The Gas Station #21
Reformation’s answer to the Dôen silk shorts, a few thoughts on Too Much, 'the power pause', and when your child should start organised sports
Hi everyone,
Is it just me or is it LOUD this summer in London? This is the third July that we’ve been in this house and I can’t remember previously thinking that I wish everyone would just stfu a bit. It’s been hotter than usual, that’s for sure, and perhaps it’s inviting everyone to act out. I am this close to putting an anonymous note through the letterbox of the house down the street to ask them if they wouldn’t mind turning down their monstrous dance music in the evenings so that other people could enjoy their gardens without feeling like they were at Pacha. If I wanted to be in Ibiza I would be. There is also SO much drilling going on. Is everyone in a mile radius of me renovating their houses and gardens? I’d shut the windows but it’s too hot. I usually dread the end of summer but all this racket is making me look forward to autumn when I don’t have to bear close witness to everyone’s bad music and renos. I feel like I’m in the intro of Anatomy of a Fall and there could be similar consequences. Or maybe I’m just getting older and it’s time for me to move to the country.
Style
If you missed out on the viral Dôen silk Iona shorts that are completely sold out everywhere, you can now preorder Reformation’s - ahem - tribute, Fern Satin Shorts. I predict these going fast (they’re also almost £100 cheaper, although it should be noted they’re not real silk like Dôen’s). Shipping on August 8th.
This is the If Only If nightgown that Jessica wears in Too Much that has sparked a ton of pieces about the return of the nightie this week. The British brand created a bespoke one for her dog too.
Colleen Allen used to be a menswear designer for The Row before starting her eponymous womenswear label last year and has since dressed everyone from Charli XCX to Ayo Edebiri to Adwoa Aboah. Enjoyed this interview with the on-the-up designer and you can take a look at some of her stuff here.
And I have it on v good authority that no money was exchanged for that digital cover of Lauren Sánchez Bezos. Vogue simply wanted the traffic and apparently it got a helluva lot of traffic. So everyone can stop speculating that Jeff paid for it as a wedding gift.
Culture
A couple of new songs for you. “The Sofa” by Wolf Alice, which with the line “Just let me lie here on the sofa/ And put the reruns on TV” makes it destined to become an anthem for bedrotters everywhere (it’s also a rather beautiful contemplation on ageing). And secondly, regular readers will know I fell hard for Cameron Winter’s debut album earlier this year and his band Geese are back with a new single “Taxes”. Stick around for the shift about a minute-and-a-half in and enjoy the sublime “Doctor, doctor! Heal yourself/ I will break my own heart from now on”. Gold. I tell you what, it sure is embarrassing having a crush on a 22-year-old when you’re 42.
I always loved Practical Magic growing up, it had a lot going for it: witchcraft, that house, and a very rare sighting of an on-screen Gillian, so I’m pretty pumped for the sequel which will again be starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock (as well as Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing - hurrah) and out in time for Halloween 2026. Nicole, do us underrepresented Gillians proud.
OK, what I watched this week: Started The Bear season 4. Not much to say other than it’s a marked improvement on season three but it’s all starting to feel very repetitive. Kind of thought this week’s And Just Like That… was the best of the series so far (?!!) which, you know, isn’t exactly saying it’s Some Like It Hot but it does show the power of throwing a big party when a series is floundering. And I watched the first few episodes of Too Much. I am not one to dunk on Lena’s talents, I thought the writing in Girls was genius, but this has left me disappointed. It’s all over the place with a ton of idiotic (and not in the good way) characters and it’s simply not funny enough. At least not considering Lena is at the helm (although the dinner party episode gave a glimpse of former glories). Also watched both Wimbledon singles finals and I was passionately cheering on Sinner in the men's for no other reason than he hadn’t won the tournament before and his name is cool. And the only film I saw this week was a rewatch of Single White Female (lol). I hadn’t seen it in well over a decade and my main takeaway was that the clothes are totally fab. Amazing skirt suits and exquisite, sexy nightgowns! And that Bridget Fonda’s apartment should be on Pinterest boards everywhere (flatmate not included).
Life
The sort of headline I will automatically click on: ‘From Girl Boss to No Boss’. I related to so much in this piece, of once being competitive and successful in the corporate realm (in my case media) which has morphed into a much slower ambition after having my child and finally asking after 20 years on the treadmill: might there be more to life than work and climbing the ladder? As the piece acknowledges, this is not about the rise of tradwives but rather educated and successful women who are “beginning to wonder whether all that career pressure they’ve been under was another way of forcing them into a box. If they now want something other than more work in exchange for all that work”. It also introduces a new book and idea from the author Neha Ruch who calls this period, particularly for working mothers, the “power pause”. This feels timely and is a conversation I’ve had with many, many women I know. A must read.
The FT has crowned the hojicha latte, made from charcoal-roasted green tea leaves, as the new matcha latte. “Hojicha has a naturally sweet, nutty flavour with a gentle smokiness and subtle caramel notes,” according to Hiromi Matsunobu, the founder of London’s Japanese café Matchado, which has branches in King’s Cross and Chiswick.
Now that everywhere from Positano to Hydra has mostly been ruined by social media, where are the fashion girls heading next? From Bodrum to Biarritz, Coveteur asked a bunch of creators for some chiller recommendations.
Beauty
Oh the humbling chin hair (I have three friends that come visit me roughly every six weeks before I set them up on a date with Tweezerman). This piece explains what they are (technically “terminal hair”, wow so serious), how they occur (hair follicles reacting to varying hormone levels differently) and whether it is indeed the same hair returning each time (it likely is).
As temperatures rise, expect to see a lot more beauty and wellness brands embrace extreme heat, in the shape of cooling mists, thermoregulating clothing, ice-based skincare products and climate-adaptive skincare.
Something I’m passionate about: how to protect your pelvic floor (wait should this really be in beauty?). If I was ever asked on Subway Takes, my take would be that, assuming the toilet seat is not gross, women should just sit on the seat (women spraying everywhere because they’re scared of the seat is just bad manners). Anyway, sitting on the loo seat is also good for your pelvic floor is one thing I learned here.
Motherhood
Every time we walk through a London park at the weekend I feel guilty that I haven’t enrolled my three-year-old in Little Kickers, the weekend football group for kids aged 18 months to eight years (one friend whose toddler does LK hilariously and very matter-of-factly once told me: “They’re not very good”). I harbour no dreams for my son to become a professional footballer (a horrifying thought) but was I denying him something? So I was interested in this article ‘When Should Kids Start Playing Sports? Here’s What The Research Says’. “According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, most children are not ready for organised sports until they are at least 6 years old,” it says. So by all means take young kids to those classes for the social aspect but under-6s “may not possess sufficient skills and attention span, even for simple organised sports” and unstructured free play is best as well as activities such as running, throwing, swimming and riding a tricycle, which will all prepare them with skills for when they are developed enough to start proper sports. So if, like me, you’re more a coffee-and-pastries-and-a-nice-walk type of family on a Sunday morning, consider yourself absolved. There’s plenty of time to scream from the sidelines later and I look forward to my soccer mum era in about three years.
Finally, I’ll leave you with ‘What to say when your child walks in on you having sex’. Has absolutely nothing to do with our Saturday morning.
See you on Friday,
Gillian