The Digest 26
luminous blue, beauty bars, and the baby fat boom
Welcome back!
Here’s a slightly condensed version of the Digest for your weekend reading. See you soon xx
At The Composite, we serve up a curated collection of culture, beauty, and critique—served in parts, meant to be savored whole. Think of The Digest as your quick, thoughtful read to replace the doom scroll, offering a bite of everything you need to stay in the loop. Come hungry. Leave questioning everything.
Aperitif
Trending Tidbits:
These trends are tracked not always for the purpose of following them, but for what they reveal. Not necessarily an endorsement, but a thought starter
🐚 Raffia
Recommended Reading
📖 When Beauty Standards and Body Positivity Collide
📖 Is our obsession with dieting finally over?
📖 If Doechii’s Met Gala Makeup Made You Uncomfortable, You’re Not Alone
The Main Course:
You can watch Stacey and Clinton of What Not To Wear fame in their new show Wear Whatever the F You Want, streaming now
Is A$AP Rocky’s Style Plus-Size Friendly? Armiel Chandler tries his looks on for size in this new installation of Teen Vogue’s CTRL+C series
My incredible friend Taylor Long and her swimwear brand Nomads Swimwear were featured in L’officiel, citing Nomads as a brand “Where Sustainability, Luxury, and Inclusivity Meet”
Men are shaving off their eyelashes because they think it will make them look more masculine
Walmart is piloting Beauty Bars in select stores, designed to help shoppers discover new products through beauty experts and free samples
Merit says that their pop ups aren’t designed for influencers and that their primary pop up KPI is not sales - it’s community building. Their most asked question from customers is “what’s my shade?” and they see pop ups as a way to find that answer
Related: “The Community Delusion” by
Interestingly, Merit’s pop up is “inspired by dry cleaners and the concept of a uniform”, reminiscent of this recent Aritiza campaign (which I liked). They’re also partnering with Brooks Brothers to sell shirts that say “Do Less” - a smart brand slogan that actually makes for good merch
Okay not to make a *third bullet* about Merit, but I just went to their IG and I absolutely love how they’re teasing the uniform concept
Fenty Beauty / Fenty Skin are now the official beauty partners of the NY Liberty
One of my favorite social campaigns I saw this week was Madewell’s “you can’t wear jeans to work” seen here and here and here. Their followers seem to be big fans, too
They’re not the only ones - I’m noticing a trend of redefining work / workwear, an interesting retort to the corpcore trend. As Aritzia said, “Work from a pool. Wear shorts with your blazer. Professionalism is a spectrum”
See also: “microshifts” and “Gen Z Is Reimagining Work — and Wearing 'Uniforms'"
Limited Too relaunched 10 months ago (Limited Too 2.0) and plans to partner with a multitude of brands to maintain relevance. Their first, a “Nostalgia Mall” pop up with Vita Coco, took place this weekend
I also thought Ouai’s “in thickness and in health” campaign was genius, with fantastic influencer gifting to boot
Fishwife loves a collab - you can now get tinned fish-themed Chacos
AWAY dropped suitcases for kids, and this was a successful brand execution of a current popular consumer video trend (I <3 Darshen - IYKYK)
According to the author of Careless People, an exposé on Facebook’s company culture, the social media giant tracked when female users deleted a selfie and served them beauty ads in those moments of vulnerability
Gap and Doen dropped a second collab. Despite using a plus size model and dedicating a post to her backstory1, the collection is only available in sizes XXS-XL
JCPenney is launching a plus size collection with Ashley Graham - keeping my eye on this
Really enjoyed this series of posts (here + here + here) from WhoWhatWear
WGSN and Coloro announced the color of the year for 2027, Luminous Blue, along with a slate of other moment-defining colors
We’re still in the era of the ultimate throwback, the moniker I’ve been using for the proliferation of references to the prehistoric in pop culture. The caveman method is the most recent
Twins are trending, and it “says more about real life than sci-fi ever could”
The last photo in this carousel is one of the more beautiful things I’ve ever seen
Crown Affair and D.S. & Durga led up to a collaborative product launch with an outer space themed social campaign. I unironically love it
Both Gap x Doen and Crown Affair x D.S. & Durga posted very similar videos of cobalt blue records spinning, each representative of a playlist inspired by the respective collabs
I predicted a while ago that we’d soon be seeing more umbrellas as accesorry. I think this week’s Met Gala will accelerate that timeline
I feel strongly that rhubarb flavor / scent is the next big thing, from CPG to beauty
Perhaps it will follow the same path as pistachio, which went from being the hottest flavor in town to being the color of the season
J.Crew is showing you how to wear that shade and more in their School of Color series - how does one become a color librarian?
Mentioned this week:
Noticing a theme in the art direction of these posts…
If you’re here for a new perspective on fashion, beauty, and culture, you’re in the right place. Pull up a chair. The table is wide, and the conversation is layered.
To be very clear, this is not shade against the (incredible) model - I am so happy to see her featured! However, it’s a very confusing customer experience.
oooh, ready for rhubarb!