The Digest 23
and a download of Gap's big fat problem
Hello!
Was March a frenetic mad dash for anyone else? My 9-5 job in particular, which I love (and I’m not just saying that because my boss and coworkers read this - hi guys👋🏻), was taking up a bit a lot more brain space than usual as we prepped for and then executed a major shoot last week. I was basically incapable of doing anything after work hours for weeks besides cross stitching and watching Emily in Paris. Now I’m on the other side and have regained a bit of my brain function, so back to the Composite grind we go.
I made a few attempts at this letter here and there in the last couple weeks, so there’s some older reading material here - but I only left it in if I thought it was worth it. Stick around to the end for a mini essay on my grievances with Gap.
Happy digesting xx
Throughout the week, I keep track of everything that feels culturally relevant in the areas that I care about. I take that list from my notes app and turn it into this download of understanding consumer culture, tracking trends, and dismantling beauty standards to keep you in the loop on what I think you should know about this week. I hope you enjoy and take your time to Digest.
Think of this as a curated morning paper to replace your AM doom scroll, best read with coffee in hand
Trending Tidbits:
📦 Cargos
Recommended Reading
Are you actually as unhealthy as you think?
‘The Substance’ Is A Fairy Tale (But So Is Beauty)
Reclaim Imperfect Faces / Everyone’s kinda lost the plot on The Teeth
Why is everything in fashion suddenly a recession indicator?
How Claire’s keeps up with the ‘digital natives’ of Gen Alpha
The Main Event:
Victoria’s Secret has appointed Adam Selman as Executive Creator Director, the first designer to be appointed to the role. Selman was most recently Chief Design Officer at Savage x Fenty. I wish I had high hopes for this - I don’t. VS, you will always be dead to me
Backwards and twisted clothing for a backwards and twisted time in history. More on this in my next apocalyptic aesthetics installment
“Exhaustion beauty” was one of the major trends to come out of runway season. Now we’re seeing celebs sporting “glum hues” in their makeup looks
I loved this recent episode of Gloss Angeles with their Gen Z social media manager. According to her, the favorite beauty brand of the youth is Saie
I had no idea that Survival of the Thickest was getting a second season (out now!) until I saw this post from Teen Vogue promoting this article about Alecsys Proctor-Turner, a new cast member this season. Great interview - more fat women on tv pls!
Just a couple weeks after I wrote about size inclusive brand Universal Standard expanding into Anthropologie, they are now in Nordstrom - I also recently wore and loved some lilac pieces from their new linen collection
In a massive loss, Wray NYC, an incredible inclusive brand, is shuttering. They have consistently been one of the (few) brands I’ve pointed to as doing inclusive, GOOD fashion the right way. The founder, Wray Serna, “notes that this wasn’t, as some fashion brands lead consumers to believe, ‘prohibitively expensive’ — “it just required care, thoughtfulness, and a genuine desire to do it right”
Why escapism is the new marketing currency - “In a time of collective disillusionment, people aren’t looking for brands that are just like them — they want brands that transport them elsewhere. Now, the challenge is to revive that sense of fantasy while spanning the full aspirational-relatable spectrum” 1
Fragrance brand Replica is leaning hard into fantasy and escapism. Their new scent Dancing on the Moon is aligned with my space predictions, and they recently took an “otherworldly, imaginary” trip to St. Moritz where “fantasy was frozen in time”. I think we’ll keep seeing a lot of extreme cold environments featured in fashion as the world gets warmer. The Ice Age is so hot right now
On that note - when will we stop trying to “de-extinct’ animals?? It’s really the era of the ultimate throwback
I fully agree with Olivia Munn that Katy Perry + Gayle King’s trip to space is “gluttonous” - beyond the fact that I think we should be highlighting actual female astronauts who have put the work in, is this really the most profound quote they could think to pull from Katy?
Heineken released a phone case that literally flips your phone over when it hears the word “cheers”
Jones Road Beauty used AI to scrape the internet for customer archetypes which were then modeled by actual humans, most of whom were not professional models
I’ve been talking about our impending cyborg era for a while - this article from Dazed delves into functional nail art that is “wearable tech at your fingertips, exploring how technology can interact with the human body in new and expressive ways”
Tembe Denton-Hurst, author of Homebodies and writer of
, just released a coffee table book called “Fresh Sets” that highlights emotional and cultural ties to nail art. Excited to listen to this podcast ep about itThere’s a lot I hate about this, but are we really objectifying the robot!? I can’t fathom that within the first 3 sentences of this article, the author is referring to a humanoid robot as “svelte”, with a “trim waist and long legs”. Beauty standards really are for everyone, huh
“Edible Fragrances Are Trending—But Are They Actually Safe to Eat?”
WhoWhatWear broke down “BeastMode” perfumes, or “loud” perfumes, while The Cut discussed quiet perfumes you can wear on a plane
Last digest I wrote about the appetite for highly produced content on social. THR recently reported that, unsurprisingly, “56% of Gen Zs and 43% of millennials surveyed find social media content ‘more relevant than traditional TV shows and movies’”
J.Crew announced a 3 year partnership with the US Ski + Snowboard teams. Neutrogena announced that they are the official sunscreen sponsor of the World Surf League. Sephora announced a multi-year partnership with the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries - guess they saw Running Point
Method and Estée Lauder both released dream / sleep related campaigns recently. Method partnered with Gabby Windey for their Dream Foam body wash, while EL’s campaign featured Kristen Bell and positioned their Advanced Night Repair Serum as a “sleep dupe”. Once again I say, it’s reminiscent of this (very scary) book!
Fragrance brands, makeup brands, and beyond have been leaning into the emotional connotations of beauty products. Cécred is leaning into this with their newest campaign, detailing the emotional and sacred relationships women have with their hair
SoulCycle is moving into apparel with goals to open standalone fashion retail spaces. They foresee retail accounting for 15-20% of overall business, from co-branded pieces with athleisure brands as well as original “non-branded pieces that are a little more ‘fashion’. Sure, SoulCycle
Stacy London and Clinton Kelly’s new show, Wear Whatever the F*ck You Want, a follow up to the iconic but toxic 2000s show What Not To Wear, premieres April 29th
Gap’s Big Fat Problem
I’ve been saying for months that any mention of Gap makes me instantly annoyed. People have been lauding the brand for their comeback, their thoughtfulness, and their renewed success, but there is almost never a single mention about their very limited size range. The Gap Inc company “About” page says they “believe progress can be found in the gaps” — well, I’d argue there’s no larger gap in fashion than in plus size offerings. Even more infuriating? Take a gander at this:
“Bridging the inclusion gap: Gap was founded in 1969 as a single store that offered jeans and music for people of all shapes, sizes, ages and races. And, at a time of social division, we did more than sell clothes. We bridged the generation gap. Today, we are committed to maintaining a welcoming environment for all, fostering a culture where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to reach their full potential”
Any time I deign to have feelings about a brand’s lack of size inclusivity, people often say “not EVERY brand has to be for you! Why do you think they should cater to you?”. So, I always start by checking the brand’s mission, a tactic I adopted from Samyra. 90% of the time, the statement includes messaging like the above - inclusion, equity, filling white space - but conveniently fat folks almost never get included under that umbrella in actuality. In Gap Inc’s case, they literally call out size in their mission statement but Gap doesn’t offer anything beyond straight sizes. Not a single item.
While I already feel quite justified in demanding more access to clothes that fit, that I like, and that I can afford, brands’ misrepresentation and posturing on these issues does make it a bit easier to shut down those naysayers, of which there are many. I personally feel strongly that you should just say it with your chest if you don’t want me as a customer. Why pretend that you do when you so clearly do not?
One of Gap’s newest endeavors is Gap Studio, a line that they claim is “a celebration of a bold, new chapter in American fashion”. We’ve already hit a snag with that description, because unfortunately the line is not feeling very bold or new to me. As @sequinsandsales responded to my post the other day:
I suppose that Gap’s vision of the future of fashion is narrower than mine, pun intended. But here’s the thing: Zac Posen is no stranger to dressing larger bodies. I have seen him do it when others would not or did not know how. I had hoped that when he signed onto the brand, it would mean an imminent size expansion, but sadly it has not. When Gap Studio dropped, I went immediately to the product pages to see if this was the moment that we saw above an XXL hit the Gap website. It was not. But don’t worry, it gets worse!
As I dug into media coverage on the line, I discovered something that really pissed me off. Simply no eloquent way to put it. Multiple outlets reported that Posen and the brand note a Met Gala moment as the inspiration for this line. I had heard Posen speak on a podcast a few months ago about Gap on red carpets - plenty of mass market brands are dipping toes into the higher end pool. But what infuriates me about this is that Posen & Co are citing this as the inciting moment for the line:
“GapStudio was inspired by Zac‘s red carpet moment with Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph at the 2024 Met Gala, when he dressed her in a custom Gap couture denim gown.” - Just Jared
I think we can all see the issue here. Inspired by a fat woman, but not for fat women. Other outlets claim that you, too can have a piece of Gap couture through this diffusion line! Unfortunately, not all of us can. “For [Posen], it's about giving customers the freedom to express their style with GapStudio, not dictating terms or gatekeeping fashion”. Who’s gonna tell him?
Mentioned this week:
I’d love to know what resonated most with you this week so I can continue honing this newsletter into being the best version of itself. Thanks for reading!
Your thoughts about Gap are so important. I'm at the top end of their size range and I feel such increasing panic about size inclusive options disappearing elsewhere (so sad about Wray) that I sometimes focus on how excited I am to have cute options more than I do the fact that the largest size being an XXL (and for many pieces just an XL, actually!!!!) is abysmal. But it's important to remember and call out! Thanks for the reminder.
Appreciate you, as always!