From Molly Goddard's tulle dresses to touchy-feely sliders and candles scented with the most uplifting of notes, we look at the items bringing a bit of lightness into a week utterly devoid of it
This week, there have been few opportunities to feel particularly jolly about anything – and so, when we presented Molly Goddard's sunshine yellow princess dress on the AnOther Loves feed as part of our celebration of Dover Street Market's seasonal changeover, everyone seemed overjoyed: it offered some sweet relief from the current bleak landscape. Thus, this week we are championing it in all of its pineapple-y glory – because, of course, it's brilliant, but equally because Goddard is one of our favourite parts of this often-bizarre industry: her ability to unite saccharine girlhood with something somehow more subversive is magnetic, and her frankness about the world she inhabits equally so. "I didn’t realize that fashion was such a money-making machine; that you’d be selling a dress the same way you sell a sandwich," she told us earlier this year, and following her rise to success has been ceaselessly refreshing in a time where the plummeting economy makes the space surrounding young designers feel particularly uncertain.
Not only has the political situation in Britain been particularly grim, but so too has the weather during the first half of the week. Luckily, Lola James Harper founder Rami Mekdachi is so filled with a ceaseless enthusiasm for life (present in his conversation, but equally in the products his brand produces) that lighting his Rainy Days in the Lake District candle has, in turn, lightened our mood considerably. "An evergreen land, with a permanent grey sky and huge open fields…" is how he describes the area, where he walked for days one holiday. "It's the best place to write a novel or words for songs." By setting ours aflame within our office, we have almost felt similarly inspired – and its delicious blend of myrrh, labdanum and ylang-ylang hasn't gone down too badly, either. Plus, it means that even if we soon might not be able to travel overseas as easily as we once could, at least the Lake District is looking appealing.
Another item inspiring joy this week is this rare, 1977 copy of The Complete Tadanori Yokoo: a comprehensive overview of the cult Japanese artist's early and iconic design masterpieces. Containing everything from images of Yokoo himself installing installations to incomplete proofs of his prints and, of course, an abundance of colour illustrations of his posters, paintings, prints and advertisements, it is the perfect immersion into profound psychedelia, mysticism and sixties pop culture. "The situation in Tokyo [then] was totally political," the artist recently told Fran Gavin. "There was a big campaign against the Japan–US Security Treaty, and the city was full of radical student movements." Thus his work reminds us of the power protest has to inspire and rejuvenate culture: a lesson we thoroughly need right about now.
Put simply, there is no greater way to facilitate iPhone longevity than this rhodoid charger from Rick Owens. Low battery anxiety is one of the most frustrating aspects of digital-era existence and, for those thinking that the only way to escape the current climate might be to go off-grid, now you can do so without the fear of being too long away from Instagram (while still upholding acetate-encased industrial chic). Owens' aesthetic consistently speaks to the sort of the futuristic dystopia that we rapidly seem to be heading towards, and thus his is the perfect brand to accompany us as the world implodes in on itself.
These cookie monster blue, fuzzy sliders from Avec Moderation are the final item to be filling us with a little bit of superficial joy this week. "Slippers to be worn outdoors: there's happiness to be found in that," says AnOther's Natalie Rigg – and she's right; there's nothing more comforting than fur-lined sandals. Plus, they offer the perfect excuse to visit Dover Street Market's Haymarket store: one of the greatest places to remind us of the beauty of cross-cultural crossover. All that from a slipper. Impressive.
