Your husband can also be a purse.
I spoke to the designers behind New York's newest bag brand.
Good morning everyone. My day started by downing three glasses of water, and researching vitamin stacks to add into my life in 2025. I went quite hard this weekend (worth it), but I’m planning on going Huberman-mode...soon. I went upstate with my friends last week, and they’re convinced I’m the last person on earth who still believes that Emergen-C has benefits besides a sugar rush.
Today’s letter is stacked: an interview with the co-founders of Auto, a new bag brand that encourages misbehaving and up-skirt photos; drama surrounding the delayed re-opening of a general store in the Hamptons, including anonymous sources; an Apple hire at New York Magazine, and more.
But first: I’d be very grateful if you could take this survey about what you think will happen to your industry in 2025. I’ll publish the results for all Feed Me readers later this year.
For the month of December, Feed Me will be featuring a daily holiday gift — usually suggested by Emily, sometimes suggested by someone else — some might generate affiliate revenue. In addition to this advent calendar-style gift guide, there will also be the occasional Christmas surprise.
A polo suggestion from an anonymous man in my life:
“This polo from LA Apparel. Some polos have gotten really expensive. At $38, this one is fairly priced and looks good on anyone. It has a generous collar as polos should, and is made up in the same garment washed cotton as LA’s tee shirts, so it feels spiritually closer to a tee than a crispy golf polo. You can easily dress it down with sweats, shorts, or jeans. Just be careful going on the LA Apparel website while at work. You’re really rolling the dice.”
Auto makes bags for your laptop — that aren’t ugly totes.
Last week, one of my readers tipped me off to a new bag brand called Auto. One of the founders is Sarah Brown, who spent years at Sandy Liang and Loeffler Randall prior to starting the brand. The other founder is Connor Marie Stankard, an artist who is represented by Lubov Gallery who I met once briefly in the cigar room at the Wall Street Baths when we were both at a mutual friend’s birthday party.
Auto bags are handmade in New York City using fine Italian leather. With sleek, durable bodies and discreet, ergonomic interiors, their idea is that, “Auto bags carry you.” Their launch campaign includes a naughty woman named Ava who spits in her date’s drink at Michael’s New York, and attends corporate meetings barefoot — all with her purse as her accomplice.
I like all the pockets in the Model S. These enormous totes we lug around don’t have enough pockets.
SB: Pockets were important for us. The Model C has a big zippered pocket which you can hide things in, the zipper matches the lining so it tends to go unchecked. And that bag is kind of a going out purse so that's great for bouncers… of course it also fits a bottle of wine.
CS: I had a bag with ridiculously specific pockets, so fussy, you’d never use them. The S has a giant pocket. If your laptop fits, great. If not, it’ll fit in the main compartment, then you put your keys in the pocket so nothing gets scratched, and you don’t need one of those foam laptop cases.
I like how frank your concept is — bags are cars for girls. How difficult was that to come up with? Do you really think that’s true?
Sarah Brown: I definitely do, I constantly feel like I’m packing my life into my bag, like how other people treat their cars.
Connor Stankard: Bags also need to get you around while looking good and feeling comfortable. It's just like… bags are cars for girls.
You said you came up with the idea “over drinks.” What were you drinking?