Hello everyone. Today is going to be a free letter so some of my unpaid readers can have an opportunity to see what they’re missing out on.
Today’s Guest Lecture is with Helena Barquet and Fabiana Faria from Coming Soon. This afternoon they launched The Pill, the first-ever product designed and produced by Coming Soon. The Pill is a travel cooler designed for one standard wine or champagne bottle, made of double walled stainless steel to keep beverages chill for four to five hours. Feed Me readers asked them questions about running a retail business in Dimes Square, product design, and home design trends.
NEWS:
Sexy Kennedy Jack Schlossberg has a new job at Vogue. In the words of Kaitlin Phillips, “A Kennedy writing for Vogue … makes sense… fine with me.”
When Beautycounter, a clean beauty brand that Carlyle bought in 2021 at a $1B valuation, suddenly shut down this year many people were in shock. The story begins how so many of these stories begin – leadership teams being completely misaligned. I never used this brand, and the closest I ever came into contact with it was probably in event gift bags or on giveaway tables in offices… not a great category of my mind to be in. The excitement of the acquisition faded quickly – within three years, Beautycounter would be shut down. All the money that Carlyle had put into the company was lost, making it one of the worst investments in the firm’s 37-year history. When you lose that much of their money, LP’s often want to see heads roll, and also get assurances you won’t invest in that space again. It’s noteworthy that Carlyle has almost completely stepped back from consumer investment since this instance – Jay Sammons, who used to lead consumer at Carlyle, is now Kim Kardashian’s partner at SKKY partners. Reading about MLMs always makes me so uncomfortable, what a weird business for Carlyle to buy. It’s so weird to rely on an army of everyday people for your distribution instead of real customers who find you online and in stores where you wholesale. I could never invest in something like that.
Glossier is investing in middle America. They’re hiring people to embed in Sephora locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin to spread the Glossier gospel.
Brandy Melville has a new store called St. George and it’s kind of like Abercrombie meets Muji.
Francis Ford Coppola wants you to finally finish your screenplay. He opened the All-Movie Hotel in Georgia’s Peachtree City, outside of Atlanta – it’s fully equipped with editing facilities for those who are staying at the hotel and also want to make a movie. Coppola said he was inspired while filming his latest project “Megalopolis” in Atlanta and wanted to create something that offered hospitality and the functionality needed to make films on any scale. “When I didn’t want to think about the movie, I would think about this hotel, and when I didn’t want to think about the hotel, I’d think about the movie,” Coppola said.
+ = the most fun newsletter I’ve read in weeks. We’re talking two girls who love visual data and the mysterious behind our closet doors. Emilia spoke to Lily about her gown library. Say it again with me, her GOWN LIBRARY. “The “Gown Library,” as she calls it, was just meant to be for her own records—a way to stay organized and keep track of what to wear and when… Now, she finds herself sending the spreadsheet to a friend at least once a month. They’ll come over to her Brooklyn apartment and try stuff on. Lily, who writes an interior design-slash-dating newsletter called “Love and Other Rugs,” will put out a wine and cheese spread. Almost always, her visitors will walk away with something to wear, free of charge. All she asks is that you dry clean it and send it back to her when you’re done.”
Women are ditching Botox for more “natural” alternatives. In 2010, more than 5.3mm people got Botox and more than 1.7mm received filler in the U.S. In 2022, 8.7mm received Botox and more than 6.2mm received filler. I think many women reading this letter can agree that over the course of their lifetime, for some people Botox has gone from this secret luxurious treatment to something as standard as going to the dentist. Many Los Angeles-based practitioners are noting filler fatigue among their clientele. They’ve seen more patients who are asking not only for their fillers to be dissolved but also seeking alternative procedures to maintain an enhanced, albeit more technically natural, look. I’ve been watching a lot of Alix Earle videos recently on TikTok and I realized she probably got her lip filler dissolved. On a recent Kardashians episode, Kylie also discussed her filler dissolving journey.
7% of American newspaper employees now work at the Times. The growth comes as almost every other corner of media has been beset by layoffs. The Times has become indispensable in readers’ lives but also an institution that sparks frustration across the political spectrum.
Graza posted about hosting an Erewhon pop-up in New York, and then deleted it. A lot of my group chats are laughing at this.
People are finding love on the fancy bus to the Hamptons. This actually makes a lot of sense to me. I’ve had plenty of guys hit on me on the LIRR – you’re in a small space, you presumably have stuff in common geographically, and there’s not much to do on the train besides play on your phone or read or talk to someone. The only problem is that you’re stuck with the person until someone gets off. “The crowd we’re seeing is the younger crowd,” said Christiana Weller, Blade’s marketing director. “They have enough disposable income to spend a few thousand dollars on a house rental.” They can afford the price of the bus ticket to the Hamptons, but maybe not the $1000-plus it takes to ride the helicopter. This story used a term I’ve never heard before: HENRY – High Earners Not Rich Yet.
Chris Black makes a case for staying home instead of having a seaside spritz on the Amalfi Coast. “The food people rave about is fine, but I can have fantastic pasta in New York City or Los Angeles. I don’t need one night in Sicily or Puglia. I am not sure any bowl of noodles is going to change my life. I am sure the fish in Greece is fresher, but my amateur palate cannot tell. Sitting on a rock baking in Bodrum just reminds me how much I like home. For me, and I bet a lot of other people, routine and convenience outweigh wanderlust.” Well that’s a good way to save money.
GUEST LECTURE: Helena Barquet and Fabiana Faria from Coming Soon
This interview is part of a Feed Me feature called Guest Lecture. In this series, I’ll introduce you all to an expert who I’m curious about, and give paid readers an opportunity to submit questions to them.
Helena and Fabiana own Coming Soon, a furniture design and gift shop founded in 2013 right at the intersection of New York’s Lower East Side and Chinatown — some of you may know it as Dimes Square.
The Pill, the first-ever product designed and produced by Coming Soon, was launched today. The Pill was originally inspired by vintage wine coolers from the 1970s and Cesare Casati’s Pillola Lamps from the 1960s.
What has product development been like, and how did you decide to make this product your first? Do you have more products launching before the holidays?
For the past 10 years we’ve focused on highlighting other designers' work at Coming Soon whom we’ve come to know and love. After all these years we’ve found ourselves at a point where we saw an original idea to contribute with The Pill.
The process has been exciting and daunting all at the same time. Exciting because it's realizing a long term dream. Daunting because we've been dreaming up this product for about 7 years and we've had a few other ideas in the works but this is the one that we kept going back to.
With The Pill we knew what we wanted it to look like. Since the start of Coming Soon we’ve constantly turned to vintage for some of our references. In this case particularly we looked at Space Age, Radical Italian Design, designers like Joe Colombo and The Pillola Lamps by Cesare Casati and Emanuele Ponzio.
The technical aspects of it were a new challenge in the process of design we hadn’t faced. We had a few non-compromising aspects we needed The Pill to perform. It had to function in a way that kept your bottle chilled for hours, light and comfortable to carry, it had to sit on its own in order for it to look like an object when not in use, and accommodate many sized bottles.
When we were trying to find inspiration for the color combinations we realized that our best source was Coming Soon. At our core people come to us for bright colorful and unusual combinations. Color is such a huge part of Coming Soon.
What made you move locations from the original location to Dimes Square? - Amy
When we were first looking at spaces we actually were considering the space that is on the other corner across the street from us currently. That space ended up falling through for us and so we went to the 37 Orchard Street space. During the pandemic our current location became available and our lease at our old location was about to end. So it seemed meant to be for us that after 10 years we ended up on the corner we originally wanted to be on.
Curious about how the Lower East Side and Chinatown neighborhoods influenced what they choose to showcase in their shop, if at all? - Zoë
The neighborhood was the first thing we picked when dreaming of the store. Initially we were only brick and mortar so the pieces we were offering were in response to what our local clients seemed interested in. The first few years we were practically living in the store and the neighborhood was a constant inspiration for us. For example our wrapping paper idea came from the many menu printing places that were here in the Lower East Side circa 2012.
Where do you go to find 1) inspiration and 2) business advice for a brick and mortar small business? (for context, I'm opening one and the info is very spread out, unlike tech or businesses trying to scale - used to read Courier Mag for this but they seem to have closed!) - Brandy
1) Novelty in general - a new play, restaurant, museum show, new friends and of course travel.
2) What we learned over the years is that a brick and mortar is all about people. From your vendors, neighbors, clients, employees, etc. It’s constant engagement so in order to not get burnt out it helps to enjoy people in general.
I’m so curious to hear about design trends! What emerging trends are they noticing? Also: how do they balance offering high-end, artistic pieces with maintaining a warm, welcoming experience for customers who might be intimidated by traditional luxury retail environments? What I love most about Coming Soon is how approachable their store is!- Zoë
A trend we've noticed is a lot more people using stainless steel in their designs.
Thank you, we've always strived to be welcoming to everyone. We get excited about every piece in the store, be it a high end collectable to an everyday plunger, and maybe because of our enthusiasm for each piece people feel comfortable sharing it with us.
I’d like to hear them discuss what they’ve learned between working with large-scale, and one of a kind pieces, and their smaller more mass produced items + how they work this into their business strategy. - Annie
We've learned that it's nice to live in a world that has both. Some things lend themselves more to being industrially produced while others require direct craftsmanship and artistry. For us it's nice to consider pieces based on their intrinsic value, not necessarily always how they are made. And it's nice to work with both types of designers.
I would like to know what the top-selling SKU is, if they have plans to expand their e-com business, and what developing a private-label product was like.
We just said it at the same time: The Bathing Lady is still number one after all these years. We are currently working on a brand new website!
I'm very curious about who their customer is and how it’s changed with ecommerce… who do they think about when choosing inventory for the store? - Elaheh
Our customers are a wide range of people. A lot of creatives. And e-commerce has definitely widened it even more, especially around the world.
Who do they think about when choosing inventory for the store? - Elaheh
A lot of the time we will ask ourselves if a specific friend would buy it. And when we can't decide on a color variation we ask each other "which one would you actually buy for yourself? Or which one would you give me?"
How they started! The unit economics of brick & mortar overwhelm me! - Azora
it helped that we went in blind and truthfully in love - so we didn't get to question much about it. We didn't have a business plan which allowed us to be flexible and to follow our instincts. Sometimes ignorance is bliss....
I’d be interested to hear if they use the parcel shipping companies (UPS/FedEx) or smaller logistics companies to help with e-commerce shipments and managing inventory. Thank you! - Ryan
We do it all in house ourselves. We love UPS.
Did they get started with family money or some other funding source? - Mike
Not at all. We started with an amount that today might sound laughable. One of us worked as a bartender for the first couple of years and even sometimes resorted to selling personal items to pay the rent.
Can you share more about your long-term collaboration with Cold Picnic? - Amy
We met Peter and Phoebe 8 years ago and immediately hit it off. They were so charming sitting on their massive rug poufs and two dogs. We've always shared certain preferences and sense of humor with them and trust completely their taste which has made collaborating with them effortless.
See you tomorrow!
I met my wife on the 8:30 Sunday night train coming back to the city from Montauk. July 1993. Sat down in her four-seater with the remains of my 12-pack, flying on cocaine. We smoked Winstons and bounced up and down between cars (this was when it was the diesel). Less than a year later we married with an amazing daughter. Better than the fancy bus for sure!!! Beautiful, wild times.
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