can you copyright a vibe?

we'll soon be finding out

QUICK HITS

• Should you still learn to code in an A.I. World?

• Newsom sets himself up as a foil to Musk and Trump

• The Animation Guild reaches tentative deal with studios

• America’s new favorite side hustle is … republishing classic literature?

• Wicked and Gladiator II jolt the box office with a combined $170 million

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• My favorite member of the Kelce family is launching her own podcast. Someone said the left finally has their Joe Rogan. One thing about the Kelce family—they love show business. Love it! Last month, Travis started hosting Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? on Amazon Prime, and made his acting debut in Ryan Murphy’s Grotesquerie. Jason announced on Jimmy Kimmel last week that he will be hosting a new late night show on ESPN starting January 3rd. And then there’s Donna, who just loves being famous. These are Taylor’s people.

• Reddit stock fell as much as 9.6% on Friday following reports that Condé Nast parent company Advance Magazine Publishers plans to borrow against its stake in the social media platform. Bloomberg reported that Advance is offering 7.8 million shares for $145.38 to $148.54 each, valuing the sale at up to $1.2 billion—a discount of as much as 8% to Reddit’s Thursday closing price of $158.02 per share. Separately, Advance is buying derivatives on the shares, allowing it to maintain its ownership stake while creating the credit facility.

• For their latest campaign, As Time Goes By, Saint Laurent is releasing six short films based on Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, exploring themes of love, desire, time, and dreaming. The spots feature Addison Rae, Chloë Sevigny, Joey King, Cooper Koch, and others, under the creative direction of Anthony Vaccarello. I could say something about Addison’s high-fashion rebrand and what it all means, but I won’t. Instead, shall we talk about the Proust of it all?

  

  

  I’m still thinking about Paul Graham’s essay, Writes and Writes-Nots, along with this Vox article about the “student reading crisis”, which apparently isn’t much of a crisis at all. Reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) haven’t changed that much since the tests were introduced in 1969. What has changed is how much kids read after school. According to NAEP, in 1984, 35% of 13-year-olds reported reading for fun “almost every day.” That figure was down to 14% in 2023, with 31% of respondents saying they never read for fun at all. Kids are also faring worse on tests that measure their information literacy. Inevitably, literature will come to hold a further elevated space in culture, as people become less creative and less prolific, because they will not read and they cannot write. I assume that knowledge of literature—the ability to understand and appreciate it—will become so rare that invoking certain authors or titles will signal luxury in ways we’re only starting to see. Literature that is near impenetrable now will become almost impossible in the future, as A.I.-generated works become commonplace. And what is luxury, if not that which is impenetrable, near impossible? Why not pick up Dostoevsky today?

• The Times ran a story about Seven Days, a Vermont paper whose personals have been helping people find love since the '70s. I spent about 30 minutes reading through comments from Boomers sharing their personal ad love stories: “I am a 61-year-old VT woman who met my sweetheart and lifemate through Seven Days personals four years ago. We are perfect for each other! So spot on to see this story!” Also, did you know that the New York Review of Books has been publishing personals since 1968? I love this kind of stuff.

• Meanwhile, Gen Z is risking it all on pheromone perfumes. Over the past two years, the number of people talking about pheromone perfume on social media surged nearly 300%, according to Sprout Social. I searched “pheromone perfume” on TikTok today, and one brand, Pure Instinct, kept coming up. Thankfully, it looks like most videos are either calling out the scam or satirising the concept entirely.

• Lana Del Rey is releasing an album in May titled The Right Person Will Stay. We’re in for a treat. Women always move different when they’re in love.

• Neon—the indie studio behind Longlegs and Anora—announced a $200 million credit facility led by Comerica Bank, following a previous facility with the bank from October 2022. The latest funding will support Neon’s growth, including film acquisition, development, production, and distribution, while also driving expansion into new international markets. Last week, the seven-year-old studio won Studio of the Year at the 2024 Clio Entertainment Awards, becoming the first indie to receive the honor. Once in a. while, I think about this quote from Neon founder Tom Quinn about the studio’s rivalry with A24: “In their first seven years, they released three foreign-language films and three documentaries. We’ve released 64 — 32 foreign-language films and 32 documentaries. We are very different, but are very much on the same trajectory. They won best picture, and we won best picture. But I don’t understand their business and their valuations. I’m sure most of the industry doesn’t either, but more power to them.”

• Drake, the most embarrassing light-skinned man in the world, is further embarrassing himself by initiating legal action against Universal Music Group and Spotify over allegations that the two companies conspired to artificially inflate the popularity of Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us. “UMG did not rely on chance, or even ordinary business practices,” Drake’s attorneys wrote in the petition. “It instead launched a campaign to manipulate and saturate the streaming services and airwaves.” Apparently when users asked Siri to play the Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’, Siri instead played ‘Not Like Us’. Lol.

• The fact that there is an entire Instagram page with 130k-plus followers dedicated to posting semi-realistic Blue Ivy deep fakes and Beyoncé hasn’t done anything about it is beyond me.

• Can you copyright a vibe? Even if it’s basic? Yesterday, The Verge published a stunning piece of journalism about a case brought by TikTok creator Nicole Gifford, accusing rival Alyssa Sheil of “willful, intentional, and purposeful” copyright infringement in dozens of posts across platforms like TikTok and Instagram. According to Gifford, Sheil’s uncannily similar content mirrors hers frame for frame, featuring the same Amazon products and personal elements like her manner of speaking, appearance, and even tattoos, a strategy which Gifford says has cut into her earnings. The complaint was filed in the Western District of Texas this spring, and two weeks ago, a magistrate judge ruled that the case would move forward. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you how far-reaching the implications of the case could be. In a world where vibes and aesthetics have become a significant income generator for many, copying someone else’s could become illegal.

  

  Alyssa's IG vs Nicole's IG

• Do you know how many Gap is Back pieces I’ve read in the last year? So many. Like clockwork, every quarter. Anyway, Gap could be back. They are tentatively revived. Shares surged this week after the company raised its guidance ahead of the holiday shopping season, touting a “strong start” to the all-important fourth quarter. I’m happy for Dickson, Posen, and the team.

• Everybody wants to be a designer; nobody wants to be a maker. Hence, “Made in Italy” is in trouble. According to a report by Italian luxury association Altagamma and the Italian Union of Chambers of Commerce, the high-end fashion sector in Italy will need to fill 75,000 technical and vocational roles between 2024 and 2028 to meet demand. Based on current recruitment rates, only half of these positions are likely to be filled. Artisanal skills—and the artistry they enable—are in decline, as younger generations gravitate toward white-collar jobs like design and marketing over production roles. “For Made in Italy to survive, we need the people in the supply chain to transmit this knowledge from generation to generation,” Stefano Albini, president and fifth-generation family owner of fabric producer Albini Group, told Vogue. Brands and suppliers are responding with educational programs dedicated to crafts. LVMH launched its Institut des Métiers d’Excellence in 2014, expanding it to the U.S. in 2022. Similarly, Kering-owned Brioni recently reopened the Nazareno Fonticoli Haute Couture School for Tailoring in Penne, Italy, which it originally established in 1985. I think we’re probably going to see a surge in governments investing heavily in vocational and technical training in the next few years. It’s going to be such a flex to be able to make things with your hands.

• Scandi fashion brand Saks Potts is closing shop after a decade in operation. According to founders Barbara Potts and Catherine Saks, the decision wasn’t financial. In fact, the brand has seen consistent annual sales growth of 25% since its 2014 founding, with 2024 set to be its strongest financial year yet. The founders, who launched the company at 19 and 20 respectively, simply want to reinvent themselves for the next decade. How iconic. I guess now’s a good time to get this jacket.

• Brands don’t know what to do about Gen Z serial returners. A new survey of 2,000 UK households found that 69% of Gen Z admit to over-ordering with the intention of returning items—compared to just 16% of baby boomers. Guilty. I mean, I can’t say I feel too bad; we’re all playing this wicked, wicked game. I’ll be interested to see what these figures look like for fast fashion brands vs their more sustainable counterparts; and brands with good, consistent sizing vs whatever most of them are doing these days. Till then, godspeed figuring this one out. I can tell you for free that 9 times out of 10, if I can’t return, I’m not buying online.

• Queuing for stuff has become just as important as buying it. You know, I really do like queue culture. I’ve made some great memories waiting in line with friends to buy something that was never that important. It’s thrilling—the collective excitement coupled with the challenge of boredom I most associate with childhood. People in line glued to their phones? Lame. These days, if a brand hosts a pop-up and there’s no line winding down the block, no testimonials of people arriving at ungodly hours, one has to sigh with pity and act like the whole thing never happened. The line is the ultimate flex, a statement of dedication an Instagram page could never capture. Queuing is the ultimate analogue experience. What’s hotter than that?

Happy Thanksgiving. Be well behaved XO