Laura Reilly hits a nerve

Also: You can just hire Sarah Manguso?!

• I was surprised to see that you can hire Sarah Manguso to consult on your fiction or non-fiction manuscript. She wrote The Guardians, a book about a friend of hers who died that I have read many, many times. It’s beautiful and air tight. You might recognize her as the woman who wrote Liars, a completely out-of-control book about her divorce and how much she hates her husband. (I wouldn’t even call it thinly veiled.) It’s hard to imagine that the same woman wrote both books, but I admire her range. Both captivated me, even if I thought Liars should have been pulped, just to save her reputation. It does make me slightly worried that she’s available for hire, but I’ll ignore that, because I can’t think of anyone better for this cheap. Worth the investment. (I’ve been meaning to read Sarah’s diary, which Alice Gregory wrote about, but I haven’t gotten around to it!)

• I give Manguso’s publisher a lot of credit on the publicity side for setting up this interview between the author and Emrata to talk about their divorces. Just quick, topical editorial thinking.

• On February 28th, the Liberty Joy Archive in London is doing a British Heritage Archive Sale. The vintage store specializes in suiting for men and women. I think worth checking it out! Women should own more vintage suits in general.

• Andrea Whittle—one of the brilliant women who came out of the Graydon Carter Vanity Fair press dept.—wrote a piece about the “nonessentials” that got her through the first year of her baby’s life. She also links to a google doc with the essentials. I noticed that all the downtown NYC moms flooded the new baby vintage store La Fefi for the opening. “Delightfully Rare.”

• HTSI did an issue on sleep. For some reason, I love to read about mattresses, even though I don’t plan on buying a new one. It’s just one of those major life purchases (or not). And it’s one of the only things in your house that you use every single day no matter what.

• I’ve managed to not have any investment in the Olympics or the athletes this year—odd. Seems like a failure of marketing? There’s one exception: The figure skater Alysa Liu. I love her look (ratty?), her story (comeback!), and her vibe (Gen Z). “Uber-competitive and yet unmistakably blithe.”

• Speaking of marketing, a series of cakes based on places around the world by April’s Baker had me manually searching for the handle on Instagram. “Lagos as a wedding cake.”

  

• There’s a shimmer on some of the new Burberry coats that really caught my eye. I happened to be at the show where it debuted, and I’ve been waiting patiently to see it on shelves. “Iconic Burberry rainwear is recast in lightweight changeant nylon blend – an archive-inspired fabric woven with contrasting yarns for an iridescent effect.”

• This Substack essay by Stacey Streshinsky about the current state of immigration in the United States is an absolute must read. It captures so perfectly the shifting landscape and the ennui it inspires.

Is this real?

In other Epstein news, Jacob Gallagher did a better job than me tracking Epstein’s taste in gifts.

Laura Reilly hits a nerve…

I was fascinated by the vitriol directed at Laura Reilly for writing this paragraph:

I was particularly amused because Laura’s behavior is easily explained by her choice of work: She posts selfies of her outfits as part of her job. She has to operate as a mannequin to perform at her highest level. And now she’s launching a health “aesthetics” newsletter, which absolutely requires her to look a certain way. It’s also wildly topical. (It seems to be widely ignored that she’s called this newsletter “High Touch” not “Accessible Health Hacks for Poor People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Go To The Gym.”)