A Thread about seeing'Superfine' at The Met
Part 1 of my NYC recon
Returning to a city you once lived is a bit like meeting up with an ex. Will they have changed, or have they stayed the same? Together you orbit an archive of memories; a shared history that sometimes spills over from past to present, whispering in your ear: ‘maybe we should get back together’.
I’m always fearful that I’ll fall wildly in love with New York again, the same way I did when I moved there a decade ago. As any New Yorker will tell you, this can be a very toxic romance. The highs are very high, but it’s an intense way to live.
This how I felt when I landed in New York two weeks ago, tired and sentimental after an 8.5 hour delay (but armed with some fascinating discoveries about airline uniforms). It had been 8 years since I left New York, 6 since my last visit, and the city felt both familiar and strange.
I think I’ve changed, and so has New York. The city still has undeniable rizz, but I was less overcome its intense, overstimulating charm. Where I live in London is neither clean nor cheap, but New York struck me as especially grubby and expensive.
Still, it was fun to run down the halls of memory, and to see some familiar friends. Here are some of the things I saw, heard and ate… next week’s newsletter is about what I wore, where I shopped and what I bought!
Something I visited…
The Met, of course. I went on my final day, racing uptown in the sweltering heat with only had two hours to spare before my flight. I went primarily to see the Costume Institute’s new show, ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’, which was inaugurated by the Met Gala last month. Strangely, the visit only occurred to me towards the end of my trip - I think the Gala creates such celebrity-studded buzz that you forget you can actually go and see the exhibition behind it.
The show was packed with beautiful clothes, and was structured around 12 ‘themes’, although the freeform floor plan sometimes made it difficult to know which mannequins corresponded with which story. The walls were also painted dark, which made the space feel a little gloomy. With so many incredible designers on show, I think a brighter setting would have felt more celebratory.
Still, it was a feast for the eyes, and I even spotted two Threads of Conversation podcast guests in the exhibition! Carribean designer Jawara Alleyne had two looks at the start of the show, whilst a number of Bianca Saunders’ were peppered throughout. (Listen to Jawara’s episode here and Bianca’s here.)
In fact, British designers were very well represented overall. The looks from Maximilian Davis for Ferragamo and Grace Wales Bonner were my favourite - her suits were exquisite to see up close.
There was also a lot of Louis Vuitton in the exhibition, exploring the interplay between LVMH’s carefully-controlled image and the flipping and remixing of artists and stylers like like Dapper Dan (below left). I also loved how they put Andre Leon Talley’s luggage next to this gorgeous pile of Telfar bags - travelling in style, then and now.
Also just look at this bag by Virgil, covered in monogrammed leather flowers. It represents all the hallmarks of his era at the house: craftsmanship, cool, conceptual, childlike.
Do you remember the piece I wrote about designer airline uniforms? Well, it came full circle when I spotted this Air Afrique flight bag paired with one of Pharrell’s Louis Vuitton suits. Pharrell’s SS25 collection was inspired by the story of Air Afrique, an airline established in 1961 by 11 decolonized African nations to expand travel around the continent. As for their signature bag, it was often featured in the images of Burkinabe photographer Sanlé Story in the 1970s. In Story’s studio, Volta Photo, the bag would often be paired with an aeroplane background, allowing young people to live out the fantasy of international travel.
After Superfine, I headed down the hallway to another exhibition, ‘The New Art: American Photography, 1839–1910’, recommended by my friend Miranda Barnes. Miranda is a photographer with impeccable taste, and a real eye for detail and character in her work, so I knew the show would be special.
It comprised a collection of early American photographs, namely small daguerrotypes, cyanotypes, ambrotypes and tin types. Most of the photos were housed in decorative folded cases with padded velvet linings to protect the image.
Despite being quite new, photography was an exciting, and relatively affordable technology, which meant people used it to immortalise all kinds of things, and create their own cartes de visites (calling cards printed with photos that people would exchange and collect).
Below are some featuring people, but there were also lots of dogs, gardens, and my favourite title, ‘thirteen friends having fun’. More sinister, lots of photos of dead people and children, which were shot to preserve their memory.
Seeing the show reminded me of a phenomenon I’d witnessed whilst I was on the Lower East Side - twice I passed a queue of people lining up to have their photo taken in a 1970s booth. A bit of research revealed that it’s a business called ‘Old Friend’, where you pay $8 for 4 photos, and that it’s been covered by the New York Times. It was founded by influencer Zoë Lazerson and her boyfriend Brandon Minton, who visited a photo booth together 2 weeks after they started dating.
Both Sanlé Story’s photo in ‘Superfine’ and some of the portraits from ‘The New Art’ made me think about how photography has always been a medium for young people to play with; to explore and immortalise their self-image, inadvertently documenting the transience of early adulthood.
What these two examples, and the ‘Old Friend’ booth also have in common is a sense of occasion. Sure, you can snap a photo on your iPhone, but the convenience comes at the price of the reward. Preparing, posing, waiting; the surprise of the result. The same could even be said of the rise of digital cameras, which are increasingly popular with Gen-Z. There’s something about the friction of an older medium that brings us closer to photography’s original spirit of ritual and community.
Something I spotted…
Speaking of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I allowed myself a geeky giggle at the carpet in my hotel. 20 floors of repeating pattern calling out different New York landmarks. You’d have thought someone would have checked the spelling…
Something I ate…
I can’t seem to move for newsletters talking about the rise and rise of David protein bars. Especially after the company was valued at $725 million in its latest funding round, in which they secured $75 million, only to then get sued. Of course I had to try this controversial golden bar!! And so, last Tuesday, I found myself sitting on a bus to Long Island, peeling back the foil on David’s salted peanut butter flavour, eager for my first bite.
The bar itself looked a bit like a molten rectangle of spray foam insulation: a brick of gluey beige matter, studded with salt crystals that reminded me of dermal piercings.
I’ve never chewed on building material, but I can imagine the experience would be quite similar. It was so disgusting that I barely made it halfway through (which is very rare for me, I love snacks and am not remotely discerning.) Go David, I guess, but none of those 725 million dollars will be coming from me.
Stay tuned for Part 2 next week, when I’ll be talking about where to shop secondhand, what I bought, what I listened to, and a few things I read.
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Threads of the week
The spiral boxer skirt strikes again. Worn with vintage Levi’s, GH Bass Weejun loafers, adidas jacket and Kara bag.
Loose Threads
OK firstly, does anyone know which influential person shared my piece about Bonjour Tristesse? It’s blown up!
I usually hate mainstream podcasts because a. I’m a snob and b. Anything with that much commercial input is usually sanded down and sanitised to the point of not being particularly interesting. Louis Theroux is an exception: I loved this episode with Little Simz. I especially loved how completely unfazed she was by long silences.
An excellent piece from
(s/o for sharing it). I like how it addressed the growing taste for ‘old money’ aesthetics (something I’ve been noticing A LOT lately), explaining that yes, it’s a symptom of the pendulum swing (yuck), but also of a longing for a type of life that’s becoming increasingly rare (sad). I was deep in the comments on this one.Remember designer
who I interviewed last year? This video was everything I needed to hear.(Although it might have led to my most unhinged TikTok to date.)
Start your own Thread
This week I’ve got a request! Drop your favourite YouTube shows in the comments. Bonus points for ones which will teach me something new. I want to train my algorithm to serve me something other than lo-fi chill house mixes and Vogue videos. Feel free to drop any other thoughts and recommendations in the comments, too.
And hit the heart button to let me know you made it to the end!