Kindred Spirits

Happy Wednesday! I can’t believe we’re halfway through September already. I mean, I’m not entirely complaining, considering we’re a step closer to October, objectively the best month of the year (and I’m not just saying that ‘cause it’s my birthday month.) What are you guys looking forward to in the next few weeks? Let me know!

It’s Purr-fect!

HOOD BABY LACE UP KNIT PANELED CORSET TOP - HOOD BABY LA

IYKYK: Depop girls are creating some of the coolest corsets right now, including crazy pieces reworked from sweatshirts and sneakers. I’ve been hunting for the perfect corset for about three months now, but hadn’t managed to find one that fulfilled all my strict criteria — an Elizabethan style with a V-shaped panel in the front, no boning, easy and comfortable to wear. I basically wanted a Vivienne Westwood-esque corset: a little less fuss and a lot less money. 

When I stumbled across Hood Baby LA’s patchwork corsets, little pings sounded in my head as I ticked off all my boxes. Sarah Martinez hand-sews her sustainable corsets from remnants of vintage tapestry fabric and denim, pulled together (literally) with laces up the sides. Their scrappy quality in no way belies, and is in fact indicative of, Martinez’s impeccable craftsmanship and creative ingenuity. They drop in batches on her Depop at 8am PST every couple of weeks (and promptly sell out.) Take it from me, the antithesis of a morning person: they’re well worth waking up for. 

Put a Hamper on Things

VINTAGE RUSTIC TRUNK LAUNDRY HAMPER - SHABBY FRENCH VINTAGE

The flimsy pop up mesh hampers I bought at Target freshman year of college lasted me throughout all four years, and by the end, they were looking pretty worse for wear, stained and torn and sagging. When I moved back home I threw them out and just tossed my clothes in the communal family hamper — until last week, when my dad accidentally ran a pure silk blouse through the heavy rinse cycle. I’m now insistent upon getting a laundry basket of my own, and I’ve got my eye on this vintage steamer trunk, all the way from France. It’s wicker! It’s got leather straps and metal hardware and little handles on the side! It can even double as a coffee table! Perfect for pretending that I’m living in a Parisian apartment and not in Orange County suburbia. 

What Ghosts Around Comes Around

GHOST DRAWINGS SIX PRINT PACK - GHOSTS BY SARAH

Looking at Sarah Tue-Fee’s prints struck a chord in me. Her lil ink-and-pen ghosties, overlaid atop photographs, perform the same mundane tasks as the rest of us: water their plants, scroll social media, check themselves out in the mirror. Ghosts are doomed to haunt the houses where they died; perhaps I see something of myself in them, confined within the same four walls for six months straight, going through the motions of daily life with an expressionless mien. It makes me feel a bit melancholy, but it makes me feel comforted too, knowing that even after death you can still enjoy the simple pleasure of a Jacuzzi soak or a pool game.

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Tried one of my recs and loved it (or hated it)? Wanna get something cool on my radar? Drop me a line at kittylguo@gmail.com, or swing by my Twitter @kitguo!