OBJECTS OF AFFECTION

Reflecting on a year driven by new creativity

Wearstlerworld,

It’s been a major year – the team has grown, Side Hustle finally launched, we’ve found amazing ways to use new technologies in the studio, and most importantly there’s been some amazing travel with my family (Marrakech, Biarritz, Ibiza, Stockholm, India with Brad, and Costa Rica) and also on my own (Mexico City, Paris, Courcheval, Milan, and London). So much hard work, so much fun play.

And over the holidays, when a lot of the dust seems to settle, I find myself super reflective. It’s also when I take to my Love Closet.

It’s the most important storage in my house – a closet of family memorabilia, which I first wrote about last Christmas. I add to it and reorganize it every year; it’s super reflective. And, I think it’s a great idea for anyone with a bit of extra space: a way for memories to really feel immersive, and evolving (in other words: alive).

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NEW CREATIVITY

This year, a theme kind of emerged: a year spent exploring new creativity. And, I wanted to share some lessons I’ve taken from going through everything with an overview of what made the cut.

CROSBY’S DRAWINGS

I’m endlessly inspired by Crosby. He’s my favorite gallery partner, because I love to see what attracts his eye – he is, just like me, a big fan of Robert Therrien. And, I love to see then what he produces himself. There’s a lot of be reminded about “creativity” when you see someone operate without preconceptions, and with few parameters.

INVITATIONS FROM PARIS FASHION WEEK

Then, of course, it has been so interesting to see some of the most successful creative people beautifully escape preconceptions and parameters, even deep into their careers. This is what I loved so, so much about Paris Fashion Week this year, after a major reshuffled across the big houses.

Into the Love Closet went invitations to Jonathan Anderson’s first show for Dior; Louise Trotter’s debut at Bottega Veneta; and Mathieu Blazy at Chanel (plus other runway shows I saw and loved: Acne Studios and Prada). It reminded me how “expectations” can be played with – in fact, they are sort of key to our ability to surprise.

TOKENS FROM NEW DESTINATIONS

I had the amazing opportunity to visit some places for the first time – Mumbai and Jaipur, and Stockholm. From these places, I got to experience some incredible hospitality – particularly in hotels.

The The Rambagh Palace Hotel and Rajmahal Palace in Jaipur were both incredibly special – one grand, and one intimate, both totally humming with story, texture, color, detail, and impeccable staff and service.

In Stockholm, it was Ett Hem – also intimate, but all about a sense of the familial. Honor bars of food and drink, and a variety of common rooms that you settle in like it’s a home. I’ll be writing about Ett Hem for Business of Fashion, so I can’t wait to share more lessons from that trip.

But, I always appreciate good hotels and what they teach me – about the tiniest details of service, about programming space, about creating experience – things I take back to the studio, and home when I entertain.

The lesson is there’s no one path to good hospitality. But, there is a universal: people think that hotels should be about ‘escape’ – I think it’s the exact opposite. A hotel should use design (of spaces and service) to help you feel more in touch with yourself, more present, and more purposeful.

A PROTOTYPE

We have beautiful sculptures next to our pool by the artist couple Les Simonnet (Marthe and Jean-Marie Simonnet) – and I was lucky to also acquire a small studio prototype from their estate. It’s a really similar form to the large scale.

This, for me, reminds me that though the finished sculptures are now decades old (they are from the 1970s), they are the product of experimentation, learning, rejecting what didn’t work, holding onto what felt right. “New” and “creativity” are not just a result – like these sculptures, they are both a process. You need to always chip away of them.

MEMENTOS FROM MY NEW “SIDE HUSTLE”

This October, I finally launched Side Hustle – my new roving curatorial platform, whose first home is my home. It has been a very personal project, and I wanted it to have a personal space.

I printed some images from the party, and kept a menu of the cocktails we served (named for the occasion) – mementos of this major milestone for me. And, the response has been amazing – from all the people that came through, and a great story in HTSI. And, it’s been a type of artist collaboration that is new to me – one not for myself, or for a specific client, but art and design I feel just needs to belong to the world and find its place.

Side Hustle to me is about the meaning of creativity: it’s about relationships, it’s about execution, and it’s about a little blind faith.

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STUDIO REVISITS

All of those lessons are things I bring back to my studio – a place that’s also totally powered by the collective lessons of everyone working there.

Some have been really new ideas, and some really old ones that we’ve found new life for. Both kinds are party of a project we’ve just completed in Courcheval, the restaurant L’Apogée. (I can share more in January, after all the press is out.)

One of the most significant developments on the project was our use of Zoom’s native AI tools – specifically Automatic Speech Recognition and Live Machine Translation. For the past nine months, contractors and craftspeople have spoken with us entirely in French, with real-time English translation (and vice versa). It was amazing how much friction we could reduce using this AI.

But, that project was also inspired by the past.

The site seemed to beg for a special combination of the severity of Brutalism, and the warmth of alpine materials. It’s something that we found in the Les Arcs in France, designer across the 1960s through 80s by Charlotte Perriand.

So much of this project is what excites me about my work – blending everything together: styles, eras, technologies. I want always to use the “new” not to replace the old, but to add layers to it.

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And on the subject of my team, I just want to give a public thanks. We’ve just had our studio Christmas party, where I got to tell them in person – a night I was so honored to host at home, as I do every year.

Everyone came for drinks on the terrace (and three signature cocktails, named for different projects), an amazing family style dinner prepared by Gabe Kennedy of Checker Hall in Highland Park, and then everyone had brought cookies for dessert - some they’d made, others from favorite L.A. bakeries.

And, we finished with a White Elephant gift exchange – a bunch of things I’ve recommended here on Substack, products we’ve launched this year (like for Serax), and other things from our own studio’s collection. It does make it all feel like its kept in the family, and I love that.

I hope you all have an amazing break. I’d love to hear what you’re doing, where you’re spending it, what your traditions are. (Or what would make your Love Closet.)

And I’ll be back next week with my New Year’s resolutions – the ways I’m going to push myself in 2026.

Love,