Taste Log 002

Audrey Hepburn, Comme des Garçon, and knock-off The Row.

Aug 26, 2024

First, something to consume.

Watch NPR’s Tiny Desk with Maxwell, one of my favorite singers and first crushes. Then, listen to three of my favorite songs that he didn’t perform: “Get to Know Ya”, “Matrimony: Maybe You”, “Luxury: Cococure”. Listening to Maxwell instantly makes me feel sexy.

I apologize for the delay, I’ve been doing some investigative reporting for a story all summer and taking myself (and this newsletter) way too seriously, so I let self-doubt slip in and this slip away. But, I’m back!!

Here’s all the things I’ve read, seen, bought, used, eaten this summer. But, let me start by talking about a purchase that changed my life. At the recommendation of my friend Arabelle Sicardi, I bought the Remarkable tablet. It’s pricey, but as a writer with ADHD who sometimes can’t remember where she’s written ideas or taken notes, it’s made such a big difference for me. It feels like you’re writing on paper and it’s easy to carry around. I still use a physical notebook for other things, but this has been great for keeping a calendar, creating a folder of all my notes for stories I’m working on, and, because I like to write things out on paper before I write them in a document, a space to draft all my sentences without wasting notebooks.

Also, if there are questions from readers about things I would recommend or anything else, I’m happy to answer them here (just DM me, or email me at tahairston24@gmail.com).

What I saw

The Spook Who Sat By the Door (1973)
Directed by Ivan Dixon, I first discovered this film in college but I’ve never seen it as it's really hard to find. It was removed from theaters a few weeks after its release because of the film’s controversial subject matter; the movie, based on Sam Greenlee’s novel, is about Dan Freeman, a former CIA agent, who takes the skills he’s learned back to his hometown of Chicago to build his own Black guerilla group to overthrow the government and fight for liberation. I finally got to see it at BAM this weekend—and what a film! It’s hilarious—when Freeman is finally hired by the CIA and becomes the first black agent, the role he’s given is Top Secret Reproduction Center Sections Chief, or in other words he makes copies of documents. It’s bold—when one of the teens in the guerilla group tells Freeman he’s doing this because he hates white people, Freeman quickly rebukes that idea, telling him that hating white people isn’t enough, that you have to want and love freedom enough to fight and die for it. And, it’s all very much still relevant today. The movie is screening at BAM until August 29th, if you can’t catch it, definitely read the book!

Passages (2023)
Immediately after watching this film, I watched Notting Hill as a balm to remind me love exists. Passages is a sexy and chaotic film about a love triangle, with the film’s director Ira Sachs succeeding in making the viewer feel the emotional rollercoaster as a result of the main character Tomas’s impulsive actions. Sachs achieves this with the film’s disorienting music, the fast pace, and the voyeuristic perspective. Passages’ costume designer Khadija Zeggaï uses clothes to further define the characters, like when Tomas shows up to meet Agathe’s, the mother of his soon-to-be child, parents in a see-through cropped top and leopard pants after spending the night with his ex-husband, Martin. This is definitely one of the best movie’s I’ve watched this year.

Sabrina (1954) and Charade (1963)
A confession: I grew up thinking Audrey Hepburn was basic. I didn’t understand the hype around her, and yet, she was everywhere – Halloween costumes, dorm room posters, t-shirts, and on every best-dressed list. I saw Breakfast at Tiffany’s when I was younger, but I never dabbled into her other films because of my aversion to her being shoved down my throat as the “fashion woman” to know. Last month, I decided to revisit her because of Dione Davis’s interview where she mentions her love for Edith Head and reading about Hepburn’s relationship with Hubert de Givenchy. What I learned from watching Sabrina and Charade was that Hepburn was a solid actress with incredible eyebrows, but it was the characters from her films that had the style as I didn’t find a lot of evidence of Hepburn’s style off-camera. And, that’s thanks to Edith Head (Sabrina, Funny Face and Roman Holiday) and Hubert de Givenchy (Breakfast at Tiffany’s and How to Steal a Million). I’m inspired to scour Etsy for vintage hats and balaclavas for the fall and indulge in more Edith Head movies, but Audrey Hepburn is still basic to me.

Memoria (2021)
Tilda Swinton is one of my favorite actresses because you can tell that she’s constantly looking for roles that challenge and intrigue her. Memoria is another movie I’ve been waiting to see, as it’s not available on streaming, and I finally caught a screening at Metrograph. Essentially, it’s a movie about a woman on a quest to find the source of a booming sound that she keeps hearing, but it ends up being about so much more. It’s incredible the way the director Apichatpong and the sound designer Javier Umpierrez are able to make you feel like you are in Swinton's head and on the same sonic journey.

Eat Drink Man Woman and Perfumes (2019)
Both of these movies are about people losing their senses. In Eat Drink Man Woman, Zhu is a master chef in Taipei who has lost his sense of taste. The food scenes are incredible and I also became obsessed with the music supervision. In Perfumes, Anne Walberg is a perfumer who has lost her sense of smell. I went on a fragrance rabbit hole and ordered a bunch of scents after watching. Both films explore the journeys in how they get their senses back, which involve letting other people in and letting go.

The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism
In college, I took a Harlem Renaissance class and I’ve always been in love with the writers and artists from this era, so it was a joy to see some of the things that I studied and read about up close. Some of my favorites were Archibald J. Motley Jr.’s paintings of vibrant party scenes in Paris (they instantly brought to mind the morning bar scene from Giovanni’s Room) and Harlem, William H, Johnson’s cubist portraits of Black families, Laura Wheeler’s soft and feminine paintings of Black women, and Romare Bearden’s large collage that ended the show.

Love Island USA
It’s me, a new Love Island USA stan. Season 6 was my first time watching, and I likely won’t be watching again (36 episodes per season is insane), but I have found my new favorite people to follow. PPG ON TOP!

What I read

Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill
A book of short stories about complicated relationships where no one is perfect. I really enjoyed how she explored the power dynamics and gender roles in relationships, particularly with men who projected their ideas of who the women they were dating were, only to be surprised when the women turned out to be different—especially since the women kept saying, "You don’t really know me."

Colored Television by Danzy Senna
It’s fitting that I got this book in LA as it’s about a writer trying to finish a book who turns to TV writing when her book deal falls through. It definitely wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read and I unfortunately feel that way about a lot of contemporary fiction, but it was fun and chaotic, which means I devoured it, but it’s not a book I’d recommend to a friend.

Capote’s Women by Laurence Lemear
I hated the Feud television show based on this book, but having read Answered Prayers, I knew it wasn’t the subject matter—reading Capote’s Women proved my point. It explained both why there should have been a show about these women and why Feud was an awful execution of it. It was riveting! All of these women were fabulous and well-dressed, the amount of scheming they did for their rich husbands was incredible, many seemed like they had awful personalities and many had questionable ties to Nazis (The whole time I was thinking, "Wow, her too?"). This was the first book I listened to, thanks to the narrator Carrington MacDuffie, who sounded like an American Lady Whistledown.

What I ate (and enjoyed!)

Corn ice cream and lettuces from Roman’s
Goat pepper soup with ramen from Radio Kwara
A burger from Pastis
A steak from Keen’s Steakhouse
A caesar salad from Daphne’s
Olive cake from From Lucie’s
Simply Delicious bagel from Courage Bagels
Roasted fish collars at Crudo e Nudo
Brussel sprouts from Kodo
Secret pasta from Horses
Salmon yuzu nigiri and ube ice cream from Santo

What I smelled like

Gypsy Water by Byredo
I used to wear this all the time in my early 20s and I decided to revisit it this week. It’s a popular fragrance that everyone wears, so it’s extremely annoying that the creamy citrus fragrance lives up to the hype.

Suite 302 by Victoria Beckham
Okay Mrs Beckham!! Her fragrance line is impressive (I love this one and the one in the yellow bottle). This is my call for the brand to send me a full bottle. Suite 302 has one of my favorite fragrance notes, leather, and it’s based on the room that her and David would stay in at the Ritz Paris in the 90s. It's very sexy and people will want to smell you all night.

Rose & Cuir by Frederic Malle
This fragrance is bitter, peppery, and green. On my skin, it reminds me of walking barefoot through a garden of fresh-cut, perfectly manicured shrubs with my toes slightly damp from the dewiness of the soil.

Coriander by DS & Durga
This is another spicy, peppery, and earthy fragrance. On my skin, this one reminds me of hosting a seaside lunch made with herbs foraged from your garden. It's a subtle scent that I love wearing because a whiff of it surprises me throughout the day. Also, I am a pepper lover, if there is a fragrance with pepper sign me up (actually send it to me!). I also love mixing this with Sycomore by Chanel, one of my favorites.

What I wore the most

Some of the outfits / I'll be better at taking photos next month.

Tory Burch pieced mules
I love weird shoes and these perverse Tory Burch shoes delivered. I love wearing them to dress-up as an alternative to a heel and then I love wearing them with my Nike running shorts.

Comme des Garçon bubble skirt
This is the best skirt in my closet, now and forever (I’m sure). I already loved the shape when I saw it on The Real Real, but getting it in the mail and realizing that it actually had a pannier-like form in the lining to help keep its shape almost brought me to tears. What a beautiful skirt. I’ve been wearing it with everything: sneakers and a t-shirt, a shawl and lime-green Prada heels, and with my Tory Burch shoes. This skirt is the highlight of my summer. (I’ve linked to another one that’s on The Real Real).

Knock-off The Row jelly sandals
I immediately loved The Row jelly sandals when I saw them on the runway, but I said absolutely not when I saw that they were $900. Even if I had endless amounts of money to spend, as my mother would say, do I look like boo-boo fool? No one can convince me that those shoes are worth that price, especially when so many people have told me that the plastic breaks. It’s a put the brand name on it so we can charge whatever we want type of product. So, I found an exact replica on Amazon and I am in love with them and buying another pair in red. It’s a shoe that works for this summer, but also I’ll wear them on any beach vacation.

Vintage bloomers
I bought these bloomers after Rachel Tashjian (who has the best taste!) linked them in her newsletter Opulent Tips. The other day, I wore them to dinner with my friends and one of them asked if they were Alaia. I think I made the right decision.

Issey Miyake sheer skirt
I was in LA for a month and bought this beautiful Issey Miyake slightly sheer white skirt from James Veloria (and this Yohji jacket, but that’s for later). It’s a very versatile skirt — I wear it along with a tank top or layered underneath a dress or a skirt to create a crinoline-like look.

What I used the most

Saie, Wyn, and Clinique
My new everyday makeup has been: A little bit of Saie concealer under my eyes, on my nose, and above my jawline with Saie highlighter on my cheekbones, nose and a little mixed into my sunscreen, and finishing with the Clinique black honey almost lipstick and Wyn mascara. Quick, easy, and put together.

Vintner's Daughter face cleanser
$100 for a face cleanser is quite insane. But, if you did want to indulge a little, this Vintner's Daughter face cleanser is divine. I am very picky with my face cleansers, and especially judge the expensive ones harshly. As someone with pretty dry skin, I love this cleanser because it’s like an oil and gel cleanser in one, it’s creamy and hydrating.

Find all the products I mentioned in this newsletter, here. (I may earn a small commission if you buy anything).

NEXT TIME: The romance of slow burn shopping.