LOOSE THREADS
Mulberry came up in your responses of Anti-It Bags, however many styles tend to be over $1,000 (my price cut-off). But if you’re willing to inch up your budget, readers really loved these bags. Plus, the brand is having a sale on some styles: the Bayswater, which came recommended by readers, is on sale for $1,200 in deep cherry (the black and other neutrals are $1,700). For a smaller bag, check out the Mini Islington, on sale for $750.
Victoria's Secret's stock has nearly tripled in price in the last year. Sales are booming across Pink, beauty, and the Victoria's Secret brand, according to CEO Hilary Super. The fashion show revival also seems to have been a success. Completing the rebrand, Super changed the stock ticker from VSCO to VSXY (as in, "sexy").
Gisele is on the new cover of W, remembering many other times she was on the cover of W.
Hermès's resort show took place in Beverly Hills. Hermès spent the month before the show creating a runway "in an open lot above the Hotel Bel Air," reported Vogue. "It required a golf cart ride up a steep incline to access (and, unfortunately, a long line waiting for said transportation when the show was over)." I did like those pale yellow opening looks.
Speaking of Hermès, if you want to see an Hermès-designed bar and Fendi-designed kitchen in a 12,000-square-foot Miami mansion that a couple thought they would move into, but decided to sell instead, here you go.
And now, today’s big story…
What Gwyneth Paltrow's Politics and That Israeli Real Estate Ad Have in Common
On November 8, 2016, Gwyneth Paltrow went to work at Goop wearing a sharp, bootcut black pantsuit with an “I Voted” sticker on the left lapel. She had asked her team to also wear pantsuits that election day in support of Hillary Clinton, an employee from the time recalled. “There was no dissension” amongst the staff, this person said.
Of course, the election did not go the way HRC hopefuls at Goop and beyond expected it to. Gwyneth told her staff that if anyone was feeling unwell owing to Donald Trump’s victory, they could take the day after the election off.
Paltrow’s staff at Goop felt clear on her political leanings at that time, which the former staffer described as “very anti-Trump.” The major campaign story at that time was Trump's comments about grabbing women “by the pussy.” The message coming from Gwyneth seemed to be that supporting Clinton was aligned with a broader support of women.
Such thinking was in line with Gwyneth’s defense of Goop, which regularly generated controversy at this time over its pseudoscientific articles. Gwyneth framed Goop's mission of uncovering alternative treatments — the infamous jade “yoni” egg and vaginal steaming, among many others — as supporting women in a way the patriarchal medical industrial complex had not. (Experts told me when reporting Gwyneth: The Biography that while the medical system is imperfect, Goop wasn’t offering the right solution. “You’re taking away [people’s] autonomy via misleading them about what the evidence actually says,” said health misinformation expert Timothy Caulfield.)
This week has probably been the most explosive for Gwyneth since the internet noticed Goop selling that jade egg. About a week ago, Goop published a podcast in which she chatted with Trae Stephens, co-founder of defense tech company Anduril, which makes AI-backed weapons. She said, “I’m pretty centrist, and my husband thinks I’m a Republican — which, I’m not a Republican. I don’t feel anything right now, to be totally honest with you. I feel like I’m completely an independent.”
Social media commenters were galled, but the reaction was nothing compared to the dragging she got after she was revealed to be the face of luxury high-rise complex 51Park in Herzliya, a coastal city north of Tel Aviv. (Instagram account Saint Hoax called it “Gwynicide.”) The ad depicts her waking up and going for a jog in Central Park, then asking her driver to take her to “51Park,” cheerfully explaining it’s in Herzliya, Israel. The CEO of the marketing company that worked on the spot posted on LinkedIn that Gwyneth was the perfect spokesperson because she “effortlessly embodies international elegance, a premium lifestyle, and uncompromising quality.”
There may be a simple explanation for why she would do both this and declare herself politically apathetic on a podcast in which she was interviewing Stephens, a Peter Thiel associate and member of Trump's transition team after he won in 2016.
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