GM everyone! It feels great be writing again. After 4 months of writing this newsletter on a near daily basis, I thought it would be good to take a few days off and realign around what matters most: living your life.
Jumping back into things and getting consistent again is never easy but its what must be done. Looking at this newsletter from a macro perspective, I am actually really curious what you enjoy about this newsletter?
Do you want more in-depth breakdowns on marketing trends, tips, and advice? More writing on brands? Cultural and fashion analysis? More interviews? Or just the juicy details of my life? I am actually really curious what needs this newsletter caters to? If you’ve time today, send me an email and let me know what you like about this newsletter and (I won’t be hurt) what you don’t like. Email is jake@jb.studio.
Let me recap the last few days and some great spots I’ve been going to:
I’ve been working a ton from the Public Hotel. Seating is plentiful and the Ian Schrager designed hotel provides a beautiful space where creativity can flow. Over the weekend, I also got some work done at a new coffee shop, bookstore, wine bar combo called Bibliotheque. Soon I will do an entire newsletter covering the best places to work from for my remote work brethren.
I went to my fav Dime’s Square restaurant, Cervo’s, for dinner last Friday. The menu was missing a few staples (spicy mussels) but I did have some nice dishes.
I tried out Apollo Bagels in East Village. The brand has been doing popups for a few years but now has a permanent location. The open-faced bagels are crispy and sooooo good.
AND last week I went to an incredible taiwanese restaurant in Williamsburg, WinSon. Get the sesame noodles they are to die for.
and now that you know what I’ve been up to, let’s jump into a few headlines:
Our Legacy’s revenue has tripled since 2020. The Stockholm based brand founded in 2005 was profiled in GQ last week, and provided an in-depth look at the ‘biggest little fashion brand in the world’ Creative Director Christopher Nying has taken the brand to uncharted territory. The brand has been quietly humming for nearly 20 years, producing lowkey, ‘if you know, you know’ garments for fashion bros. But things have shifted, and the brand has hit its stride. The quality and creativity behind each OL piece is evident, but the price points (albeit definitely expensive) are reasonable and feel worthwhile. Luigi Bernasconi, a Swiss consultant, attributes their affordable-luxury positioning as attributable to their newfound success.
Post-COVID, consumers are looking for relaxed, but formal dressing, and Our Legacy is catering perfectly to this desire. As a huge OL fan, I am stoked to see the brand finally find meteoric success and will keep my eyes peeled for any investment or acquisition news.
The New York Times wrote about the cyclical nature of pants. Jonah Weiner, writer of Blackbird Spyplane, went in-depth for this piece discussing why pants have become so large over the last few years. For over a decade, the nature of ‘fashionable’ pants skewed small, and even hemmed absurdly high. But now pants are ballooning in size once again. Much of this is due to the ‘rubber band’ effect of fashion. Once a particular style is co-opted by the masses, it loses its appeal to those dressing to be perceived as unique. Look at these two photos of Obama, that show the progression of pants styles from ‘08 to ‘19.
When the former president and every normie bro adopts tight pants, we see a certain, fashion inclined demo gravitate towards larger styles. Also, excellent styling from Karolyn Pho in this piece. What do you think? Are your pants bigger than ever before?
The premium trucker hat must be stopped. Yesterday it was 65 degrees in NYC so my friends and I walked around the West Village. Throughout the day I lost count of how many people were wearing the Siegelman Stable’s trucker hat. This brand, founded just a few years ago, has hit critical popularity, and a plethora of copycats have stepped in to ride the premium trucker wave. I see podcasts do merch in this hat shape all the time. People are exercising in these $85 hats. I think this shape is so hard to pull off and honestly very unflattering. Just stick to a normal dad hat.
Mouthwash Studio published an amazing research report. One of the world’s finest creative studios put out their annual research report analyzing online trends, our relationships with algorithms, and AI. Its full of gems for those who work in creative fields, brands, and media. One poignant part that stuck out to me was the studio’s analysis on short form content. The algorithms on social media have skewed content to be shorter and reduce barriers to entry to increase sharability. The studio thinks short form content could be growing tired on media consumers, as it lacks any depth or substance. They think Substack’s and more personalized forms of content will see an uptick in popularity. Honestly, I agree.
Okay that’s all for me today! Have a wonderful day and email me what you want this newsletter to cover and be like in the future: jake@jb.studio.
About the Writer
Jake Bell is a content marketing and creative strategist based in NYC. He specializes in content creation, branding, art direction, creative strategy, and making things cool.
To learn more about Jake visit www.jb.studio
Have a tip email me jake@jb.studio
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