the august review
the book I finished in one sitting + my everyday jewellery crisis
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Summer is officially over. Bring on dirty chai lattes, dusting the cobwebs off my Notion app, roast dinners and, in our case, desperately squeezing in a boiler service before the weather turns.
I’m waiting for my Alicante film photos to hit my inbox before I send this out — I just returned from a trip to the Costa Blanca coast with four lovely creator friends: Klaudia, Yanin, Abi and Brittany. I’m actually writing this at the airport while I wait for my gate to be announced! It was a relaxing trip, and really nice to get to know the girls better and take our friendships offline.
I highly, highly recommend our villa, The June [press stay]. Abi came across it when we were looking for places to stay and she couldn’t have picked somewhere better — we were just outside the town of Benissa, a ten minute walk from the coast. It wasn’t very busy, and it seemed to have local approval as we were always lying next to Spanish people on the beach, or sitting beside them in a restaurant. I’m really grateful to have squeezed in another holiday just before the end of summer.
wearing —
I’m so excited for autumn dressing this year. I didn’t buy many clothes over summer (I think three pieces total, one being a vest) so I’m feeling inspired by core wardrobe staples again having seen the evidence for how far a good piece can stretch. So I’m shopping with this in mind — I just ordered a vintage Gap sweater on eBay and I’ve begun browsing for those few items that will carry what I already have into 2025. I’m thinking about logging all of my clothes in Indyx so I can better assess which items would make a good addition — has anyone used the app before, and if so do you recommend? I’ll leave the comments below open to everyone so you can share your experience!
On the theme of core staples, I’ve been thinking about the best way to refresh my everyday jewellery pieces. I love my Polène hoops and my big suns from Sézane, but they’re statement pieces. I love my Monica Vinader huggies but they’re a little small for me day-to-day. All of my rings are tarnishing too — is it worth getting them re-plated?
Maybe jewellery is like knickers, where you don’t notice that they’re falling apart and keep wearing them when they’re too far gone. Is there such a thing as jewellery blindness? Ether way, I feel like your everyday jewellery is such a key element of your style, so I’d like to focus on getting the basics right over the next few months.
reading —
I finished Assembly by Natasha Brown in one evening. It was beautifully written, and I liked its slow unpicking of racism and the myth of meritocracy in a British context, the need to exist without friction in a subtly but fundamentally abrasive culture. Ultimately it’s a story about the struggle to connect with your own identity, to even locate it when you’ve had to assimilate your whole life. If you’re looking for an easy but quality read, and you’re looking for stories about personal identity in your late twenties or early thirties, this would be a great book for you.
listening —
As is my annual ritual, I pottered over to All Points East for the Kaytranada, Loyle Carner, LCD Soundsystem and Justice days [press invite]. It’s always fun to have a dance in my favourite park, I lose all my bearings as soon as I’m through the gates as it’s completely transformed from the place I see day-to-day. Seeing Jai Paul again was a huge highlight, along with Loyle’s homecoming — and Kaytranada, of course. I first saw him at XOYO when I was a student, it feels wild to see him play to tens of thousands now. Kaytra’s visuals were insaaaane, I mentioned on IG but they were some of my favourites I’ve seen in a long time. It’s such a blessing to have this festival on my doorstep, every year I’m so grateful.
As always, follow my Honey playlist on Spotify to listen to what I’m loving at the moment 🎧
forward thinking —
Some work-related news: I’ve moved management! I love my old manager, but after five years working together I felt like it would be be in my best interest to leave my comfort zone and try something new. As with any career, you can risk feeling stale after spending a long time in the same role, and I never want to reach that point. I think this was a necessary change as I’m already feeling re-invigorated and excited for the next few months! With all that said, if you have any press or work enquiries, you can pop them over to lucymoon@sixteenth.co 💌
Speaking of the next few months — as I said on our Chat last week, I’ve been reimagining what this Substack will look like going forward. It’s been eighteen months since we launched (!) and I’m ready to make this digital space a bit more clear and coherent. I know a lot of people like the cosiness of my content, so I’ve set myself the goal of making this the cosiest corner of the internet. I’ll keep posting as usual until I’ve fully figured it out but just know that right now we’re under construction and good things are on the horizon! Your patience is appreciated 🦺
Coming back 16 days after reading this in my inbox to talk about Indyx. I started using Indyx after reading this newsletter; I'd seen a tiktoker (lesliegetsdressedsometimes) using it and had considered it, but this gave me the push and I've loved it. I thought I'd just give it a shot and potentially quit after a week, but I'm using it daily. I did an hour and a half of logging clothes to start and then have been adding things as I wear them. I really enjoy the ability to see my clothes/what I wear, but more notably to me is the outfit building/tracking capacity. I'm getting to see how I typically style my clothes and I can figure out what I want to wear easily, without pulling options out. I'm also able to avoid falling into the 'crutch' of wearing my fav outfit once a week when I don't have other ideas because I have a log of both the last time I wore it and a bunch of other ideas logged in the app. I've also logged my favorite jewelry because I'm pushing myself to accessorize more and it's definitely helping.
I haven't used Indyx but I have been using Stylebook, and I think I like it. Granted, I fell off the wagon over the summer, but I'm feeling like it's time to finish logging what I have to avoid getting swept up in all the good autumn sweaters that I want to acquire about now.