40 deliciously textured vintage pieces to shop
plus performative male home decor, molehill city guide update, and berkeley bowl outfit surveys.
Morning! Let’s catch up.
Does this Togo sofa make me look performative???
Last month, I wrote about turning down a contributing editor role at Marie Claire because it would have entailed writing a lot of ecomm shopping stories (among other drawbacks). Working for yourself means being your own professional development champion. As a freelance writer you have to think hard about what sort of assignments you want—and then, put yourself in a position to get them.
So when an editor reached out with an assignment on performative male homes for AD, I said yes because the sociology-meets-consmer-culture angle was totally up my alley. This is the kind of story I want to write more of!
I interviewed the Middlebrow podcast guys Dan Rosen and Brian Park, as well as Sarah Weichel, founder of an LA-based interior design Swike (and leading Silverlake male anthropologist lol). We had many laughs coming up with examples of status-y design items, and ultimately landed in defense of the performative male home. Give it a read if you want to be gently roasted about owning a Fellow kettle (which I do). I also asked Sarah what she thinks the next big status object will be based on what she sees in Silverlake.
Her answer? Vintage cars that signal individuality and *bespoke-ness.*
Molehill Maps is in progress.
I know, I know, we need a better city guide tool. I’m working on a solution for us!
The chat has become a bustling resource for travel recommendations. In this week alone, readers have sought out recs for Palm Springs, Florence, Champagne, Seattle, Chicago, Paris, Chicago, Boston, DC, Philly, London, and Venice. Phew!!!!!
The Molehill is read in all 50 states and 162 countries, which means we collectively hold a trove of knowledge on the best places to eat and shop and play around the world. I love that for us. But the thing about Substack chat is that it’s terrible for searching and saving threads. It’s a real pain.
So I’m working with a reader, Helena, the founder of a mappable city guide tool, on mocking something up. More to come soon, and paid readers will get early access.
Side note: as I was playing with the map mockup, it hit me like…wow I never envisioned the newsletter would spawn these side projects. Thank you for being a part of this space and shaping its future!
Are you going to Berkeley Bowl this week? Take my survey!
I want to do more hyperlocal fashion x food reporting featuring REAL PEOPLE, and I need your help. I have 6 responses so far and would love to get to 10.
There are 40 new pieces in the secondhand sonar google doc.
There’s no unifying theme. Just a bunch of good transitional weather stuff that will probably get snapped up soon, and I’d love to see it go to a mole’s wardrobe :)
Was inspired by lots of colorful suede, grommets, shearling trim leather, jade, peridot gemstones—the usual!
I think my favorite piece in there is a pea green collared suede jacket that, if paired with a grommet detail skirt, screams vintage Prada.
If you like the sampling below, there’s much more of it in the doc.
Link to the doc is beneath the paywall: