🍸 OFF-MENU 001 🍸: The Married Men
What I'm loving this week: black peasant dresses, Nicole Kidman movies, and the one sweater everyone should buy
Good morning everyone — I was going to launch with a very juicy essay this coming Tuesday, but I’ve had way more sign-ups than anticipated. As a way to say thanks, I’m sending out an early edition of Mermaid Café: OFF-MENU.1
Every Friday, I’ll talk about seven things I’ve been thinking about this past week, from oyster rings to Robert Altman’s Nashville, along with new things I’ve discovered (as recommended by you!). A lot of what drives editorial content nowadays is an engine of recommendation, and it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff when everyone thinks themselves an infallible tastemaker. OFF-MENU exists to make sense of what I’m looking at and frequently returning to, but to also engage with *your* thoughts and ideas — so let’s talk about them. I want this mini-newsletter to be something actually additive in your inbox.
Without further ado…
#1: This giant sweater from OZMA
This is the perfect time to buy your fall/winter clothes from larger retailers — they’re most likely sloughing off their FW23 supply, and you’ll see even deeper markdowns this Labor Day weekend. But this is also the perfect time to shop from autumnal indie brands, especially indie knitwear brands, because they’re usually in smaller stock and sell out quickly when cooler weather comes around (and everyone remembers sweaters exist).
I’ve been really loving OZMA’s brand direction recently — it’s KHAITE for girls who’d rather live on the West Coast OR a fishing village in Canada. I’m a sucker for a softly-textured knit, practically puffy with fiber (in this case, alpaca cotton). This is the kind of sweater that’ll last you for the rest of your life. This is the kind of sweater my ancestors wore on the Mayflower. It defies time or gender or the physics of fluff.
#2: Should artists stop shopping?
An article I’ve been reading and re-reading, on what it means for artists to project wealth, from Sheila Heti back in 2018: “I would be showing off my candles for me, and these candles would convince me that I had the intelligence, taste, and money, to source the most authentic sort of candles, thus proving myself to be superior to other women.”
#3: Margot at the Wedding (dir. Noah Baumbach, 2007)
Currently going through what I’ve been calling KIDWATCH 2024, AKA trying to cross off all the Nicole Kidman movies I haven’t yet seen (you can follow along with me here). I went into this thinking I’d respond to it like any other Baumbach film, which is to say a wry chuckle every 30 minutes and an acknowledgment of its flashy wit, not unlike being goaded into reading a David Sedaris essay. But I digress.
Upsetting, depressing, totally unpleasant, rancid vibes, hated almost every second, and yet I cannot stop thinking about it. I can’t imagine why I would relate to a dispassionate, glamorous writer trying to control the entire world around her.
#4: One last dress before I go
We’re in that odd flux period where you should be fall/winter dressing (see point #1) but the weather is so balmy no one’s gotten their long-sleeves out from storage yet. If you’re going to buy “summer clothes,” still, you might as well opt for something transitional. I love Ciao Lucia! — a less annoying Lisa Says Gah!, exclamation point and all — and this little peasant dress is impeccable for year-round wear. Style it now with sandals or Havva boots this fall.
#5: A different fall floral
I mostly loathe dark florals — I’ve only encountered one or two patterns, ever, that haven’t itched the tacky side of my brain. You click on any fall trend report, regardless of year, and there it is, in thick sans-serif lettering: DARK FLORALS. So chic, so timeless. WHAT? In the words of another middling Nicole Kidman role: don’t gaslight me.
Is it possible to find a fall floral that doesn’t look like you operate a vampire-themed burlesque club? I think so — but it has to be a white floral, clean and bright, like lilies or peonies. Nothing chintzy and kitschy. Nothing that screams “Did you know they also make this in a wallpaper?” White-cream florals are typically reserved for springtime, but against the warm copper-amber tones of autumn, they’re kind of revelatory. Why not this Anthropologie dress? Or this one from LoveShackFancy? Or, better yet: why not tuck white flowers in your hair?
#6: These APTO boots
If there’s one thing I want to inculcate through this newsletter, it’s getting people to start seriously considering and looking at W Concept. I’ve had these mahogany boots from the Korean brand APTO saved for a while. Whether I order them or not, who knows, but I do think there are things to divine from the products we wishlist and save and bookmark — from how we approach personal taste to how we want to appear to others (see point #2).
#7: “The Married Men,” The Roches (1979)
I was going to say “There should be more songs about having pointless affairs” then realized that’s basically every song ever written. BUT — are any of those as good as this one?
See you on Tuesday. ꩜
OFF-MENU will arrive in your inbox every Friday from here on out.