The Gas Station #18
CBK goes to Zara, Dua Lipa's new book podcast, midlife nose jobs, and all the best in style, culture, life, beauty and motherhood from the week
Hi everyone,
I went to see Pulp at the weekend and, the O2 aside, it was a glorious evening. They’re rumoured to be playing a secret show at Glastonbury, under the name ‘Patchwork’ at the Pyramid stage on the Saturday, and I highly recommend going to see them if you’re there - they’ve definitely still got it.
Style
This was a fun in-depth read on the must-have bag of the summer: the literary tote. But this new iteration is only really big enough to hold “your book, your phone, a highlighter, and nothing else”, as is the case with Kaia Gerber’s “Back to literature” mini tote. Where do your literary alliances lie on your arm? I use a Strand book store bag for food shopping because it’s so sturdy and I was also somewhat inspired by Rashida Jones’s character in Sofia Coppola’s On The Rocks who pairs her Strand tote with a Chanel bag, which really is a masterly way of signalling ‘I’m a cool and stylish woman and I’m not ready to completely walk away from that even though I’m now a mother and need to take snacks and a spare change of kids clothes everywhere I go’. It’s a great costume detail.
Not great costume details: The first look at Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in American Love Story who looks like she just popped into Zara. The fashion world is very mad with Ryan Murphy and his team and rightfully so. Also: the hair is way off. Let’s get a bit of oomph in those roots and fix up those ends!
This is a cute quiz to find your perfect summer swimsuit style.
Manolo Blahnik will sponsor Marie Antoinette Style at the V&A in South Kensington which opens on September 20th and is the first ever exhibition dedicated to the life of the French queen.
Culture
I like Dua Lipa a lot. I think of all the pop girlies she just seems like she has the most fun: hot fiancé, embraces the party, gets to sing bangers. And she’s obviously curious (I enjoyed what she had to say in her recent British Vogue video in response to the accusations that she's always on holiday: “I’m not always on holiday, I just make everything I do feel like a holiday. I am travelling but I am touring so when I’m touring I’m going to go and try this restaurant, and try that bar, try this drink and I wanna try that sandwich and I want to meet this person and I want to go to this museum”.) Anyway, I listened to the first episode of her new book podcast Service95 Book Club with Dua Lipa and was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed the conversation with Jennifer Clement about her brilliant book Widow Basquiat, a memoir of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s muse Suzanne Mallouk, in which they talk about art, New York in the ‘80s, AIDS, drugs etc. I just don’t know where she finds the time.
Have we all seen this “very beautiful” portrait of Oasis?
I’ve just finished watching The Studio on Apple TV, which I really loved, and I thought Chase Sui Wonders was brilliant in it. Next she heads up the reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer and the trailer has just been released. I had to keep reminding myself that it’s not a spoof.
Beauty
Alice Gregory wrote a good piece about nose jobs, liquid rhinoplasty and a sort of investigation into whether she should get her nose fixed. “I was almost 40... I was married. I had a baby. I had lots of friends. How could I possibly justify a major facial surgery?”
I like these Francesca Allen photographs from Lithuania’s Long-Haired World contest, “part beauty pageant and part folkloric ritual” from her Plaukai series (that’s ‘hair’ in Lithuanian).
A fun person to do the ol’ classic ‘all the products I use until the last drop’ beauty staple: Isamaya Ffrench. A lot going on.
Life
Yes, pop culture is embracing smoking again, but if you’re going to go all in, you’ll need a cigarette case for Smoking 2.0, according to the FT. This Faberge one is going for £43,432 on 1stDibs but you’ll find something more affordable on eBay.
Like everyone else, I adore a travel round-up and often read the NYT 36 Hours series, which I especially enjoy if I’ve been to the place and can feel smug about having already done some of their recommendations. So I obviously dived straight into 36 Hours… in East London, my neck of the woods. Pretty solid advice here from the writer and I have even been inspired to try a couple of things myself (perhaps I will finally give Smoking Goat a go). I will, however, never understand everyone’s obsession with Columbia Road flower market which imo is the worst way to spend a Sunday morning in London *ducks*.
The Ritz in London has been named the UK’s best restaurant at the prestigious National Restaurant Awards. If you’re going, don’t forget that it remains the one place where men must wear a jacket and tie, and women are required to dine in evening wear. Also a soup starter will cost you £40 (well, it’s vichyssoise and they call it ‘first course’).
Motherhood
Recently the worst part of my morning has been getting my toddler dressed. He either defiantly objects (“nope!”), runs away laughing, or, if I’ve made a start, thrashes around. This pre-8am battle of wills can feel exhausting. This piece has some good advice on how to handle a clothes-resistant child, including offering two outfits, turning it into a game, letting them shop with you etc. Naturally it includes everyone’s favourite answer to an irritating problem with children: it’s just a phase.
I was the same age as the girls in Now & Then when it came out so obviously I was a huge fan and may or may not have tried to convince my friends to have a seance in a graveyard as a result. ‘I’m a Millennial Mom—and I Want My Girls to Experience a Now & Then Summer’ is about how to give your kids a little more freedom, inspired by the film. I’m probably more likely to watch a reboot of this than IKWYDLS.
See you on Friday,
Gillian