The Digest 24
wearable nanobots, extinct plant smells, and sleep training for grown ups
Happy Friday!
I will keep our intro short this week for a bit of a shorter Digest - but don’t worry, I’ll be back soon with some new goodies for you. We’re talking about a lot of fragrance today, from Glossier Fleur to Boy Smells’ rebrand to my personal favorite discovery of the week, Future Society. I also introduce a couple new sections to the Digest, including a book of the week pick. Hope you have a fab weekend!
PS: I’m toying with the idea of introducing an interview series here with brand founders, creators, authors, and anyone else who fits the Composite vibe (inclusive, forward thinking). If there’s a brand or a person you’d like to suggest, drop it in the comments.
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
Aperitif
Trending Tidbits:
💇♀️ Retro Curved Bobs
Recommended Reading
📖 Are we heading for a beauty burnout?
📖 Business is booming in the panic industry
📖 How Many Ribs Would You Break for a Smaller Waist?
📖 Are You the Only One Who’s Broke? Or Is It ‘Money Dysmorphia’?
📖 Meet Zohran Mamdani, the TikTok-savvy socialist running for NYC mayor (Vote Zohran!!!)
The Main Course:
Vogue Business launched an editorial package called “The Future of Appearance”. This is a very robust collection that “explores what we’ll look like in 20 years” and covers cosmetic procedures, weight loss drugs, and the future of beauty standards1
One of the articles, “DNA-coded skincare, wearable nanobots: The beauty products of tomorrow” is particularly interesting and makes this book I’m reading feel way too real
Can you love beauty in the modern age if you hate needles?
Recently we discussed the commoditization of sleep by Estée Lauder and Method. This week, Westin Hotels and Goop launched a 3-part video series called “Sleep Training for Grown-Ups” complete with a curated shopping experience on Goop
Chuck and Hailee are my FAVORITE internet chefs (and cutest couple) - loved seeing this piece on them from The Cut. Buy Hailee’s new cookbook, out now!
NY Liberty mascot Ellie the Elephant is Essie Nail Polish’s first celebrity spokesperson (say that five times fast)2. e.l.f. is getting involved with NASCAR. Glossier released… a basketball? Coach is the official handbag partner of the WNBA
Deep in a Hannah Einbinder obsession right now. Still think about this Louis Vuitton dress on her at least weekly. Who’s watching new Hacks??
Remember how I said that we’re in the era of the ultimate throwback? Aka reviving things that have gone extinct? I just discovered Future Society, a fragrance brand whose tagline is “Discover the never-before-smelled scents of nature’s past” - they craft scents from the DNA of exctinct plants
Fragrance will continue to innovate as the category grows. But they will also reach back into the archives (not necessarily Future Society-level archives, though). Solid perfume is currently making a comeback
Indeed, what’s old is new again: “Fashion’s cuntiest pump is a 14th-century phallus”
Boy Smells rebranded and people are not happy about it. I didn't think much about it until I saw this TikTok - those copy changes are WILD. This is not how you cater to Gen Z
Glossier took over a NYC subway car to promote their new perfume, Fleur. Feels like a huge missed opportunity to do visuals only. People are sensitive to scent, yes, but what about Fleur-scented hand sani (a subway must have) with a scratch-n-snif label?3
Crocs is the latest brand to reimagine the Mary Jane, following brands like UGG and Salomon
Plus size models spoke to The Guardian about the major regression of inclusive fashion in recent years. I drafted a lengthy piece about plus size fashion a few months ago and maybe I’ll finally publish it soon. Fun fact - I helped make the dress Tess Holliday is wearing in that header photo, for Chromat’s 10th anniversary show in 2019
And speaking of that - Chromat founder Bex McCharen released their last (for now) collection and spoke to The Cut about why. Chromat was my first job in NYC and will always have the most special place in my heart
Predicting Tate McRae is about to be in her flop era - I’ve never seen the Morgan Wallen hive in action before but those comments… woof
Cool: Urban Outfitters launches 4 vintage-inspired collections made from upcycled past UO pieces. Not cool: a company spokesperson shared that “All four collabs have a “shared focus” on size inclusivity and are available in sizes XS through XXL”. XXL is the top of straight sizes. How do you claim a shared focus on inclusivity and fully EXCLUDE plus sizes!?
Celebrity beauty brands are resonating with younger consumers. The latest launch comes from SZA, whose products will only be available in pop-up shops on her tour
“The standard of beauty isn’t one, single, specific look—it’s a set of parameters that allows for slight deviation in some areas, so long as the standard is upheld in most areas” - great read on the “untouched face” trend
I meant to include this last week and forgot, but what fresh hell is this? SHEIN is dystopian enough with a Hunger Games collab, babes. “Capitol Chic”!? Be so fucking for real right now
I’m begging you, let science fiction stay fictional
Digestif
It’s inevitable that almost every week there will be something that I want to say more than three lines about (the arbitrary limit per topic I try to stick to in Digests), so I’m officially carving out a spot for it. In the past it’s been about Gap’s lack of inclusivity or Rhode’s bizarre gym-adjacent marketing, and I can only imagine what it will be in the future. Nothing seemed quite right this week, but keep an eye on this section moving forward. Have something you wanna read about? Drop it below!
Book of the Week
If you’ve been a Composite subscriber for any length of time, you know that books are a huge part of my life. I tend to read books that are very aligned with the things we talk about here, so I thought I’d start recommending a book to you each week that feels particularly relevant.
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
The Dream Hotel is set in a near-future dystopia where dreams are surveilled. Sara has been identified as a threat to those around her because of the content of her dreams, and she is sent to a retention center where she will be held until the Risk Assessment Administration determines she is no longer likely to commit a crime. I flew through this book and was so struck by how imminent this reality feels. Knowing that every waking moment is inundated with advertising and surveillance, it only stands to reason that our dreams would be the next frontier for product placement. Lailami illustrates how seemingly advantageous technological advancement can be used to further systems of oppression - and they are never without their biases.
If you like book content, see my monthly reading wrap ups here
Mentioned this week:
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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!
Unfortunately it seems that Vogue Business has an ongoing partnership with OpenAI. In their IG captions about this package, they state:
“A note on our images: All lead visuals in this series were created using OpenAI GPT-4o, leveraging Condé Nast’s partnership with OpenAI. While we are aware of the ethical debates around AI and creative ownership, we used this tool to illustrate a future world that doesn't yet exist. Every image was made from scratch, based on our team’s original concepts, with no external or copyrighted materials used”
This prompted comments like: “‘While we are aware of the ethical debate we don’t care’”, and “Why didn’t you also use generative-ai to write the articles? Or would THAT have been going too far?”.
Their statement struck me as odd, because LLMs have to LEARN from somewhere - AI is trained on external materials. I asked my resident AI expert, who agreed that their statement can’t be completely truthful.
Others pointed out that this literally contradicts some of the contents of the package - for example, one of the articles says “There’s also research showing that if a face is too perfect, it can have a negative impact on perception, says Young-Jin Hur, course leader of applied psychology at London College of Fashion, whose research specialises in the psychology of beauty aesthetics. These contradictions are likely to shape the future of marketing, experts say. It may lead to a disconnect with AI models, for instance, particularly those that represent an unattainable beauty standard.”
I know we’re calling everything a “recession indicator” these days and the phrase is beginning to completely lack meaning, but the increase of nail polish marketing right now really does feel like a recession indicator. People are tossing their acrylics and Gel-X for at home manis.
It’s highly possible that the MTA limits subway marketing to visual-only affairs. BUT let this serve as a reminder that it’s never been more important to step outside the box and let consumers do more than SEE your brand by appealing to the right senses that make sense for your product. Multi-sensory + immersive marketing is the future
No the boy smells new copy hurts my eyes