• Very social week, including a wedding! Congrats again, Richard and Jourdan!
• Lots of fabulous dinners, esp., loved Wayan’s Liwetan celebration (#2, 7).
• Also check out this week’s fashion discoveries (#3, 4) and make sure you scroll down to the Wrap for info on Patrick Church’s “Super Gay” SS2022 photo shoot.
• And for my real estate investor friends, check out #10. The buzz on Workforce Housing is building. It’s similar to affordable housing (but also different and I think it’s more than just semantics). I know everyone is obsessed with luxury condos but that’s like saying we’re only going to develop LVMH-style luxury retail, when we know Target and Walmart are crushing it!

1. [watch] Video

2. Favorite Super Bowl Ad (and yes, I know, it’s so bro of me 😜 )

• Sam Adams collaborated with Boston Robotics for a “Real robots. NO visual effects!” Super Bowl commercial.
• Filmed at BD’s headquarters with zero CGI.
• Stars Greg Hoyt (the cousin), BD founder Marc Raibert, Haas Manning, and Boston actress Jennifer Ellen Chase.
• Directed by Aaron Stoller of Biscuit Filmworks.
• Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners

“These robots are not wheeled onto set and powered on—they walk to set like human beings, like A-list actors. Some of the robots’ movements were programmed in advance, but the team made live, on-set adjustments, literally typing on their laptops and writing code to guide the robots’ movements at 3 in the morning.”

Nikolas Noel, Boston Dynamics Marketing

3. Stella Ishii’s latest 6397 Collection: Love this brand!

• Credit goes to Instagram for getting this brand on my radar (and it’s been around since 2012).
• This style is exactly how I see myself (even tho I know I may be too chunky to wear it!). Nevertheless I am going to check out their shop (tucked away on Mulberry Street) this weekend.
• BUT It gets way more interesting. In investigating the brand, I found out Stella Ishii, an icon in the fashion world, is the founder. She’s discovered and launched so many great names, from Margiela to Westwood.
• And she is one of Brad’s first collectors.
• Brad met her in the late ’90’s, when she owned Staff USA and was about to produce one of Stephen Sprouse’s collections. As I recall, she talked both Brad and Stephen into creating a branding campaign for Staff.
• She has not lost her touch. Still as eclectic and visionary as ever.

From the website: 6397, an alphanumeric rendering of N-E-W-S on a telephone keypad, is an extension of The NEWS showroom – a reflection of Stella’s own personal style, as well as that of the women who work alongside her. Its design philosophy is driven by real life, celebrating the spirit of individuality and community – with a special nod to youth and counterculture.

6397 is a thoughtful approach to timeless fashion, understated yet expressive – with the belief that what you wear is all about letting your personality shine through.

6397news

I’m going to pop into the store this weekend and will let you know if anything works for me (or if I need to lose 10 lbs 😝). For those of you not in NYC, 6397 is primarily a DTC online business with its own e-commerce platform so if any of this grabs you, you can buy it online.

4. Ryan Britton: ‘nerd-wear’ creator (based on science)

Per Austin 360:

• Ryan Britton, 49, combined his love for history and science to create the National Bureau of Product Research, a limited edition clothing brand that merges streetwear with scientific exploration.
• He enrolled as a designer-in-residence with the first cohort of the Austin Community College Fashion Incubator.
• Described as “nerd wear,” designs are directly drawn from decades-old documents from NASA, e.g., rocket blueprints, that Britton archived following his days as a science reporter. Items are priced at $69-$1000.
• While his first capsule collection serves as a nod to space exploration, Britton said he’s placing computer science and innovation at the center for the next National Bureau line set to release in late May or June.

“The goal is to create a brand but also a community. There’s value in digging a little bit and understanding truth, like real truth, and understanding the value of scientific method and scientific inquiry. Let’s just be a little nerdier and our world will benefit.”

Ryan Britton, Designer

5. Daiso opening in Industry City later this month – I’ll be there!

• Laetitia Longuefosse and I trekked out to Flushing, Queens for NYC’s first Daiso opening in 2019. Super cool scene, rabid fans, and the longest lines. Link here.
• Now they are opening in Brooklyn’s Industry City on Feb 25th and I will be there (let me know if anyone wants to join me).
• I haven’t been to Industry City in a while. Here’s a link to my 2014 post when it first opened. Michelle Flood, always a trailblazer, was one of the first “makers” to locate there. My next visit was in 2018 for the opening of Japan Village – super cool.
• I’ll also be checking out Jen Lewin’s “The Pool,” a new interactive art installation (pic below).

6. Caviar: having a major moment!

• Caviar is popping up on menus all around the country and it’s not restricted to fine dining. Neighborhood bars, e.g., Grand Army in Brooklyn, are also getting in on the action. Big thanks to my friend, Rodrigo Padilla, for first bringing this to my attention (corroborated by Google Trends)!
• And, of course, caviar is a major trend in Vegas. There’s newly opened Caviar Bar from Michelin-starred chef Shaun Hergatt at Resorts World, Bouchon’s “caviar expert” Shaoching Bishop, the Bellagio Petrossian Bar‘s caviar pies, caviar tacos and chocolate caviar service, and Michael Mina’s caviar parfaits and soft potato croquettes layered with Imperial Osetra caviar.

7. Wayan’s Liwetan Dinner: A love story on many levels

Big shout-out – and much love – to Cedric and Ochi Vongerichten for introducing us to their annual Liwetan Dinner.

• Liwetan is a tradition from East Java, Indonesia (Ochi’s birthplace), to mark a special ritual, life stage or celebration.
• Typically, friends and families gather to enjoy foods served on banana leaves, which enhance the aroma and aesthetic of the food!
• At booking, we had the option of Whole Sea Bass or Whole Chicken Lombok as the center piece (I picked the chicken). The meal also included prawns, steak, sweet potato goreng, layered cabbage, eggplant, bok choy and so much more. There were four of us and we ate it all. ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS and such a great vibe at the restaurant.

Liwetan is a totally new experience for me. I am so glad to be introduced to it (finally) by Ochi and Cedric who are two of the nicest, most welcoming and most hardworking people in the hospitality industry. Their restaurant, Wayan, is amazing (one of my top 5). If you haven’t been, check it out.

8. 61% feel less romantic pressure this Valentine’s Day than in previous years.

Perhaps because:

• There are more singles, e.g., the overall marriage rate for the U.S. has dropped 45% since 2009 (New York is down 51%). On the positive side, divorces also down.
• New York, California and Massachusetts have the highest percentages of people who have never been married (NY is 38% never married).
• Idaho, Utah and Wyoming have the highest percentages of people who are married, and West Virginia, Maine and Nevada have the highest percentages of people who are divorced. (Source: News10NY)
• Per another recent poll, 67% of singles believe Valentine’s Day shouldn’t be a purely romantic holiday. They would rather share the day with their single friends than feel pressure to land a date.

9. WORKFORCE HOUSING IS THE TREND TO FOLLOW: getting funded/built faster than “affordable” housing

Examples from around the country:

• In Washington DC, two properties, which are included in a larger, 3.1-million-square-foot development known as Parkside, will create workforce housing without the need for federal tax credit subsidies that are usually required for this type of affordable developments.
• In Steamboat Springs, CO. investments in multi-family, workforce housing assets are growing. Indianapolis’ Birge and Held recently bought Flour Mill and Main Street Apartments which are deed-restricted for workforce housing.

• In York, Maine, the first phase of a major workforce housing development is halfway done, with leasing expected to begin this summer. Amenities include co-op office space, community gathering space, laundry facilities, and parking spaces.
• In Livingstone, MT, Cody Wood and Rick Gilliland started Woodland Ridge Tiny Homes in 2020. At their first showing, the tiny home was an instant hit with locals and area businesses like Chico Hot Springs who needed help hiring workers, and just as importantly, finding housing for those workers.
• Recently, Vilicus Farms in Havre reached out to the duo for a possible solution to a lack of housing at their remote ranch near the Canadian border. Farm owner Anna Jones-Crabtree agreed to send a few workers down to Livingston to help Wood and Gilliland create two tiny homes for their farmhands.
• Specific to cold Montana winters, the floors are outfitted with radiant heating and the water lines are only in heated spaces, not the floors or walls. All tiny homes come with kitchen and bathroom amenities including washer/dryer, incinerating toilets, shower, electric stovetop, refrigerator/freezer and an air fryer. Watch the video from local news here. GREAT CONCEPT!!!

Workforce Housing is near and dear to my heart. If anyone is interested in learning more, this is a very informative piece on how essential (and lucrative) it has become.

10. Jim Gaffigan: super funny, a really nice guy (and third highest paid comedian!)

• I came to Gaffigan late but now that I’ve discovered him, he’s become one of my all-time favorites. He’s just such a wonderful, kind, funny guy who always brings out the best in his podcast hosts. His stories about his family and his 5 kids are laugh-out-loud funny!
• He’s just released a new comedy special on Netflix so he’s doing the podcast rounds and I am so impressed by how comfortable he is, no matter the hosts or the setting. It’s remarkable how easily he’s able to fit in, and be funny, on all kinds of topics.
• Favorite podcasts he’s been on recently: We Might Be Drunk 58: Mark Normand and Sam Morril, Bertcast #500 with Bert Kreischer (lots of talk about their families and kids), and the 2-parter with Bill Burr!

And that’s a wrap for this week!

But there is one more thing!!

Patrick Church (who I have never heard of but who has 145K followers on Instagram) is on my block, doing an open-casting/photo shoot for his SS2022 campaign. He’s at the pop-up at 2 Rivington Street from Feb 10-13. It’s a very lively, colorful scene is all I can say!

And that is it for this week, my friends. Have a great weekend everyone!!!