May '25 Recap
A surplus of fringe at Cannes, Jia Tolentino's broken brain, and an unexpected Steve Madden comeback.
I’m back in New York City after a little trip away, and I’m thrilled to officially have my work hat back on. I know it’s not in anymore, but I love to work and I love that NYC culture lets me feel that way without too much scrutiny.
To that end, I’ve been thinking about the future of this Substack. In my experience, I have to try something new for a few months before I can see the forest through the trees. Now four months in, I have a more concrete idea of where this is all going. So, here are a couple of takeaways, as well as what you can expect from Close Friends this summer.
The literary crowd — i.e. traffic driving from within the Substack app — is into the essays. You didn’t get one this month (see: little trip away) but I have a consumer wellness story coming out this month that I think you’ll be into. Now that I’ve figured out how long these essays are actually going to take me to write and edit (longer than predicted, per usual) I’ve landed on a proper schedule for them. Starting in June, you can expect an essay in your inbox on the third Tuesday of each month.
As for the monthly recaps, they tend to appeal to readers who want to stay current with pop culture but aren’t necessarily up for a full essay. As a way to help readers get to know me better, they do the job, but sometimes I worry they’re a bit too “me”-focused. (Chrisaleen, my editor, will likely remind me: “This is your Substack, it should be about you.” She’s usually right.)
My other concern is the frequency: once a month isn’t quite enough to keep things timely. As it stands, the recaps blend personal highlights with zeitgeisty news, but the news component tends to favor the end of the month because of recency bias (and our ever accelerating news cycles). That’s why, starting in July, I’ll be sending weekly recaps to your inbox every Friday, aggregating news coverage across fashion, culture, and media. The monthly personal recaps will still be there — they’ll just have a more defined role alongside the added weekly news format.
Maybe you didn’t need to know all of that, but I’m compulsively honest and, frankly, am relying on you as accountability partners. Anyway! A few May highlights below.
What happened
Cannes
The red carpet takeaway: fringe! Lucky for me, I love it. Rihanna wore Alaïa on the carpet, but she was spotted in a Khaite drop-waist fringe dress with Giuseppe Zanotti PVC heels while out and about. Dakota Johnson wore a pink fringe Gucci strapless at the premiere of Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest. At the premiere of Ari Aster’s Eddington, Julia Garner wore a long-sleeve shoulder-padded dress by Haider Ackerman for Tom Ford — fringe. And Isabelle Huppert in a brat green of sorts? Balenciaga fringe (if we can call it that). Honorable mention to Pedro Pascal, who did not wear fringe but did keep my Instagram feed alight for an entire week.
As for the films themselves, I think we’re already in a Jennifer Lawrence Oscar campaign for her role in Die, My Love, a thriller-comedy in which Lawrence’s character has postpartum depression. I’ve heard to watch out for the Sound of Falling, per The Run-Through. Like everyone else, I’m dying to see The History of Sound starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor.
Maria Grazia Chiuri is leaving Dior
After nine years as the head of womenswear — the first woman to fill the role in Dior’s 78-year history — Maria Grazia Chiuri is departing from her post. This needed to happen. Like Chanel, the brand had gotten stale. (I’m willing to bet she was pushed out to make room for Jonathan Anderson, who was announced as the new head of Dior Men in April). Of Chiuri’s departure, fashion critic Vanessa Friedman wrote:
“Ms. Chiuri… helped grow Dior to what is estimated to be close to $9 billion in revenue and expanded its identity more than anyone may have realized. She is quoted in the documentary ‘Her Dior’ — a study of Ms. Chiuri’s work with female artists directed by Loïc Prigent and released in March (an early sign, perhaps, of legacy building) — saying she knew what she was doing. She did.”
Rhode Acquisition
As you’ve surely heard, Hailey Bieber sold her three-year-old beauty brand to e.l.f. Cosmetics in a $1B deal. “The Walmart brand?” someone asked me. Indeed. I can only imagine that they’re trying to enter a more luxury market and Rhode is the perfect bridge — soon to retail at Sephora, but no single product costs more than $40.
I’m very averse to magazines suddenly calling Bieber a billionaire, though. It’s categorically untrue (unless her prior financial situation had her locked in). As reported by Puck, “the deal stipulates $800 million at closing (a combination of cash and stock) with a potential earnout of $200 million based on Rhode’s performance over the next three years.”
Some of the girls on Tiktok do not understand acquisition and instead think this is an e.l.f. collab… dire. All of this has distracted people from the Justin Bieber caption, and thank god for that.
Cowboy Carter World Tour
In February, I wrote in this very newsletter, “if you have an extra tour ticket, PLEASE HIT MY LINE.” I’m thrilled to report that multiple people did indeed hit my line and I made the pilgrimage to East Rutherford, New Jersey on Wednesday. It poured sheets of rain, but I didn’t encounter a single person in a bad mood. The girls to my left, best friends, had come up from the South just for the concert. The man to my right had a great hat on (“It’s her collaboration with Levi’s,” he told me). Someone I met in line made his own outfit by hand. And I — alone among about 50,000 people — sang every word to an immaculate PURE/HONEY / SWEET HONEY BUCKIIN mashup.
What’s in my cart
Much like Hunter Yvonne Harris, I’ve been getting my head in the game. Top of mind, of course, is looking the part. But after last night… I’ll put the cap away for next year.
Havaianas Women’s Core Flip-Flops
I’ve said it before, and I’m still saying it: I’m pro flip-flop. Recently, I bought these, as I didn’t own the wide strap version. It’s the easiest shoe and Gigi Hadid’s new contract with the brand is only supporting my stance.
What I read
“Zohran Mamdani Crashes the Party,” New York Magazine
The New York City mayoral election is coming up on June 24 and Zohran Mamdani is polling second, behind Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani — a democratic socialist — is certainly the most online of all the candidates, which appeals to my age demographic. This profile, written by E. Alex Jung paints an excellent picture of his life. Mamdani’s father is a scholar, his mother a renowned filmmaker. I liked how he spoke about them and how he navigates his politics as a bearer of “relative privilege”:
“Sometimes the impulse is to wash your hands of the guilt, to slip away from it,” he says. “But what that assumes is that your responsibility ends because you’re not directly involved when in fact it continues, just without you.” I ask him to tell me more about his interest in politics and desire for executive power — how is he different from, say, Cuomo? “I think it’s a question of who it’s for. Power for us is for the people,” he says.
True and False Magic: A Tools Workbook, Phil Stutz and Elise Loehnen
I briefly mentioned this book in relation to a podcast last month, but I hadn’t read it just yet. While (mostly) stepping away from the internet for about 10 days, I got into it. In the workbook, Stutz lays out three universal, inescapable truths: pain, uncertainty, and the need for constant work. According to him, these will be features of our lives as long as we live and if we want to be creative people in the world, we’ll need to learn to work through them — not resist them. He also says that goodness is not the antidote to evil, creativity is. Some of it was basic, other parts were illuminating. His definition of self-esteem as “your ability to expand your pain tolerance” struck me. I recommend it to anyone who finds themselves facing creative (or material) blocks.
My Brain Finally Broke, The New Yorker
In Jia Tolentino’s latest, she writes about the current state of political affairs within the U.S., specifically how the government seems to have figured out how to operate in tandem with the breakneck speed of the internet. “There was once a time when my physical surroundings felt more concrete than whatever I was looking at on my phone, this year has marked a turning point. Now the cognitive tendrils of a phone-based psychosis frequently seem more descriptive of contemporary reality… than the daffodils I see springing up in the park,” she writes, describing her now, potentially forever blurred understanding of what’s true and on time. It made me wonder if we are going through a collective brain fog (I go in and out of mine) and question, like Tolentino, if “the opaque feeling in my head can also be traced to a craven instinct: it’s easier to retreat from the concept of reality than to acknowledge that the things in the news are real.”
What I listened to
“A Chat with Steve Madden,” The Cutting Room Floor
I’ve previously said that Popcast is my favorite podcast, but it’s tied with The Cutting Room Floor, hosted by Recho Omondi. In an industry that’s so heavily dictated by PR relationships, which consequently dictates our journalism in disturbing ways, Omondi cuts through the noise with smart questions and a willingness to be wrong (though she’s usually right). The $6 I pay Patreon for her podcast each month might be the best money I spend on media. This episode with Steve Madden is a breath of fresh air, thanks to his authentic discussions of his life and career — his crimes committed with Jordan Belfort, building his business model on duping designer brands (“You know, there’s been the odd little shoe that I’ve nicked here and there”) and what fathering generationally wealthy children looks like for him. The episode has since gone viral and if you haven’t listened yet, I recommend that you do.
“Elissa Slotkin to Fellow-Democrats: ‘Speak in Plain English’,” The New Yorker Radio Hour
Like so many others, I’m feral for any discussion of how Democrats can perform better. I liked this take from Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, who has taken issue with Bernie and AOC’s “Fighting Oligarchy” tour. For Slotkin’s part, she agrees with the sentiment, but is urging her party to “speak in plain English,” rather than using complex terms. Her opinion has been hotly debated, but full disclosure, I agree with her.