The New York Times wants Letterboxd. The Times Company is in exclusive talks to buy the app, where 30 million movie buffs log and review what they watch, for roughly $330 million. Now your one-line review of You Can See Everything could belong to the paper of record.
Kim Kardashian is sorry for her advent calendar. SKIMS charged $148 for 12 doors of hair ties, scrunchies, bobby pins and something called a "bra elastic headband." After a TikTok unboxing got tens of millions of views, SKIMS emailed buyers to say "we fell short this time."
The fastest way out of Google's office is a slide. Carsten Höller installed four spiral slides, the tallest about 125 feet, at Antara, an open-air mall in Polanco, Mexico City. Riders can start from the Google offices, the Rosewood Hotel or the restaurants, and every slide ends at the same exit. Finally, a legitimate way to escape the all-hands.
The Cybertruck is driving into the sunset. Slowly. Elon Musk is winding down production due to low sales. He once claimed more than a million reservations, but fewer than 50,000 trucks had sold by March last year. To be fair, its "unbreakable" windows did break twice when it was first unveiled.
Martine Rose's plot twist comes with Balenciaga. In March, the company that owned most of her brand overruled her, turned down her bid to buy it back, then sold it. On November 16, she becomes the first woman to run Balenciaga in its 109 years. She started as Demna's consultant in 2015. Now she's the boss.
Collectible isn't done with New York. The design fair just wrapped its third edition in a former Upper East Side cinema, with more than 110 exhibitors from 27 countries and a section staged as office cubicles. Now it's turning Club Collectible into events that run all year. Like a return-to-office mandate, but you'll want to go.
For the last two years, Coca-Cola has used AI to remake its 1995 holiday ad, the one with the glowing red trucks. Both times, people hated it.
Everyone else seems to be doing the opposite: making painstaking ads by hand and making sure everyone knows it. Levi's crew spent four hours filming every second of its stop-motion yeti. Prada put "Animated by Hand" right under the title of its holiday film, then made a second film about the animators themselves.
For all the talk of prompts replacing animators, handmade films are having a major moment.
Strathberry, a Scottish handbag brand, opens Badger's film on a sea made of wool, with the waves moved one strand at a time. Across its three short films, the Prague studio So Daze photographed 2,880 frames. The director, Alina Golovlova, said they wanted the films to feel tangible in the era of AI. If someone took their time on the ad, you assume they took their time on the bag.
Prada's mice were drawn in pencil by a team led by John Pomeroy, who worked on The Land Before Time, and Prada released a whole second film about them. Apple posted video of people moving clay Mac minis by hand, down to the little motion lines, to sell a computer it markets on how well it runs AI. Often, the video of someone making the thing gets shared more than the thing itself.
That said, there are parallels. Dior said its film, directed by Sylvain Chomet of The Triplets of Belleville, was illustrated entirely by hand, and it compared the months of drawing to making couture. Within days, viewers were posting frames that seemed to show AI. Chomet eventually responded, denying AI use but admitting they used a small amount of “automated interpolation.”
Coke’s AI videos have since been called “the best ad Pepsi never paid for,” but the company’s head of generative AI says they performed really well (a likely thing for a head of generative AI to say). Those shortcuts might work when you’re banking on nostalgia for a sugary soda, but luxury products require more attention to detail.
Minted New York’s founder on romanticizing quitting, ’90s trance, and finding inspiration in the New York City skyline.
A moment with
Marcus Milione
Minted New York’s founder on romanticizing quitting, ’90s trance, and finding inspiration in the New York City skyline.
Marcus Milione started Minted New York on his lunch breaks while working in commercial real estate debt. It began on TikTok, where he’d post three videos a day about fashion and fitness, usually wearing jewelry he'd made himself. Viewers wanted the jewelry, so he started selling it. Today, Minted New York has grown into a brand spanning performance running apparel, menswear, and jewelry, while also venturing into documentary filmmaking. They just released their first documentary: a 50-minute film about Olympic medalist Grant Fisher. Here, Marcus talks about why we've romanticized quitting, the ’90s trance he has on repeat, and why the New York City skyline continues to inspire him.
Shop Minted New York’s Fall Performance Running collection →
What's your hot take?
I think we've romanticized quitting things that are difficult. There's this idea online that if something isn't making you happy, you should walk away from it. Obviously, there are situations where that's the right decision, but I think we've lost some appreciation for sticking with things when they're genuinely hard.
Three places you’ve felt inspired by.
Anytime I drive back into NYC at night and can see the skyline in the distance. You look out the window and realize that human beings, through sheer willpower, built all of this out of nothing. Early mornings in Central Park. Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
What do you listen to on repeat?
Right now? ’90s trance classics (“Netherworld” by LSG, “Seven Days” by BBE, etc.), but it’s always changing. Tomorrow it might be “45” by Shinedown. Depends on my mood that day.
What are the most worthwhile investments you’ve made?
Running, a Wüsthof chef’s knife, regular dental checkups and cleanings, and Eight Sleep.
Can you tell us more about your creative process?
I tend to be an overthinker, and because of that, I can sometimes find myself focusing too much on the edge cases, the things that could go wrong, or the reasons why an idea might not work before I've even given it a chance.
As I've become less involved in the day-to-day product design (shout-out to Clay, Shawn, etc.) and more focused on the bigger, less tangible world of brand building and creative direction, I've found that a lot of my thinking happens while I'm running. I don't run with music, so I spend a lot of time alone with my thoughts.
Some days, ideas come naturally, and I can work through something that's been on my mind for weeks without much effort. Other days, it feels like I'm banging my head against a brick wall, turning the same idea over and over without getting anywhere.
I think one of the things I've learned is that you can't really force creativity, but you can create the conditions for it to happen. There's value in continuing to show up, giving yourself the space to think, and trusting that the work you're putting in will eventually lead somewhere.
What is an unusual habit, or an absurd thing, that you love?
I'm sure it doesn't count as unusual, but I love going to sleep early. There's nothing like getting under the covers after being spent from a long day and knowing I can turn off my brain until my eyes open in the morning.
Who is your forever inspo?
How do I narrow it down to one? I find myself interested in too many things to look at life through one lens. I'm a builder at heart, and I've always admired people that build great, enduring things. I have a tremendous amount of respect for world-building, particularly the ability to take a single idea and turn it into something that extends far beyond a physical product. People like Ralph Lauren, Jim Jannard, and Melanie Perkins all come to mind, each for different reasons.
Write us a fortune cookie message.
Life is the longest game you'll ever play. Learn to love the long game.
Object Love
Earbud Leash
This dog leash doubles as a giant novelty pair of white earbuds, 3D-printed and attached to a 70-inch white leather leash. It’s a collaboration between the dog accessories brand Girl and a Stray Dog and Beata Rydbacken, a Stockholm designer best known for hair clips about the size of your forearm. She prints them, then puts every one together by hand. She also made the hat out of blonde hair that Rosalía wore on tour.
Rydbacken has always been obsessed with scale. She told Vogue Scandinavia that as a kid, she used to cry because she wanted to be 10 centimeters tall. Wired earbuds have been making a comeback because they’re so unassuming, which doesn’t really work when they’re blown up this big. Still, with big ’phones comes big responsibility, and 10% of proceeds go to Hot Girls Care Foundation, which rescues high-risk dogs from overcrowded LA shelters.
Last week we asked: What’s a phase you went through that never really ended?
Ebru said, “Analyzing the colors, fonts, and composition of everything I see. I thought it was just a phase while studying graphic design, but now I can’t even look at a menu in peace.”
Now for next week: Which fictional character had the best wardrobe?
