How's everyone feeling? Since our last newsletter went out, we've had an earthquake in NYC and a total solar eclipse! I know NYC has had an earthquake or two in the past but I've personally never felt it before. This time around, the whole house rolled and shook and at first, I thought maybe my neighbor was doing construction and then quickly shifted to thinking, wait, maybe it's just a plane flying too low (I live near La Guardia), but the last thing I would have imagined was an earthquake! NYC's been feeling a bit stagnant for me lately so I suppose it was the jolt I needed.
In other news, you've probably noticed we've rolled out some new product photos. To be honest, I was hoping to do a full campaign rollout last year when the new colors dropped but we jumped right into pop-ups on the heels of our Portugal production trip! I still can't believe we managed to do 10 pop-ups in 2023 and meet so many of you in-person! But unfortunately, that meant that shooting new campaigns was pushed to the back burner.
Our next campaign will delve more into the backgrounds and work of our models. They are mothers, activists, visual artists, environmentalists, yoga instructors, jewelry designers - all of whom are doing amazing work to build community in their respective disciplines. This first rollout highlights Tara Germani, the genius behind our previous shoots who've we worked since our journey began in 2021.
Tara is an Australian born Sri Lankan/Lebanese fashion and spatial stylist, jewelry designer, and yoga instructor inspired by the sister sciences: Yoga, Ayurveda and Astrology. I wasn't on set for our first shoot in Sri Lanka so it was such a treat to witness Tara work her magic on set this time around! Stay tuned for more of the photos soon. 🧚🏽
It's Tamil and Sinhala New Year this weekend and our friends in Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Laos and Myanmar are also celebrating, so we wish you all an abundant and prosperous new year ahead!
Last summer, my friend Nyla and I went to Misha Japanwala's stunning show titled: Beghairati Ki Nishaani: Traces of Shamelessness. Her new body of work titled Topographies is currently on exhibit at the EXPO Chicago with the Hannah Traore Gallery from April 11th - 14th. Chicago friends, do try to stop by!
This new collection documents and honours fat, lumps, rolls and folds, presenting our bodies as landscapes: dynamic and shifting natural formations. In thinking of the land and body as one, I’m reminded of how deeply intertwined body freedom is with land freedom. In abstracting parts of the body without augmenting them, this collection presents each body exactly as it is, simultaneously imagining it as a majestic stretch of earth. In both instances, free of shame.
Misha held an open call for folks to come by her studio and have their curves cast which were then sculpted and painted in bright hues of blue, lavender, ochre, and red. “These casts offer a vision of a body that is joyful, leisurely, and playful, refusing to be concealed by slimming shades, insisting that they are enough exactly as they are.”
Jia Tolentino profiled Park Chan-wook for the New Yorker after having visited him on set in Vietnam and Los Angeles, as he directed the upcoming HBO series adaptation of “The Sympathizer,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen. Mark your calendars as the first episode drops April 14th on HBO.
My first Park Chan-wook film was Oldboy which I discovered long ago browsing our neighborhood Blockbuster (RIP, it's now a TD bank). Our beloved Blockbuster location had a small but well curated selection of foreign films which we'd cycle through on our weekly Friday evening visits. It was Oldboy that made me a fan of Park's work and set me on a path to watch the Vengeance Trilogy and inevitably, the rest of his films.
Time to drop some more money at your local bookstore or finally use that library card sitting in your wallet, which for me has been well over a year. 🥲
I've been listening to this set on heavy rotation by Priyanka since she dropped it a few weeks back. Born and raised in LA, it was only recently that Priyanka pursued her DJ career, honing her skills over the pandemic and recently, having opened for Priya Ragu's LA show. Enjoy the set! 🍭🍬💗
