Made In Manhattan?
The rise of the new bridge and tunnel
In the saying, “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere,” “here” is generally considered to be New York City. But when Frank Sinatra (and later Jay Z) sang versions of it, they weren’t referring to the city in its five-borough entirety. They were referring to a certain 13 x 2 mile stretch.
For a long time (and to this day for many people), “the city” meant Manhattan. Everything else was disparagingly referred to as “bridge and tunnel” (B&T for short). For those who grew up (literally or figuratively) outside of Manhattan, “making it” meant they had crossed either the Hudson or East River and established a foothold on the island.
This exists on a brand level, too. Being based in Manhattan is a symbol of status. Brands from Donna Karan’s DKNY to Supreme, whose website is supremenewyork.com, don’t incorporate New York into their identity because they’re trying to shine a spotlight on the outer boroughs. They do so to show that they are established in Manhattan.
But lately, some hype-worthy brands have been showcasing the outer boroughs. Teddy Santis at Aimé Leon Dore and Brendon Babenzien at Noah have consistently put on hard for Queens and Long Island respectively in their collections, including their most recent fall ones.
You could make the case that this is simply an example of the brands trying to show they haven’t changed even as their stature rises on the “capital F” Fashion stage—basically an “I’m still Jenny from the block” approach. After all, both Noah and ALD’s flagship stores are in Manhattan, not Queens or Long Island. (Yes, I know that Noah has an outpost in Amagansett. But the brand of Long Island that Noah represents is definitely not the Hamptons.)
But I prefer to look at it as a leveling of the playing field. When I first moved to New York, the common path for my contemporaries was to move to the Upper East/West Side with a bunch of roommates out of college, then move downtown as tastes evolved, then move to Brooklyn for more space/family needs and then either stay put or perhaps move to the suburbs.
Now kids out of college start their New York lives in Brooklyn, and the old hierarchies hold less sway. And if kids in Queens or Bay Shore now feel that their neighborhood is on par with Nolita because Teddy and Brendon have cosigned it, then who am I to tell them differently?
Felipe Nunes “Limitless” Part
One of the (many) things I love about skateboarding is how the tangible and concrete way it teaches perseverance. For even the most gifted, skating is about failing hundreds of times in pursuit of that one make. That lesson is magnified exponentially in this part from amputee skater Felipe Nunes. It’s so heavy and gnar and at the same time so inspiring.
—Justin
The Cotton Tote Crisis
Is there a better symbol for consumerism’s role in the climate crisis than the cotton tote? I highly doubt it. Producing a tote bag is incredibly wasteful and there are objectively too many of them. The great hypocrisy of the tote bag is that it’s actually trying to solve a problem it’s making worse. But this exact situation scales beyond the well-intentioned tote. There are more than enough of every single textile-based good out in the world already. I’m not sure what the solution is, because asking people to stop receiving free Aesop totes with their order feels like misplaced responsibility.
—Andrew
“Ctrl" is one of my favorite albums of all time and since its 2017 release, SZA has put out very little music. This week, out of nowhere, on an anonymous SoundCloud account, she dropped three new tracks. And after rumors of a lost voice a while back, I’ll take any SZA I can get—especially when it’s this good.
—Andrew