The Week In Recommendations 2.14.24

Happy Valentine's Day, Rich Texters! Plus, one great thing from Liz McKay.

This is the free edition of Rich Text, a newsletter about cultural obsessions from your Internet BFFs Emma and Claire. If you like what you see and hear, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Our latest podcast was about “The Traitors” season 2, and later this week we’ll kick off our “Love Is Blind” season 6 recaps. Rich Text is a completely reader-supported project — no ads or sponsors!

Claire has been reading… 📖

Many, many articles about Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, and the Taylor-Travis romance. (It’s called research, friends.)

Also, a commenter recently pointed out that Hannah Brown’s debut romance novel, “Mistakes We Never Made,” was available for reviewers (you have our eternal gratitude). I clicked over to NetGalley faster than I ever have in my life, and I’ve begun to work my way through the sexually tense hijinks of redheaded interior designer Emma Townsend and luxury car owner Finn Hughes. It’s cowritten with a ghostwriter, like many novels sold on the strength of a celebrity name, and it seems… extremely fine. Like many recent popular romance novels I’ve read, it doesn’t seem to have the richly textured detail of my favorite historical romances or the sparkling humor of a true romantic comedy like “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” This has dampened my eagerness to keep reading, but I will forge ahead.

Emma has been reading… 📖

I’ve been a fan of Kallmeyer since my friend

Mattie Kahn

— someone who I consider to have impeccable taste — introduced me to designer Daniella Kallmeyer’s tailoring-focused brand. (I’ve written before about the trouser-style jeans I splurged on and adore.) So I really enjoyed reading this profile of Daniella in the New York Times, under the eminently clicky headline, “Lesbian Chic, for All.” I love the philosophy behind Kallmeyer — “taking tailoring and saying, ‘How does tailoring build us a dress? Or what is a tailored jean so that you always feel put together even when you’re more relaxed.” It was also interesting to read about the way that Kallmeyer’s queerness has impacted her design career:

“I became a little disillusioned with the fashion industry because it was truly a moment in fashion that I didn’t identify with,” she said. “This was around 2010, and there were peplums and fit and flare dresses, mismatching prints, leather patches on everything and extremely long cardigans. You couldn’t get a white button-down at a reasonable price that didn’t have a diamanté button or a ruffle down the placket. It was a hard era for someone who was discovering queerness through fashion.”

Claire has been watching… 📺

I’ve been catching up on the new season of “Vanderpump Rules” when I have a free block of time in the evening — after getting sucked into the Scandoval drama last season, I can’t resist checking in on how things are going. Incredibly, it seems that Tom Sandoval has decided he’s the victim because Ariana doesn’t want to sell him their house, and Lala is already getting sick of Ariana feeling entitled to be furious with her cheating ex. The fragile anti-Toms consensus from the end of last season is already shaky, and the season has barely begun. Let the games continue!

Emma has been watching… 📺

Against all odds… the Super Bowl? (Also known as the Usher concert featuring Taylor Swift, Ice Spice and Blake Lively, with a side of war-inspired sports.) I’m sure it will shock no one that I’m not a big football fan, but I have enjoyed the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce relationship’s narrative drama — and we may be doing a podcast about Swelce’s cultural impact over on Love To See It 😉

Also, I finally finished the last few episodes of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” and I cannot get over how wonderful and interesting and sweet and sad all at once the show is. Also… the guest stars were UNREAL throughout. I mean, Michaela Coel! Sharon Horgan! Aleksander Skarsgaard! Parker Posey! Sarah Freaking Paulson as a couples therapist who had the wood from her childhood home reclaimed to use for her current floors? Beyond inspired. I really hope this show gets a second season, but if not they certainly managed to tell a complete story in one.

---

Liz McKay

of

Bad influence

: My current obsession is this Khaite belt. I was a late bloomer to the brand but the Benny belt turned me into a full-fledged fangirl. I'm not sure what makes it so cool, but for me it's just that little something extra that takes my look up a notch. I find myself reaching for it on an almost daily basis, even when I'm rushing to get dressed before I drop my daughter off at daycare. It has a western (which is very in right now, Hello! Beyonce!) belt buckle and simple silver round studs all the way around, and is also available sans studs for minimalists.

Liz McKay is a stylist, content creator, vintage curator and writer. She writes the

Bad influence

newsletter and has been featured in Refinery29's Style Stalking and Forbes. She lives in L.A. with her husband, their daughter and two dogs.  

---

Claire has been listening to… 🎧

The Culture Study podcast about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce — or at least the free portion, since I haven’t ponied up for the paid subscription yet. I’ve been trying to catch myself up on the Traylor (Swelce?) phenomenon this week, and it was helpful to hear three self-identified Swifties talk through their feelings, do a little cultural analysis, and swoon over Taylor and, to a lesser degree, Taylor’s new love story.

Emma has been listening to… 🎧

Beyonce’s new singles, “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” and “16 CARRIAGES.” Just when I thought I couldn’t handle anything more on Super Bowl night, between Usher and Ludacris’ absolute agelessness, and Taylor-Travis mania, BEYONCÉ DROPPED NEW MUSIC!!!! She’d definitely been forecasting that a country-inspired album might be coming down the pike (see: her silver cowboy hat at the Grammys), but no one was prepared for the first singles of that new album to drop by way of… an extended Verizon ad. America’s gonna America. But back to the music: It’s so much fun! I’ve always loved when Beyonce plays with genre — I think I may be a somewhat rare superfan of “Daddy Lessons” — and “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” feels of a piece. I can’t wait for the full album, Act II, to drop on March 26.

Claire has been buying… 🛍️

The Braun nasal aspirator for babies, which is the second battery-powered nasal aspirator we have purchased this winter. As I expected, starting daycare in January has been rough for our newest little dude. He’s been fighting various colds and bouts of pink eye and ear infections for a couple weeks, and I was not interested in using a sort of glorified straw to personally suck the boogers out of his nose, like I used to with his older brother. (There’s a spongey filter, but I basically caught every respiratory virus he ever had, so color me skeptical.) We got the electric NoseFrida, but almost immediately the boogers started getting sucked past the booger reservoir and into the machinery of the NoseFrida, which I’m pretty sure is not very good for its innards. As it got increasingly janky, amidst Noah’s worst bout of nasal congestion yet, we decided to try the Braun model instead. The design has a couple clever elements that seem, so far, to be much more effective (though not perfect) at keeping the boogers from breaching their designated reservoir, and it gets his nose just as cleared out. 

Because that is not a very cute or fun recommendation, here’s a bonus: Levi’s ribcage straight ankle jeans, the latest in my quest for the ideal blue jean. I have a perfect pair of faded black jeans (the Madewell curvy perfect vintage jean in lunar, now tragically discontinued), but black washes tend to fit differently than blue washes and so I haven’t yet found a perfect blue jean for my post-skinny-jeans-era. I prefer a super-high rise, but most high-rise styles don’t even hit my belly button; there’s often a waist gap or looser legs than I’d prefer. I got the famous ribcage jeans in my usual size, having read that they run small but stretch out to fit, and they are indeed very tight but buttonable. The rise almost hits my natural waist, which is a plus, and they’re flatteringly snug through the hip and thigh.

Emma has been buying… 🛍️

Besides our extremely cute Galentine’s Day crewnecks, which we did indeed purchase for ourselves, and have been wearing daily ever since?

I have also found my official new fave lip gloss/tint: Dior Beauty’s Dior Addict Lip Maximizer Plumping Gloss in 026 Intense Mauve. It’s… perfect. It makes your lips feel nice and soft even if they are chapped (which mine always are during the winter), it has a lovely shimmery finish, the color is deep enough to be layered over my fave Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk lip liner as a lipstick replacement, but light enough to be worn on its own with no other makeup on. Worth the money for sure.

Claire has been making… 🧶

Smitten Kitchen’s miso sweet potato and broccoli bowls (apparently inspired by a Goop recipe, but I went with my girl Deb on this one). We usually eat pizza and… well, leftover pizza for dinner over the weekend, so it’s nice to start the week with something a bit more vegetable-forward. The more I try to cook actual recipes, whether from a meal kit or my own research, the more I realize that a simple marinade or sauce can transform a handful of uninspiring ingredients into an irresistible meal. This one, in short, is all about the miso-tahini dressing, which makes this bowl of rice and roasted veggies into something indulgent. Next time, I plan to add in another vegetable or two (perhaps carrots or red cabbage) and maybe a protein. This time I panicked at the last minute and cooked a frozen salmon filet from my freezer – which is a very quick and easy task with the Our Place air fryer my lovely in-laws gave us for the holidays! – but Greg, who doesn’t eat salmon, had an extremely light dinner.

Emma has been making… 🧶

Yewande Komolafe’s Crispy Tofu With Cashews and Blistered Snap Peas. Instead of pan frying the tofu, I threw it in the air fryer (that same Our Place Wonder Oven Claire referenced) for 10 minutes! The air fryer crisped the tofu up *perfectly* and the combo of the crispy tofu and the sweet and savory cashew/coconut milk/soy/honey sauce was to die for. I’ve already made this dish a second time, I loved it so much. Plus, the blistered snap peas are even better the day after when they’ve had time to soak up the vinegar. Leftovers magic!

---

If you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack!

Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription