heeled shoes fell 45% in 2020 … Many women had already been moving away from heels pre-Covid with the growing casual-fashion trend. The pandemic accelerated that shift. Brands famous for stilettos and pumps, such as Christian Louboutin and Stuart Weitzman, have been promoting more flats, loafers, sandals and sneakers on their Instagram accounts.”
♥ Recently purchased: Madewell Courier Tie Waist Shirtdress, Sam Edelman Bay Slides, Reformation Paxton Minidress, Leggings Depot Jogger, and J. Crew Canvas Cross-strap Midheel Sandals.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone!
