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Britain is going through another heatwave which links back to last week's thoughts on how can retailers make digital experiences more memorable during extreme summer times. According to Green think tank Verdant, lost output and productivity has cost the UK economy £4.4bn. Thames Water has enacted a hose pipe ban and our parks are dry and yellow. British seasides offer a lack of respite (due to polluted waters) and data centres are being built in the city (see Brick Lane protests and others within London).

Is water our next precious resource? (Most likely yes.) Will there be water wars? Today I think of Michael Burry of Big Short fame and his investments now being in water. Perhaps that was in the past but we're now moving into agriculture scarcity, or oil, but water will be highly contested, water quality revered, electrolytes highlighted.

See buzzy new brand below.

Britain must redefine how to exist, live and thrive in hot weather as this will be our future 4 months of the year. This being an El Niño summer may bring an extreme El Niño winter with wetness, wind, "milder" and warm water events. So get ready to sell some umbrellas, rain jackets, wellington boots, retailers. It might also be the case that retailers prepare for less footfall during the wet and windy days and strengthen their social and digital outputs.

Overall, the unstable conditions of war and extreme weather could put a damper on the mood, risen even by yesterday's solar eclipse.

History is being rewritten as we speak. Google's Gemini AI quotes that they have 1 billion users to date, whilst Cloudflare, popular internet pages host is planning to block Google's AI training bots from accessing pages to scrape for their AI summaries.

The past is being rewritten, history twisted by technology and also lack of real research. Substacks are written by AI to fill the space rather than throwing ideas into a group chat or in forums. (*FKA Twigs voice* Where are the real readers?) There is only one view and if tech can't find it, then did it really happen?

One of the more interesting things is people enjoying irl shopping now more than ever. We see it in CNN's style report and BOF's big piece on the best shops in the world right now. As the announcement that Harvey Nichols is sold to Frasers Group goes wider today, I think what is the use of a department store in today's Britain? Or even a store?

Today, I'm going to offer up an argument for Harvey Nichols for new strategy.

Find your niche - how do you stand apart from your competitors? Being British is not enough, that's the back bone to the story but what is your tone of voice? Is it left of Harrods? Think international, think like you're competing with a department store in Tashkent, Uzbekistan because to a certain extent, you are. According to the World Economic Forum, Gen X (probably the most familiar and loyal generation of shoppers) are leaders in global spending. "In 2025, Gen X is expected to drive $15.2 trillion in global spending. If Gen X were a country, it would be the world’s second-largest consumer market, spending twice as much as China’s consumers at present."

Fill in the gap that MatchesFashion left - British, close to brands, always bringing newness, trusted voice, tasteful, digital, unique irl shopping experience.

Realise what you offer to Gen Z and Millennials - The youth are begging to be represented in retail, in fashion, on tv, to the point where social media is doing more heavy lifting that it should in the UK. Space is always wanted, create a something for them to come to by working with artists or universities. Make it culturally relevant and multigenerational to connect Gen X, Boomer and Gen Z and Millennials together.

The point I'm trying to make is that a British luxury department store needs to be international. British-ness is not a USP worth selling at the moment in the world (as a retailer, as a popstar go forth), unless you're Fortnums. Do Gen Z care about British brands when their own identities around the word are contorted and redefined at every major political and social event in the country? I mean, it's we've got Flo wearing Union Jack tank tops so maybe I'm wrong, something to explore in the future.

These AirBnb ads are really weird? Niche talent.

Sarabande show:

Last week I went to see the Sarabande Show Part 1 at their N1 location. My favourite artists were John Spyrou with his circus triptych, Ella Lynch's bobblehead bimbo, Jack Laver's wood carvings and Amelia Cross' shirt that's a canvas. I liked everything really and I can't wait to see part 2.

New Music:

Tinashe's on a home run with her new album 'Popstar':

Really interested in Portraits of Tracy:

New Rachel Chinouriri:

New Rebecca Black:

And this feels fun and local:

new underscores:

New Troy S:

Sorry, scanner's not working so until then, it's just my writing.

Politics:

Andy Burnham, the new British Prime Minister is announcing a lot right now since he came into office last week. The government has opened Number 10 North, seeking to give balance to the country and Burnham himself has made commentary about how employers can help young people to get jobs. He's clearly very human-ist in a way that maybe is closer to Zohran Mamdani or a European leader, in terms of how to communicate (on social media and beyond). Let's see if long term he's still successful or the public get tired and see it as a schtick.

A question I keep coming back to this week is: What is the future of Summer?

It sounds like a ridiculous question but warmer weather creates instability.

In the UK, for the past few years there have been far right events with destruction to homes and businesses. In Europe, there are wildfires - this year it has affected much of France with 84k people being asked to leave their homes, Spain, Greece, also the UK today. The heatwaves in the UK caused a negative effect on physical retail but gave the opposite effect for online retail.

"The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the volume of retail sales in Great Britain rose 1% month on month in June, beating analysts’ expectations of a 0.3% decline, helped by hot weather and World Cup spending.

Heatwave conditions pushed year-on-year sales up 4.2% in June, almost double analysts’ expectations of 2.3%."

wildfires - climate instability every summer - what's the future of summer?

If summer becomes a unstable, unpredictable time of the year, how do we go forward? It was the hottest June on record according to the Met Office. Do retailers focus more on the online experience from June-August knowing that's where their customers are going to be? What's the postage and arrival process like? So the heatwave becomes another peak in the year alongside: Valentines Day, Christmas and anniversaries. Do retailers focus on evening shopping or staggered hours?

Where is social media going rn?

There are people using it for interesting ways like Andy Burnham

Shaad

Today social media is the notebook- everyone is showing their work in progress. Their rough cuts. Here's some cool creators that I've enjoyed:

Artist, Tasya Daemin who is creating interesting works in progress including a breathing shell.

Lagos based creator, Rachel Ojurumi who is bringing her African style to the internet.

Shaad Magazine, run by (semi veteran) journalist Shaad D'Souza who has turned an instagram page into a place for reading? Sounds strange, but it feels professionally rogue. These bite sized downloads keep us reading, refreshed, inspired. So far he's interviewed Charli XCX, Iglooghost, Role Model and more. I kinda love it.

Rosie, the cosmetic lab tech who studies at LCF. I'm obsessed because she's creating lipsticks based on nostalgia and want like Bratz Dolls.

This is also blowing me away...Mili Beagley from Wimbledon College of the Arts.

Everyone's kinda obsessed with dance right now. I-D mag is in it's Dance week talking about dancers in all different places.

It's funny because last week there was a performance at Earth in Hackney which I missed but I was deeply interested in. The work of choreographer Elisabeth Mulenga intrigues me and I probably missed something really good.

And the new Blood Orange mv:

And the Y-3 show which I feel like marks this real renaissance of Y3 and Yohji. Maybe I'm un-knowing. But I think people want to freak it off right now by dancing or maybe watch dancers dance.

And new Boy Harsher, which I would say is goth dance music:

Image(s) of the week by Shannell Wellington:

Okay, long time no talkkk.

Cultural Moments since I've been missing:

The new Madonna album, Confessions II was released on 3rd July. Genuinely moving and it's so interesting to see a star rise again to the top of the pond at that age. It sounds ageist but Mick Jagger doesn't have the same influence as Madonna doing Times Square or the TikTok "Madonna. Sabrina [laughs] I got something I wanna talk about" video. Social media becomes the leveller and extender of an artists' life. Very interesting time.

I mean I also love that she did a Grindr collaboration - going directly to some of her fanbase. It feels special without being gauche.

Jay-Z on 4 Sept, in London? It's also Beyonce's Birthday?

The Vibe:

Since I last did a Vibe, Fete De La Musique happened. Just like every year but this time social media felt much more desperate. The young people NEEDED to be there. Even if their flights were cancelled, the Eurostar tickets were £600 return or there was 4 of them in a room on the 5th floor of a random small Paris apartment. Would I say that TikTok accelerated something pure and turned it into

Translated to Music Day in Europe, Fete De La Musique in Paris and France in general has become the day of music for young British people to come and party. There's that side of it but there's also smaller street parties, amateur guitarists, lunchtime chamber concerts, etc. It's an interesting dynamic going on where young British people are trying to fill a hole of culture which they think is missing and also the fact that it's free, multicultural, dynamic parties away from home also creates the allure.

Eurostars are packed, flights are sold out, the Parisennes are saying "wesh, the londiennes are coming" or "stay home". It's very much the hype event. In the Guardian:

"The critique, that the British influx has diluted something, that non-French speakers have taken over a thing that was never theirs, is not without basis. French people who grew up with the Fête as free and unrestricted will naturally feel the shift. Organisers will need to resist too many brands simply turning up, spending money on billboards and turning this expressive, utopian-minded event into just another corporate festival; extracting value from a Black grassroots cultural phenomenon. The smaller, free stages that have helped make the event what it is cannot afford to be drowned out."

Overall, I think that there's a hole in entertainment for young British people to that free level, that has the mixture of commercial and public events, with a city that has a level of openness. Because why else would the kids travel to Paris, desperately....maybe FOMO?

Politics:

I noted "Andy Burnham v Nigel Farage" when I made this but let's see where that rivalry is at the end of the summer when Nigel's election results come through. Andy Burnham, former mayor of Manchester is due to become PM this week on the 17th July, promising a devolution of power for regions, the biggest council housing building programme since the post war period, a closer relationship with the EU, helping NEETs and more.

With Burnham at Number 10 London and Manchester, we look forward to a decentralised politics, focusing a bit more on the North, neglected by politicians over the past....40 + years.

The war is still not over. Oil prices are jumping higher still.

Fashion and Beauty

There's this obsession at the moment with nature and through nature, fairy tales? Designers this couture season are designing fantastical worlds for their clients, clothes to dream fantastical dreams in.

Through Dries

Dior Couture

Chanel Couture

Even in Celine there's this air of freedom

Octopus but also doll clothes at Schiaparelli!

Obsession with Fish at the moment > Octopus > Intelligent animals?

Era of Strong Man, Strong Woman

The idea of the body as a vessel for improvement but an extremely superficial world has been here but it feels like we're normalising and making accessible a complete change of self. The original body as a canvas to be worked on. In the future, change becomes a moral and philosophical question because it's so easy to do. See these Lilly ads on the tube, advertising medical weight loss to the everyday person. Suddenly, we live in the world of body fascism. I say suddenly, it's been here with male improvement groups but now as weightloss drugs go from injected to ingested people can change identities, change self.

This is also really interesting for retailers and brands in the year to come as more people who had the money but not within the size range enter the mid and luxury fashion market.

"Stephen Fitzgerald, a former commercial director at M&S, says an average weight loss of 5kg, with a 4cm-5cm average reduction in waist size, equates to one full size change.

“There are predictions that 10-15% of the UK population could be taking these drugs by 2030,” he says. “The effect on apparel retailers should be significant.”

In the UK, 42% of GLP-1 users spend more on clothes, especially activewear for the gym, and occasion wear – dressing up for a party or formal event like a wedding, according to PwC."

Run clubs aren't fads, they exist as meeting spots. But also people are running for exercise and social reasons.

Doll Face is an example of this extreme beauty "trend". You could say trend but I think there's something so eerie about the obsession wanting to have big eyes...big moment for eyeshadow and blush.

Also people are still really obsessed with Barbie as a beauty concept...see Trim.

Is there a middle class anymore?

Financially, IDK, Culturally, Probably... a thought for later.

The Internet + Surveillance

Surveillance culture has hit the mainstream as a new generation of Meta x Rayban glasses have been released.

Meta glasses are estimated to be 80% of the AI and smart glasses market, and last year EssilorLuxottica sold 7 million Meta RayBans. Which is way more than their 2million in 2024 and 2023. So where do we go from here?

Snap also have some glasses too but they're ridiculously overpriced - £1995, and also AR focused.

This feels different....this is a great video on the normalisation. Here they talk about how the selling point is no longer the fact that you can film around you but now the AI capabilities of the glasses. It's also about how "good" these products look on you, they will obviously date in terms of style but they want to attract people to wear it and use the technology secondarily. Again, the wearing of the glasses becomes the public ad, which then becomes a part of the normalisation.

But I also think that Americans have a hyper surveillance culture.

Overall, coming on the internet to laugh or to see something has become more stressful. You might find images of yourself or your friend without permission or music created by Suno with no money going to the original artist at all. AI has meant that original content is harder and harder to find, imagery is awful, and there are bots everywhere, producing and being trained on what we do. Soon in the UK there will be a curfew for under 16s using the internet which will include becoming a somewhat uncomfortable place to be

Things to think about:

Retail IRL being now more important than ever...

Chanel Hype isn't over???

If AI takes over, what human forward jobs are going to be popular?

The neurosurgeons have learned to give their expertise, their skill, their time, but they cannot, they will not, give themselves. They don’t allow themselves to get too high with their successes or too low with their failures. They can’t let a tragedy from six days, six months, or six years ago affect them. It is not prudent. It is not efficient. It is not professional.

A lot of doctors think circumcisions are unnecessary. The only reason most fathers want their sons circumcised is because they are circumcised. So here I am with a scalpel in my hand, about to do a horribly painful, possibly unnecessary procedure on an unanesthetized fellow human being who just happens to be a defenseless little baby. I feel like I am violating ten parts of the Hippocratic oath at the same time.

. Med students are not allowed to be passive observers. The patients know we are med students. They know we, presumably, aren’t struggling with any addictions, but Dr. Hester tells us that it is unfair to ask the patients to open up in front of us if we don’t open up in front of them. By opening up, he doesn’t mean we are to make up some BS story about our rampant heroin use but to share our feelings and our impressions. When it is my turn, I tell Jeannine how impressed I am with her struggle. I tell her I’m glad she seems to be getting her life back on track.

I have a hard time reconciling the role of pain in giving birth. One of our charges as physicians is to relieve suffering. Since giving birth is a painful process, isn’t it our responsibility to get rid of the pain? If so, we aren’t doing a very good job. It seems that almost every delivery I witness is accompanied by at least some degree of pain—occasionally a great deal of pain. And yet, when it is all over, the mothers seem to feel it was all worth it. It makes me wonder if pain is always such a bad thing.

I’m learning that life isn’t always fair. In fact, I’m not just learning it; I’m having it rammed down my throat every day. Everywhere I turn in medicine I see unfairness: guys dying of heart attacks, women dying of breast cancer, kids dying in car crashes.

do we feel sorry for the human condition in which all organs will ultimately fail? Or, in the final analysis, are we really just feeling sorry for ourselves, seeing in the suffering of others a reflection of our own mortality and demise? None of these questions has to be answered. None of them even has to be asked. A kid can become a med student and a med student can become a doctor without ever considering these questions. But I don’t want to become that kind of doctor. I want to ask questions and seek answers, but more than anything, I want to be a doctor, and the obstacle in my path tonight is not understanding the paradox of healing; it is understanding the blood supply to the liver. I turn my back to the row of cadavers stretching away into the darkness, bend my head over Jimmy’s abdomen, and peer into the right upper quadrant. I have work to do.

Dr. Pomeroy and I develop an unusual relationship. He very quickly sees that I am not going to scrape and bow to him like his residents do. Our exchanges in the OR take on a pattern. Dr. Pomeroy attempts to embarrass Collins by showing everyone how dumb he is. The problem is that Collins won’t play along. I make it clear that when a surgeon who has been in practice for thirty years tries to make himself look good by making a medical student look bad it is the questioner, not the questioned, who should be embarrassed. We are doing a thoracotomy on a sixteen-month-old when Dr. Pomeroy, without looking up, says, “Describe for us, Collins, the microvascularity of the embryonic thymus.” To which I immediately reply, “I am not familiar with the microvascularity of the embryonic thymus, sir, but I’m sure you are.” “Of course I am,” Pomeroy says. “Don’t they teach medical students anything at Loyola?” “Yes, sir. They do.” He slams the hemostat back on the Mayo stand and says, “Collins, you might just be the dumbest medical student I have ever had.” “I would ask you, sir, to consider the possibility that your annoyance is leading you to speak in hyperbole.”

At times it seems I know so little, and yet I realize I am already better trained than most doctors in previous generations. I would be scared to death to do it—but in a pinch, I could remove someone’s appendix. In a pinch, I could do a tracheotomy. And I could deliver a baby and run a code and manage diabetic ketoacidosis.

I’m taking inorganic chem and physics not because I want to but because I have to. Not every doctor wants to be a scientist. Some of us just want to take care of sick people. I can’t help thinking that medicine is more closely aligned to the humanities than to the sciences.

A visit to Fondazione Dries Van Noten in Venice, Italy - Pt 3

A visit to Fondazione Dries Van Noten in Venice, Italy - Pt 2

A visit to Fondazione Dries Van Noten in Venice, Italy - Pt 1