5 on Friday is your weekly happy hour in newsletter form. Within, you’ll find secret reccos, shopping tips, and musings generally too unhinged to sit in front of a paywall. Every Friday. At five. Welcome.
The first results snippet on Google search for the query “what does it mean to be basic?” yields the following: in slang, basic characterizes someone as unoriginal, unexceptional, and mainstream. Okay, tough…but fair!
The most common representation of someone “basic” is a girl who loves Starbucks and fall and Stanley cups and Rhode phone cases (formerly, the Urban Decay Naked Palette).
There are others, though. And one of them is the “reader.” She wears navy cashmere turtlenecks in the winter and floaty white dresses in the summer and considers reading a personality type. She loves Joan Didion and Eve Babitz or she loves talking about them even if she’s not entirely familiar with their respective oeuvres because she knows she’s supposed to know. She’s conflicted about emailing Rachel Tashjian Wise for a spot on the Opulent Tips e-mail list because it seems “desperate” but she also does desperately want to be on it. She drinks weird teas instead of coffee and nods along when someone discusses a classic work of literature she hasn’t read, because there would be nothing worse than being outed as someone who only reads contemporary fiction (she feels no qualms about being behind the curve on the nonfiction front, minus Sapiens and The Splendid and the Vile, and maybe the Isaacson on DaVinci). I know her because, in many ways, I am her! Unfortunately. And because I am her, I also know that she has—at some point in her life—printed and underlined Joan Didion’s packing list (and, of course, On Self-Respect).
Whether you have this girl within you or not, it’s hard to argue against the timeless simplicity of JD’s packing list. Today, we’re going to make it relevant for summer 2024, with links and all.
Original list courtesy of AnOther magazine. Italics my thoughts, links, and drags.
To Pack and Wear:
2 skirts
You can’t swing a cat (is this phrase canceled for animal cruelty yet?) this summer without seeing a white peasant skirt out and about, so that’s our skirt no. 1. And while I’m sure there are cheaper options, I’ve had the Sebastiane on my mind since I first saw it. I can vouch for the quality of Doen’s skirts (v good). This one goes in and out of stock, so act now.