The Met Gala theme is timely and necessary – thred.
The Met Gala’s 2025 theme, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, marks a rare moment of clarity for an event typically drowning in its own pretensions. With next year’s focus on Black menswear, four Black male co-chairs have been appointed to chair the event – Pharrell Williams, Coleman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, and A$AP Rocky. It’s a theme that feels long overdue, as Black men have not merely influenced fashion –they’ve redefined it. That truth will finally be recognised at the world’s biggest fashion event in May.
High-end fashion dupes are soaring where knock-offs never could – wired.
Half of all Gen Zers in the US have intentionally bought a luxury fashion dupe. Rather than being a cheap knock-off that infringes on a brand’s trademark, dupes or ‘duplicates’ are uncannily similar imitations – copies of Bottega’s woven bags are a good example – and owning a replica no longer carries the same shame that came with buying ‘fakes’ in the past. People of all generations are refusing to pay thousands for a product when they can get the same quality item at a fraction of the cost. And in this economy… can you blame us?
📱 Blue light zone
The internet is obsessed with watching pretty girls eat – ad hoc (via substack)
Female food content creators are creating an addictive and unnerving fantasy, fulfilling two of our most innate desires: attractiveness and indulgence. Their beauty drives views to their content, despite the fact that they never talk about their health or their appearance – even as their bodies get smaller and smaller. Viewers gawk: I would never be able to eat like that and stay so thin. But we have no idea what happens when the camera turns off. Some might say it’s the illusion of show business. Others might label it a toxic, unhealthy mindfuck.
I’m sick of seeing people waste food on social media – thred.
Easy segue with this one… it’s time we admit internet has a food waste problem. Globally, 733 million people are starving and 1.33 million people are experiencing famine – more than 80 percent are Palestinians trapped in Gaza. Of those who can afford to eat, 35 per cent of the global population lacks access to a healthy diet, a reality worsening due to the continuously rising cost-of-living. Digital creators who waste food for content don’t only ooze sheer ignorance towards hunger as a human struggle, but slap every single person fighting tirelessly to protect our planet’s resources in the face. Can we just throw this type of content in the bin?
🌏 Planet talk
Trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year – guardian uk
All signs indicate that carbon sinks are failing due to rising global temperatures. Early research by an international team of scientists shows the amount of carbon absorbed by land has collapsed. The study found that forest, plants and soil absorbed almost no carbon in 2023. Though this could be temporary – without the pressures of drought or wildfires, land very well could return to absorbing carbon again – many of the latest climate systems models do not factor in major emitting events like those in recent years. This article, which highlights key findings from this environmental research, is a must read.
The U.S. gets a new national marine sanctuary, the first led by a tribe – npr
Around 4,500 square miles of California’s coastline will soon be protected by the federal government. It will be the third largest national marine sanctuary in the US and the first to be led by Indigenous people, more specifically, the Northern Chumash Tribe. The tribe has campaigned for more than a decade to protect the rugged coastline that is their historical homeland. The sanctuary boundaries are smaller than originally proposed due to California’s burgeoning offshore wind industry, a compromise described as necessary for clean energy in the future. The area will be protected from oil and gas drilling, as well as undersea mining, with fishing still permitted.
🎙️ Recommendation
I’m so looking forward to reading it Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new book The Message when it is released in February. In this podcast, Coates talks about the experience of writing the book – and the process of writing with courageous honesty in general.
A great quote from the episode:
“The internet is awash in opinion, with people who could give a rats ass about their sentence structure and what they’re doing. It’s rife with cliche, with repeated notes that they clearly heard from somebody else, with no attempt to think about how they’re saying something that is original and new. Are they even reflecting the beautiful, original thought that they had themselves? Have they found the language? Have they found the words? Does anybody read poetry anymore? Does anyone read poetry for the language of it?” – Ta-Nehisi Coates
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Until next time,
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