Subscribe, Save or Scroll On: The Month on the Internet

Because the best scrolls hit like a Phoebe Philo drop—smart, sharp, and saying something.

¹Thought you’d read everything about the Met Gala, right? Can’t focus on the films at Cannes with Pedro Pascal flashing arms (and just the right amount of armpit) under his Calvin Klein vest? Here’s your cheat-sheet to what’s happening on the internet this past month. From Cartier’s homage to the jewels and gems from around the world (including a certain Indian princess) to DVF’s documentary and the Oscar-winning woman behind it, and what to get your teeth into in books and movies — this is your longlist of cultural / fashion happenings. Get in, dig in, and dip out.

LIKE: The Met Gala, where the carpet was blue and the mood was technicolour.

What we thought we were getting:

• A risky and specific theme—Black Dandyism: Tailored for You—which, let’s be honest, could’ve gone two ways: gloriously referential or dangerously reductive.

• Fears of lazy dandy clichés—top hats, canes, and Edwardian cosplay with no context.

• The usual sideline exclusion of diasporic designers, or worse—“world culture” nods wrapped in tired exoticism.

What we actually got:

• Diljit Dosanjh channeling the Maharaja of Patiala—so iconic to nod to an Indian dandy. A smart move. Cartier loan debacles or not.

• Colman Domingo in Willy Chavarria paying homage to André Leon Talley in mood and proportion. + Obsessed with Colman Domingo. Someone described him “the goodness in humanity” and that’s all I aspire to be.

• Aimee Lou Wood in Ahluwalia—a perfectly constructed moment by the London-based designer whose Indian-Nigerian roots continue to reshape red carpet codes. The fluid shoulder detail gave quiet nods to the sari pallu, but in a palette and silhouette that felt wholly new-gen.

• My designer predictions came (partly) true — Bianca Saunders made it to the carpet—but where was Bode? I’d placed bets on at least one custom suiting moment.

• Kiara Advani tried to nod to ALT in a cape moment but landed somewhere between cosplay and confusion. There, I said it. Love the designer behind the moment but sadly this didn’t land, for me.

• Shah Rukh Khan looked sharp but self-effaced too hard—this was the moment to claim everyone’s hearts (as he always does), but somehow he didn’t feel comfortable, confident? speaking to the fashion. A little research would’ve gone a long way.

• Cillian Murphy? Missing. Bradley Cooper? Also MIA. But we got SRK and Diljit instead, so no complaints.

• And the Olsen twins? No-shows again. I live in hope.

SHARE: The FT HTSI x Phoebe Philo collab—finally, a guest edit we wanted.

When HTSI handed over the keys to Phoebe, what did we get?

• A capsule issue filled with the kind of women who look like they’d ghost you for a Cézanne retrospective.

• Interviews with artists, filmmakers, designers Mati Diop, Deyan Sudjic, Koyo Kouoh, Michael Swaine, Mónica Manzutto, Tuesday Greenidge—proof that Philo’s taste remains as pristine as her pleats.

• A quiet insistence on depth: no hype, no frenzy, just considered women with interior lives.

• Even the typography felt very old Céline (did you notice?).
  

  

  Good to know Phoebe Philo lives like us. A handy bag of cleaning equipment — nothing gets me more excited as a 33 year-old.

Was it everything the Philo-philes dreamed of?

• Almost.

• No revealing personal essay, no process notes, no comment on the label’s go-slow strategy. We’ll just have to make-do with her care package notes on Page 10.

• But still, a perfect palate cleanser in a feed of fashion chaos.

• Philo didn’t say much, but she said it how she always has: through the women she chooses to spotlight.

SUBSCRIBE: Lorde is having a moment (again).

Why is everyone whispering “Lorde is back”?

• Because Charli XCX said so. At a recent concert, she anointed a ‘Lorde Summer’. Guess what we’ll be listening to it on loop come high summer.

• A new album is on the way!

• Could it be a PR switcheroo? Definitely need whoever she has. Do you take writers, sis?

• Maybe she never left—maybe we just got too loud.

Do we care?

• Yes, because there’s always room for a cult-y girl in conceptual Rodarte holding a glass of red wine.

FOLLOW: The DVF film and the Oscar-winning woman behind it.

Who is Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and why should you care?

• Two-time Academy Award winner. First Pakistani woman to win an Oscar. Director of the upcoming Star Wars: New Jedi Order.

• Her latest? Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge, a documentary on the wrap-dress legend who helped shape modern femininity.

• Directed with honesty and reverence—it’s a portrait of power, fashion, resilience and reinvention.

• Shortlisted for multiple doc awards this season.
  

  

  A Vogue India print interview feature with Diane von Furstenberg in the August 2020 issue.

  

  An excerpt from the interview and I HAVE HER PHONE NUMBER!! We spoke for a long time and now I can leave this planet wiser.

Why it’s personal:
I interviewed DVF for Vogue India in 2020 just as news broke (awkwardly) of her brand’s closure the month we went to print (the PR clearly swerved telling us that as we booked the interview slot). Nonetheless, she was gracious, reflective, iconic as ever. I’m glad I got to ask her the big Qs before the shutter. Glad this film exists to answer the rest.

SAVE: June’s Men’s Fashion Week is about to be that guy.

Tailoring is back and we have receipts:

• The Met Gala red carpet revived our appetite for big lapels, boxy shoulders and personality-forward suiting.

• Hermès? Always the quiet one to watch—expect immaculate cut and poetic pragmatism. You know the kind.

• Bode, Bianca Saunders, and Martine Rose will likely continue to remix masculinity with tenderness.

• If someone doesn’t show up in a lungi with brogues, I’m out.

PINNED: Hanut Singh’s grandmother and Cartier’s India connection.

Who was she?

• Rani Sita Devi of Kapurthala. Called one of the most beautiful women in the world by Vogue.

• Swathed in Cartier, posed for Cecil Beaton and others, graced the pages of British Vogue, lived loud.

• One of Cartier’s most photographed Indian patrons, she helped define the Maison’s Indo-Deco era.
  
  How I know:
  It’s my job, but also because I interviewed Helen Molesworth, the lead curator of the V&A’s latest Cartier show, who gave me the backstory. And I now want to write a book about her. But the family has kept her story (and I’m sure, her saris) quite private.

ALERTS ON: I'm launching Soho Mews House Talks in Mayfair.

Why you’ll want a seat:

• The “club within a club” by the membership club recently opened in Mayfair and is super exclusive. I heard Twiggy there in conversation recently and it was intimate, warm and wholesome (she was scouted when she was working as a Saturday girl at the local parlour!).

• I am launching a talks and conversations series through summer and end of the year, titled Fashion Values—a kind of sequel to the CSM panel I hosted in India.

• Spotlight on sustainability, craftsmanship, inclusion—the grown-up, sexy conversations fashion needs. Even if the world backtracks from it while we do.

• First speakers: Daisy Knatchbull (Savile Row’s first female storefront owner), Pip Durrell (With Nothing Underneath), Nina Briance (Cult Mia). And many many more - stay tuned. I’m particularly excited about a conversation with a certain exhibition curator that might’ve been mentioned above and another themed on the red carpets that we just saw. Gotta hear it straight from the stylists and celebs that walk it, am I right?

BOOKMARK: Summer reads + TV recs + 100 years of Art Deco.

What I’m reading:

• Conversations on Love by Natasha Lunn. It’s warm and reads like a personal diary with intermittent conversations with Roxanne Gay, Esther Perel and others. As new-ish(ly) wed – Jan ‘24, it’s been my go-to to understand why we love love, why it’s not all that we think it is and how friendships, romantic love, parental love all hold valid and essential place for us. (I think this will have to have its own dedicated Substack Post soon).

• I’m looking for the next read - any reccos?

On screen:

• Loving Your Friends & Neighbours. Jon Hamm, enough said.

• Going to start Toxic Town with Aimee Lou Wood. It’s been described as the Erin Brokovich of the UK and I love a strong female lead.

Centennial moment:

• Art Deco turns 100. Born from the 1925 Paris Expo.

• Think: symmetry, geometry, opulence.

• In India? Marine Drive’s Deco curves and Worli Sea Face. Old retro cinemas and hidden floor tiles.

• Jewellery? Hanut Singh’s architectural flair is your best bet.

• Trivia: Deco buildings in Bombay were designed to mimic ships, all so seafarers saw dreams, not just docklands.

NOW WRAPPED UP AT A CROISETTE NEAR YOU: Cannes 2025.

Highlights:

• Wes Anderson returned with The Phoenician Scheme. Expect pastels, pan flutes, and people looking wistfully into the middle distance.

• Emma Stone stars in a surreal Western comedy. Saddle up for trauma in Technicolor—nobody does existential dread in a corset quite like her.

• Fashion? I loved that Gucci sari / lehenga / gown moment (and I even wrote about it). But more on it later. Gathering thoughts and internet hate as I do so.

• Payal Kapadia, last year’s Grand Prix winner, was on the Cannes jury alongside Halle Berry and Jeremy Strong; India may be out of the Palme d'Or race, but it was still at the table.

• India’s Homebound got a 9 minute standing ovation. Somebody tell me where I can watch it?

  
  
  
  
  

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