The Gas Station #15
The hottest new sustainable fashion brand, London's best sausage rolls, and the £34 beauty product with a 20,000 person waitlist
Hi everyone,
I spent the long weekend mostly cooking and dining out - I had pies, a roast, and a vegetarian chilli i.e. all my winter favourites. Sun, come back!
Style
I always admired the now defunct brand Mother of Pearl and its former creative director Amy Powney has just launched Akyn, which specialises in “elevated wardrobe staples”. It’s more affordable than other luxury brands (jumpers start at £350 and dresses at £320) and is steeped in Powney’s passion for sustainability. Read all about it here.
Didn’t have this collab on my 2025 fash bingo card: Kylie Jenner’s clothing line Khy is partnering with London Fashion Week darling Dilara Findikoglu. You’ll be able to see what their collaboration looks like tomorrow.
If you binge-watched Sirens on Netflix over the long weekend (guilty), you might be interested to know that the pastel-coloured, “Easter egg” fashion that the residents of Port Haven all wear is very much based on real-life style in places such as Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. “We took all those colours and those silhouettes that we all know as sort of that upper-crust, blue-blood, one-percenter summer aesthetic, and cranked the volume up extremely high,” costume designer Caroline Duncan told Vogue.*This is not an endorsement to watch the show which I can’t believe has 74% on Rotten Tomatoes - it should be 44%. Here ends my review.
Crochet bags are huge this summer - the more colourful and fun, the better. Miu Miu has the dream ones but there are some great options on the high street too. Or you can follow in the footsteps of the TikTok crocheters and make your own.
Culture
From tomorrow, the Prince Charles cinema, one of London’s finest, is doing an Éric Rohmer season and showing eight of his gorgeously French, hazy, horny summer movies including The Green Ray, Pauline at the Beach, and one of my favourites of his, Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle. Runs until 28th July.
Éric Rohmer (or at least someone playing him) also features in Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague about the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, which has just sold to Netflix, who are surely hoping it will be an award contender. Looking forward to this one.
If you’re searching for explanations for The Last Of Us finale, as I certainly was (wtf?) then this is a good piece which provides context about how it fits in with the video game and hints at where the show will go next, without giving away too many spoilers for the upcoming third season.
Life
My kind of article: the New York Times takes on the best sausage rolls in London. I approve a lot of the picks (the ones from the Ginger Pig, the Marksmen and Jolene are all indeed incredible) but I’d say one glaring omission from the piece is the sausage roll from The Dusty Knuckle which is outrageously good, as is everything there. I go to the one in Dalston (but early, before the mammoth queues start).
This was a neat debunking of eight popular relationship myths including that you shouldn’t get over cheating, arguing is bad, sleeping in separate beds means the relationship is doomed, and there’s no coming back from the ick.
Only 6 percent of Gen Z and millennial workers want to be the boss. And they don’t lack ambition but rather are trading corporate burnout for balance. “Instead of climbing a shaky ladder, Gen Z is focused on building purposeful lives—and careers that support them.”
This was great on how you can make your home look decadent on a budget by hanging large wall art.
Beauty
Merit’s tinted sunscreen, which had a 20,000 person pre-launch waitlist, has finally been released. People seem to be loving this product with numerous articles this week filled with beauty writers raving about it. Must try.
Apparently Neat 3B Face Saver Gel Antiperspirant (£12.95) is the key product you need for sweat-proof makeup this summer - a tip one makeup artist picked up while assisting Pat McGrath no less. I spend most of the summer months with foundation sliding off my face so I will be purchasing. PS It should be applied before skincare and makeup.
This was suitably over-the-top and enjoyable: what beauty heavyweights like to serve guests in the summer. Aerin Lauder does Ina Garten’s Easy Lobster Paella and Bobbi Brown makes her own recipe cocktail which includes freshly squeezed cucumber juice.
Motherhood
This is a hugely needed piece filled with advice about what to say - and what not to say - to someone going through IVF.
As regular readers might know, I am rather obsessed with the parenting lives of the ridiculously rich so was intrigued to read about the Facebook group Moms of the Upper East Side, which has 30,000 members who routinely upload nanny-shaming stories (as well as sharing advice on everything from private schools recommendations to what to do about a cheating husband). The childcare providers are now fighting back with their own Facebook group, The Nannies of New York City.
Should we be giving our kids fewer options? The algorithm serves me a lot of mummy content and often a woman will post a video talking about the importance of giving your child numerous options, from what to wear that day to dinnertime. This piece argues against that. “By denying them information about the full breadth of their options, you are not being cruel, and you are not denying them the right to express themselves or form their own identity. In fact, you are showing them kindness by steering them through the world.”
See you on Friday,
Gillian