Taylor Swift probably listened to Red Scare
Taylor Swift probably listened to Red Scare
+ a new Feed Me feature!
This week I’m introducing a new 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. Later in the week, I’ll then publish their answers, and additional observations that I’ve picked up after spending some time with them.
I wanted to capture the spirit of that (sometimes unhinged) guest lecturer who would come into your class on a Friday, drop more knowledge than you learned all year, maybe hit on a student, and then leave forever. Some of the best work comes from having a tight time slot and one chance to nail it - the celeb shot, the 3-episode guest arc, the guest lecture.
This week’s Guest Lecture will be with Alia Raza, Founder, CEO & Creative Director of Régime des Fleurs. Founded in 2014 by Raza (a visual artist turned perfumer), Régime des Fleurs means “reign of flowers”—a world ruled not by force but by nature, culture, and romance. In accordance with this vision, each perfume is made with an unusually high percentage of rare natural ingredients. Raza traces her obsession with white florals to her childhood, as the daughter of Pakistani immigrants.
Most of my readers know that last year I took a 15-week fragrance course at my alma mater, FIT. I was writing a lot about the booming fragrance industry (it will generate $60B in revenue this year), and wanted to better understand what I was writing about. It was an incredible experience because every week more and more headlines poured out validating my decision to spend hours every Wednesday night in a lab.
Some things to consider when submitting your questions:
Régime des Fleurs is worn by some of the most influential tastemakers on earth – Chloë Sevigny (who Raza made a film and then perfume with), Charli XCX, Tyler the Creator, and Alexa Chung.
The business is in a high growth period – and Raza’s team is tiny!
In addition to the brand’s site, RdF sells at Moda Operandi and The Row’s stand-alone stores (which is where much of their discoveryy is occurring) in Los Angeles, New York and London.
I think this is a fun experiment in access and engaging with cool people, see you over in the chat.
NEWS:
That dress in Taylor Swift’s ‘Fortnight’ music video is Elena Velez. In February, Velez told The Free Press “I am a reflection of their own professional demise. There is a henhouse of fashion editors who gate-keep and are still living their Sex and the City ‘best life,’ who moved to New York to pursue their dream of being a snob. And I’m not making clothes for them anymore, I refuse.” Icy! The designer is known for dressing Red Scare co-hosts Anna and Dasha, and speaking out about the difficulties of building a brand when you’re not rich. Let’s see what people have said about the LVMH prize-nominated designer.
“Her approach speaks to the chaos of American fashion right now, and also the chaos of New York City.” - Lauren Sherman for Puck, September 2023
“Americans these days are insecure and not terribly creative—and it’s a reminder of just how impossibly hard it is to become a boring old heritage brand. Perhaps we should have all stayed home and watched the Super Bowl?” - Lauren Sherman for Puck, February 2024
“She has aligned herself with the unsavory flavor of a tendentious downtown New York crowd, whose podcasters, media personalities and fashion- and art-adjacent figures rose to prominence under the aegis of “Dimes Square” — the over-explained neighborhood in Lower Manhattan known for its reactionary politics and associations with Peter Thiel.” - Rachel Tashjian for Washington Post, February 2024
“elena velez is the donald trump of emerging designers” - Louis Pisano, September 2023
“She’s unconcerned with the pretty and the palatable, offering instead a primal scream of a collection about the caricatures of the Midwest, trucker culture and what exactly glamour means.” - Vanessa Friedman for The New York Times, February 2023
It’s also worth mentioning that Jack Antonoff, Taylor’s best friend and producer, told The Face last fall that Red Scare is “boring on a level that can’t even be described.”
Glossier is opening in Dallas. Yeehaw. Also, I like these sidewalk spray paint ads they did – so much cheaper and pleasantly surprising than billboards and wild postings.
Sky Ting’s Krissy Jones is single. And it sounds like her new yoga studio is going to be sick as hell with dance, “infrared saunas, a cold plunge, and a treatment room.”