Don't get too attached to any one rock
Home-enhancers you can DIY, slapper sneaker reissue, big-gas big pants, summer totes & tees, a favorite small line starts Pattern DJing, & more
Welcome to Concorde: the Blackbird Spyplane “women’s vertical,” except it’s for everyone who is cool.
What are you currently on a reconnaissance mission for? In our ever-bussin’ SpyTalk Chat Room I just recommended some rowdy earrings for wedding fits, summer-travel-friendly pants, and ideas for what to wear on an overnight flight.
Cla$$ified Spyfriends can always ask for intel in the chat room, or by leaving a comment on a post.
— Erin & Jonah
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We all know that chairs are the pants of the home. But handles, knobs and pulls — are these the sunglasses of the home?? Popping on some vibey ones is a great way to enswaggen the “faces” of your drawers, doors and cabinets. (I put some excellent examples in the last Home Goods Guide.)
When Jonah and I moved to Oakland, one of the first orders of business was getting rid of the depressing metal knobs that came affixed to every drawer and cabinet in our kitchen — those brushed-nickel H*me D*pot joints that feel cold and uncomfortable in the palm… like shaking hands with an ice-cube tray! We blessed the cabinets with a gang of vintage porcelain knobs I found on Etsy. (Back then a lot of 33 cost $50; now they go for more like $8 to $12 a pop, since jawnflation applies to vintage home-jawns, too). And we put birch pulls on our drawers, via the Japanese-hardware legends at Berkeley’s Hida Tool.
I haven’t thought about our knobs and pulls much since we installed them, even though I touch them everyday. But recently I’ve found myself ogling the hardware in some of my friends’ incredibly designed homes — and I’ve sent more than a few lascivious, “Tell me about your knobs!” texts.
I’m sharing the details on those below, including some to buy and some you can make yourself.
Also in today’s Concorde:
An irresistibly CHUNKY Y2K sneaker that I’ve long admired is finally being reissued.
Enjoy a Springtime Slapper Swarm including great big pants in a surprisingly versatile “non-basic” color; gorgeous mixed-pattern cotton separates from one of our favorite small European lines; raw-silk tees; and made-in-Japan travel totes.
A young designer out of London who knows the everlasting appeal of stripes finally opens up an e-shop… and sells out in mere hours.
Would you wear mesh 5-finger ballerinas?? The answer may surprise you.
Let’s get to it —
SpyFriend Ellen Van Dusen has high levels of panache infusing all arenas of her life. She’s best known for designing vibrant bedding, towels and home goods. But I’ve also interviewed her for the sletter about her ~fUNkY~ cutlery, here, and her place in Brooklyn is truly Mach 7+, down to a ceramic-tiled backyard I like to call Parc GüEllen. Vibey objects seem magnetically attracted to her: Get a load of the knife (below) that Martin Starr made for her as a wedding gift. (The trippy blade results from a Japanese technique called mokume-gane, kind of similar to nerikomi ceramics.)
The other day Ellen posted a picture on IG of her pooch Snips in the kitchen of her place upstate (below right). My eyes shot to the rock-shaped knobs adorning all the cabinets, so I hit her up to find out where she got them…
The bad news? They are uncoppable.
The good news? Making your own is easy, and tighter than copping. Here’s the how-to: