It’s been a very snowy month. People want to punch me when I say this, but I love this weather. Being Canadian, it’s nostalgic — even leaping over puddles of melting slush hasn’t been bothering me lately. It can be a fun little game if you let it (or more realistically: if you have appropriate footwear). I tend to think seasons are important for maintaining humility — a reminder that nothing lasts forever.
That said, I’ve been leaning into winter this year by cooking a lot of warm, brothy foods. One of my staple meals is a red lentil dahl from an old cookbook at my parents’ house. It’s so easy: boil red lentils in vegetable broth with turmeric. Separately, fry onions in olive oil until they’re translucent and slick. Add finely chopped garlic with coriander, cumin, and fresh jalapeño (the recipe calls for a green chili, but they’re harder to find). Dump the cooked lentils into the onion pan, add canned coconut milk and diced tomatoes. They’ll lift the fond as you stir it all together. I like it served over basmati, and I’ll gladly eat it four days in a row.
What happened
The Olympics
I hardly watched this year, save for some figure skating (I’m more of a summer Olympics girl). Like everyone else, Alysa Liu has completely captivated me. Protect her at all costs! I did watch the men’s hockey final. And yes, I did pay attention to the locker room joke, and to Kash Patel getting sloshed with the “boys.” I feel like I’m supposed to perform some outrage — and regarding the Patel bit, I am outraged! — but in terms of the joke… I guess I’ve known one too many hockey boys because this wasn’t exactly shocking. Regrettably, I feel like we have bigger fish to fry. Glad other people had the energy to clock them though!
Fashion month
All love to the hard working people of the fashion establishment but… tough season. Very little stood out. Kallmeyer is still my top pick and like everyone else, I’m obsessed with the Colleen Allen hook and eye fleece. Allen’s whole collection was strong — I’m excited to see what celebrity wears the first look, which is an unlined lace dress.
As has been true for the past several years, I enjoyed Tory. It wasn’t her best collection, but her proportions and use of color are so interesting that it keeps me stimulated. I liked Bottega. I thought Diotima was okay. I wasn’t taken with anything at Ferragamo, which surprised me because it’s been one of my favorite shows since Maximilian Davis has been creative director. Maria Grazi Chiuri’s debut at Fendi featured some nice suiting, but she’s just… never going to do it for me. And for the kicker: I really, really didn’t like Demna’s debut at Gucci. Kate Moss and Alex Consani looked great in it though.
Awards season
Is it just me or have the shows been really good this year? I already talked about my Grammy favorites, but we just had the Brits, BAFTAS, and SAGs (I will not be calling the latter the “Actor Awards”). Quickly, I just need to discuss Rosalía in custom Chanel at the Brits: delicious!!! It’s so cool how joyful she is. Michael B. Jordan winning for Best Actor on Sunday? A much needed surprise and a total TREAT in what has otherwise been a fairly dramaless season overall. One thing’s for sure: Jessie Buckley will be taking home the Oscar.
Condé Nast’s LGBTQ brand, them, was acquired by Equalpride. Equalpride publishes Advocate and Out, the latter of which was once edited by Phillip Picardi — who also founded them under Anna Wintour during his time as editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue. (Picardi left Out in 2019 and declined a significant severance package because he didn’t want to be bound to an NDA, since the company’s owner was donating to anti-gay politicians.) This news comes just after a slew of staffers were laid off at Equalpride, so none of it makes much sense at all. Still, the company’s CEO Mark Berryhill said, “Adding the ‘them’ brand accelerates our mission and expands the ways we can champion LGBTQ+ voices year‑round.”
Paramount beat out Netflix to take over Warner Bros. Discovery
Warner Bros. Discovery is officially being acquired by Paramount Skydance. As reported in NBC News, “the takeover bid, factoring in WBD’s debt load, comes to a total of more than $110 billion.” Where does this leave your Paramount+ and HBO Max subscriptions? “We do plan to put the two services together, which today gives us a little over 200 million direct-to-consumer subscribers,” Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison said, per NBC.
At the top of each year, my friends Sam, Christine, and I make a list of pop culture predictions in a shared Note. This year, one of them wrote: “World war 3 begins at the close of the Olympics.” Not too far off, I fear! On Saturday, February 28, the US and Israel attacked Iran, killing at least 201 people, per the Iranian Red Crescent. Israel has since hit Beirut, Lebanon, with airstrikes; the Lebanese Health Ministry says the death toll has reached 51, with 154 people injured. According to a February Politico poll, the public is more convinced of the likelihood of intensifying global conflict than they were just one year ago:
The share of voters predicting a new global conflict has risen sharply since independent pollsters Public First asked the question in March 2025. “The changed attitudes of the Western public in under a year reflect a dramatic move to a more insecure world, where war is seen as likely and alliances are unstable.”
What’s in my cart
Emily Dawn Long Marit Highland Wool Sweater
As I said a couple weeks back, I’m completely taken with Emily Dawn Long. I’m not the only one. This sweater in particular has me in a chokehold. A very sexy knit!
Unreal Dark Chocolate Coconut Bars
I’m a hater of coconut water, but a lover of coconut desserts. Lately, I’m clinically addicted to these little bars, which are surely venture backed but I don’t want to look too closely and ruin a good thing. The lovely ladies at Isetta sent them to me and now I keep re-stocking my desk drawer with them. They’re not too sweet, not too big. They have the classic healthier-but-still-good mouthfeel of your typical Whole Foods product. I’ll pop one after lunch and then, temporarily satisfied, move on with my life for the afternoon.
What I read
“What Makes an Object Sexy?,” The New Yorker
I’m working on a book review and since reviews are tough to get right, I’ve been reading lots of them over the past week. To me, a good review should really read like a feature — something that stands on its own and isn’t wholly reliant on its subject. Lillian Fishman’s latest in The New Yorker, covering Anastasiia Fedorova’s new book, Second Skin: Inside the Worlds of Fetish, Kink, and Deviant Desire, came right on time. She so smoothly weaves her critique of the book into a contemporary critique writ large:
For all the warmth and camaraderie in Fedorova’s writing, “Second Skin” also captures some of our culture’s antisocial drifts: it would be hard to summon a more apt metaphor for our age of isolation and hyper-specific consumer preference than two people fucking alone together, shielded from each other by a full-body membrane.
Something From Nothing, Alison Roman
I’m just getting into the new Alison, even though I was quick to buy a signed copy on launch day in November. I’m so devoted to this woman and her recipes, so I was genuinely surprised when I didn’t love the Goodbye Meatballs, the first and only Alison recipe I won’t make again. They were fine, but for a classic spaghetti situation, I much prefer these Barefoot Contessa ones. They’re quintessential, cheesy, and delicious (though I do 100% beef and I’m still not settled on the sauce). The next Something From Nothing meal I’ll make is the Slow Cooked Tuna with White Beans and Aioli. There’s lots of lemon, garlic, and red onion paired with the fish. Incredibly up my alley! I like her recommendation to use the leftovers for a Niçoise, too.
“The Truth About Celebrity Styling with Kate Young,” Vanity Fair
For those interested in styling, be it editorial or celebrity, I think Vanity Fair’s new series, “Stylist Sessions,” is going to be really great. The first interview in the column is conducted by the wonderful José Criales-Unzueta with longtime celebrity stylist, Kate Young. She started at Vogue and as many stylists have over the past 20 years, crossed over to red carpet. I don’t think she’s as good as she once was, but as she explains in this interview, the entire relationship between stylists and clothes has been forced to change over the past decade or so. Since she’s been operating at such a high level in this industry for so long, her insights are invaluable. Plus, she validated my hatred for method dressing.
The reality is that brands are who hold the purse strings right now. When I started doing this, movie companies paid. I would make money doing a press tour, and now I am paid less for the same work than I was 15 years ago. And production companies now really rely on movie stars having brand deals to subsidize this. I think that’s even true with magazines. I don’t know whether you all want to admit it. We talk so much in this industry about the decline of luxury, but in fact, who has money? Dior and Louis Vuitton and Chanel. Movie companies aren’t making the money anymore. Magazines aren’t making the money anymore. Even celebrities, to a certain degree, aren’t making the kind of money making movies that they make from brand deals. I think really, you can just follow the money to see where the industry’s changed.
What I watched
The Alabama Solution (2025)
I attended On Air Fest in Brooklyn on Thursday. Unfortunately, Roxane Gay cancelled due to the blizzard earlier in the week, but I was lucky enough to catch Malcolm Gladwell interviewing Andrew Jarecki, co-director of the 2025 documentary, The Alabama Solution. The story follows a mother whose son was murdered in prison, as well as multiple incarcerated activists who use contraband cell phones to help the filmmakers show the conditions inside prison to the outside world. In a sense, the doc becomes a murder mystery, too. Needless to say, the treatment of inmates is horrifying beyond belief. And, as is true of prisons all over the country, the fact that many folks are in for nonviolent crimes will only amplify your disbelief. The entire film is a total feat of collaboration between the inmates and the film crew. It’s available on HBO, and I sincerely can’t recommend it enough.
Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette (2026)
This show is not good, but it is fun. And you know what? That’s beautiful. Throughout all the fashion discourse about the show, what has continued to strike me most about Carolyn as an icon is that it’s not men who have built her up in this way, but women. Like, I’m not convinced her cashmere sweaters and Prada loafers do as much for the average guy as they do for me. I also think much of the nostalgia around her has a lot to do with pre-Instagram face. It’s refreshing to see someone with a long nose and natural teeth be so revered. Hers is a look we almost never get to see and celebrate anymore. Princess Diana has the same appeal. That kind of beauty, typically only available to statuesque blonde white women, has given way to filler and so-called “preventative” botox. I’d like to think a trend toward getting less invasive work done — or, call me crazy, no invasive work done — would come from this, but I know too much to trust that fantasy.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (2025)
As I push through the Oscars lineup before March 15, I have to say: A$AP Rocky was the best little surprise in If I Had Legs. I LOVE a side character that works as a steadying force in the way that he does here. A chill guy who permits us to see just how far Rose Byrne’s character is drifting away, and who can hold the gravity of the situation in the way neighbors often do: knowing something’s off, but not quite what. The movie did give me an animal cruelty nightmare though. I wasn’t super into that.
What I listened to
Comedy podcasts have been giving me some serious levity lately. Namely “So True with Caleb Hearon” and “Straightiolab” by George Civeris (do we all have a crush on him?) and Sam Taggart (again, crush?). They’re so specific in their thinking and opinion-making — a quality I value. Cheers to men who know themselves! I still need to watch Civeris’ new Apple TV special, A Sense of Urgency.
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