Rachel Bilson: podcast queen?
Rachel Bilson has a podcast called Broad Ideas and I think it’s pretty popular? She has sustained it for a few years and she is also a frequent guest on other podcasts. It’s a whole subculture of pop culture.
Anyway, here she is in a cute walking around outfit. The jacket is (sold out) The Great Outdoors Plus Terrain, the bag is Mansur Gavriel (which, for an IT Bag of 2013, holds up!) and the sneakers are HOKA, which are dethroning the ON Cloud line of sneakers as the ugly shoe of choice for people on the go. (This is not a knock on either, I have a pair of ON and they are like walking on a cloud. They fit a bit small though, I’m usually a 6.5 and the 7 has barely any wiggle for me.) I have them in a kind of brown ombre (it’s a CHOICE) and a woman came up to me and said, “Where did you get your sneakers, I love them. I mean they are hideous and ugly but I want a pair.” I appreciate her radical honesty.
Beaded phone chains
Bandolier is still the phone case of choice for hands-free celebrities but I was asked about “finding something different” and may I suggest a lanyard (worn around the neck or wrist)? Yes, lanyards were once a signature of office accessories but there are some super cute homemade ones on Etsy that look like friendship bracelets/necklaces. Many are customizable (like bead colours and letters) and are fairly inexpensive. Remember, when shopping on Etsy always filter results for your country only and skip the top sponsored listing to avoid the bots. If you want a “designer” pick, candy coloured jeweler to the stars Roxanne Assoulin makes one. Gigi Hadid was wearing these way back in 2021 so as usual, I’m years behind.
The never-ending saga of PANTS
A reader wrote in to ask me why women’s pant lengths are so wrong. And Dear Reader – I don’t know!!! I did some research and it is NOT in our imagination – inseam lengths are really not serving many people and the reason is two-fold: inconsistent sizing (a huge issue in women’s clothing) and the standard 30” inseam (which should correlate to about 5’9” (obviously depending on the cut of the pant). This doesn’t even account for different body shapes.
Literally every single woman I have asked struggles with it – pants are too short or too long. I prefer jeans on the short side (barely grazing the top of my shoe) and even when I buy “cropped” length it’s too long. So I seek out brands with different inseam lengths, which is a standard for men but not for women. Brands like Abercrombie have an “extra short” length, but that length seems not to be available for sizes over 30 waist. If you go above 30, “short” is available but the styles sell out so quickly, like I’ve had things snatched from my cart while I check out. That tells me the demand is there but the product isn’t.
And while there’s been a very slow effort to expand on body shapes and sizes, there’s very little range in height. Models are typically tall, no matter their size.
If you want a length range you either need to shop retailers that try to be everything to everyone (like Asos or Gap, which has some options) or find a really good tailor. The more I dig into this the more I realize that in the same way celebrities don’t talk about their wigs, extensions, facial tweaks and body treatments, they aren’t talking about how many of their clothes are hand-stitched to fit them perfectly. That’s why they look damn good in everything.
And one last note: Uniqlo (which is very underrated) offers online hemming service. But it’s on you to know your inseam. Get a measuring tape and figure it out and it will take so much guess work out of online shopping. End rant.
(PS: I still can’t find these exact jeans but I know many of you want them. Keeping an eye out.)
