We love a rapper who’s come up through spoken word, and Lava La Rue’s influences don’t stop there. In her “Magpie” video, she walks through a series of train cars decked out with visual nods to British Caribbean sound system culture, UK black punk, Notting Hill carnival, 2000’s Grime and other musical institutions that she says “would become the blueprint of the contemporary music scene we know today.” And that homage wouldn’t be here without a more contemporary braintrust— La Rue is the founder of the 15-person NINE8 collective, a multidisciplinary group of artists in West London who work collaboratively to both build power and find their individual artistic niches. That power-building seems to be working for Lava, who’s drumming up some noise around her lush and juicy EP, Lavaland. Take a listen.
You needn’t be an expert to know that fashion has a sustainability problem. When the very premise is to sell as many new materials as possible, how can the industry do better without collapsing? One brand has an idea: sell knowledge, not materials. ADIFF (short for “a difference,” get it?) is selling a book of sewing patterns and positioning it like a cook book, which is either confusing or very good marketing. You make food, DON’T YOU? What’s stopping you from crafting your own clothes? Sure, you’ll have to build some foundational skills, but you need something new to master. Realistically, not everyone who buys the book is going to make their own clothes (though those who do could move on to patterns from other brands), but ideally we’ll read it and at least come away with an understanding of what goes into fashion — and a more judicious attitude toward consumption.
If you’re on to sewing, presumably you’re over the laborious baking thing by now. That’s what the The Caker is betting on with their boxed cake mix glow-up. For $25, you can order flour, sugar, baking powder, etc., pre-mixed at a cakery (not bakery) in New Zealand. It will come in an aspirationally branded box printed with flavors that might as well be perfume: matcha cherry, lemon strawberry poppyseed. The likes of Vogue and PureWow have endorsed the “kits” (not “mixes”)— they’re “impeccably delicious,” according to Harper’s Bazaar— but we know not to trust the fashion people with our food, don’t we? Jane Black at Taste said she threw hers right out when it came out tasting like a pop tart (also the instructions were wrong in several places). But actually, maybe this cake IS fashion: It’s regular ingredients in prestige branding for ten times the price because it will look good on instagram. But you know what else looks good on instagram? A real cake from whoever bakes cakes where you live.
As you pull out your shorts box, are you ready to get the smoothest, softest, butteriest shave out there? The award-winning Billie razor has 5 crazy-sharp blades with charcoal shave soap built right in for an extremely close shave. And it may be pink, but no pink tax here: Just $9 + free shipping. Get it.
