Concorde 007: Jewelry abbondanza
Plus a banger watch reissue, and bags on their "knight's tale" swag
Welcome to Concorde, a 2x monthly creation from Blackbird Spyplane where Erin takes the lead.
You could call it a women’s vertical, but the insights, intel and “cute swag information” transcend gender. The Concorde archive lives here…
I (Erin) am a fiend for condiments, sauces, spices and all manner of other “ancillary flavor boosters.” You give me a plate of food, I’m not happy till I’ve hit it with, e.g., a drizzle of single-region olive oil on my Mina Stone s**t… maybe a crumble of feta… I might swipe at it with some honey… or flick a small heap of furikake upon it with ABANDON…
I try to stay on the alert for unlikely “spice counterprogramming” opportunities, too: revelatory but counterintuitive combinations like chili oil on vanilla ice cream (crazy good), or everything-bagel spice on porridge, which is something I just had the other day for breakfast at the very sick Oakland restaurant Daytrip and can’t believe I never thought of. (They top it off with pickled onions and a poached egg and d*mn it slaps.)
Because when it comes to taste, the prevailing wisdom around “what works and what doesn’t” is always up for negotiation — and unquestioned rules can stand in the way of epiphanies. It’s hard to remember now, but as recently as a decade ago the idea of sprinkling sea salt on sweets was (at least in the west) largely regarded as a novelty. Now just try and find a decent chocolate-chip cookie that hasn’t been FESTOONED with ❄️ fleur de sel ❄️ !!
Today’s Concorde is about garnishing an outfit with SPICY accessories and, in the process, remaining open to the kinds of “rule-breaking” combinations that some people might tell you clash but actually open up new dimensions of flavor…
We’ve got:
A bunch of cool jewelry designers, new and vintage, to help build your “jewelry arsenal,” plus a bunch of tips for how to wear pieces and mix materials in tasty ways…
Extremely rockable handbags that scramble the line between jewelry and sculpture…
BUT FIRST —
A different kind of “jawn condiment.” The other day we tackled a Personal Concorde question about watches that aren’t too big. There’s a sub-38mm watch trend happening right now, and it isn’t limited to women’s watches: After that sletter came out we heard from several guys, including Advanced Watch Enthusiast & Mach 3+ Spyfriend John Mayer, letting us know they were fully with the small-watch wave, too.
The recon was so robust there was one fantastic vintage sub-38mm watch we didn’t have room for: A slept-on ‘90s-era gem that satisfies the bubbling unisex desire for smaller watches, all while being waterproof, sporty, and less than $100: