Michelle's Melange: Edition 8
Batsheva's modest-but-cool dresses, new ways of structuring online communities on platforms like Slack, an Ensenada snail shell-esque rental, & computers creating mirages of people who don't exist.
April 13, 2021
While we are a ways into April, I have to say that March felt like 31 days consisting of absolutely zero focus. I can’t tell you much about what I ate or did & completely flounder under the weight of the question “what have you been up to lately?” I hate to go astrological on you (unless you love it), but we’re officially in Aries season, which is supposedly great for a surge of expression, creative energy, action and impulse, things I’m needing lately.
A palette cleanser to start, of the artist & clothing designer Penelope Gazin dancing very flexibly to Ray Orbinson while extremely pregnant.
Fashion obsession of the moment
I adore adore Batsheva, the label of designer Batsheva Hay. Imagine long prairie dresses with high collars, zipped up backs and sleeves to the wrist. You would think that wearers would look modest or constrained, but somehow the dresses are offbeat and loud enough that the modesty is beside the point.
This Vogue shoot of hers I loved, as it shows women at home in ordinary-ish circumstances wearing Batsheva’s own take on “house dresses”— it’s like a functional garment reimagined as some kind of precious, luxurious thing existing purely for the wearer’s enjoyment.
In the last issue, I talked about my aspirational style being of an easy breezy, perpetually-on-vacation variety made up of knits and bra tops. However, I think that Batsheva is closer to my true style self.
In case the over-the-top feminine aesthetic speaks to you, my hot tip is that she does occasionally have really great sales! It says a lot about my devotion to this brand that, upon receiving a discounted final sale calico print dress that embodied my prairie girl Barbie dreams and yet 100% did not zip up the back, I didn’t dream of reselling. Instead, I wear it unzipped to my waist in the back, coworkers none the wiser.
New Ways of Structuring Society
NYT article about Rachel Nguyen's "Warde" Slack community
I keep getting prompted by Costar (an entertaining astrology app, that’s 2 astrological mentions too many) to “get creative about new ways of structuring society,” which meant nothing to me until I started thinking about online communities being reimagined as something new. Not a bad prompt!
I bet that post-pandemic, there will still be a lot of events conducted online for maximum global inclusivity. It's no longer the case that we have to live in hub cities like LA or NYC to benefit from a depth of culture. In the article linked above, YouTube creator and creative Rachel Nguyen discusses a community she launched on Slack that’s made up of her followers and others interested in a deeper virtual connection. Basically, Rachel broke the fourth wall of her internet persona. I think Rachel's venture (and she's not the first to attempt a community like Warde) is an interesting exploration of what friendship and connection can be in a world that’s evolved to exist even more and more online. I’m hopeful that the pendulum may swing in the other direction when it comes to the false subscriber-count-based social order. Maybe the next wave will be these sorts of decentralized online communities.
That Rachel said she “want[s] to be in the crowd with everyone” sounds like a justified counter response of anyone who has been “seen” online for any extent of time, both idolized and brutally criticized for their visibility and influence. It could probably be universally agreed at this point that the burnout and general disillusionment that occurs in people who are famous online comes from the maintenance of too many shallow and superficial connections & all the unrealistic expectations that come with them. No doubt most famous creators would instead choose the types of real connections found in a tight knit community.
To extend this concept to our non-celebrity lives, I do think that relationships with non-colleague friends and acquaintances will become more integrated into our work days once computer-based jobs allow for more flexibility for the long term (in terms of working hours or office location). While the traditional 9-5 previously cued its boundaries of “professionalism” with physical buildings and a commute, I’ve been feeling the blurriness of my schedule since starting remote work. I know for some people this can be a negative, where the work never stops. To me, it feels closer to a genuinely modern life for personal and work life to be fused to some degree, since we all know that a person’s physical presence in an office is a terrible indicator of actual productivity.
It feels like a luxury to schedule friend catch-ups within the boundaries of my work day, the new “sneaking away for a personal call” 🤓. Showing up for post-work virtual classes for yoga and related self-development classes gives a chance to experience quick but energizing connections with semi-strangers. I haven't missed the awkwardness or weird self-doubt that can happen with those types of events when they're in person. It makes me think, too, that virtual socializing in these forms can be a better way of protecting your time and recognizing your own boundaries— virtual rooms offer an easy exit, with little to no explanation required (but those 3 mins between the end of class and hanging up, when you’re lingering to be nice? Absolute social hell).
What do you predict, my reader?? It is worth mentioning that, while virtual events & spaces are more inclusive to people location-wise, they aren’t inclusive to people who lack technological access or who are generally not tech-savvy— that’s a major downside.
Current House of my Dreams
Find it here
Lately, I’ve been exercising my mental touristing abilities to transport myself to Mexico. A return trip there feels like it’s in sight, but, until then, I’ll be trawling rental and vacation listings. I actually found it hard to capture the whimsical style of this Ensenada rental in one photo, but the multicolored glass, oddly shaped windows and curving walls accenting its sunny spaces made me want to move into this snail shell-esque house.
Website to check out
In our current reality of Tom Cruise deepfakes, we’re seeing more and more convincing images and videos that are, in fact, created or modified by a computer. The Wikipedia [lazy] definition of deepfake is “synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness.” I thought that this website was really wild for how familiar-seeming the people seemed to be; I kept refreshing and looking out for weird inconsistencies like mismatched earlobes.
Thank you for reading me! Write to me and let me know if something in particular resonated with you. As always, feel free to share with others & bestow me a heart if you enjoyed this. *Please also fill out this Melange event interest form if you’re willing!
<3 Michelle
Where oh where do you find these vacation home gems? I love it!
Also thispersondoesnotexist.com is deeply disturbing.
Looking forward to the next edition!