Happiness is knowing what time the sun rises
The power of the candlelit breakfast. Plus, artisanal coats, vintage watches, silk skirts & more unbeatable recon
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Concorde is back with you once again, and today’s recon is robust as ever, featuring:
4 of the best small-batch coat makers out now, some of whom take things to Extreme Levels by weaving their own cloth,
A trove of sick secondhand watches, unearthed via a single search term,
A creative tool beloved by artists and musicians alike is back in print,
Plus handmade cards; self-layering tees from a small maker; voluminous silk skirts on their Romeo Gigli flow; and more.
Let’s get to it —
This time of year, when the days are shortest, I (Erin) become a hungry hoarder of light. One of my techniques for joy year-round, but especially in January, is to bask in the glow of candlelight… during the morning.
Jonah and I first discovered the power of the breakfast candle last summer, at one of our favorite bakeries in London, where they had votives burning at every table, despite the 11 a.m. sunlight. I know our Nordic brothers & sisters have been burning morning candles for centuries on some hygge s--t, too. But here in North America, of course, we tend to encounter candles only at eveningtime, when gold light licks our friends’ cheeks at, say, a dinner party.
It’s lovely to wake up to some golden cheek-licking too. It’s amazing what a glowing taper can do to a long, dark morning, and you wouldn’t believe what a gentle flame can do to a mundane bowl of muesli.
Every morning this month, I’ve treated the lighting of “breakfast candles” as a sort of meditation practice. After I get up (around 6 a.m.), I light a squad of candles (3-4 is a nice amount) on our kitchen table. I usually don’t have anywhere to be until later, so I sit there and read by candlelight as I drink coffee and eat.
As the rays of Helios spread over the horizon and slowly fill the room, I can measure the gathering daylight against the candle’s flame. Tracking the light this closely, post-winter-solstice, I notice the rays arriving minutes earlier each day than the one before. It’s a tiny change I’d probably let slip by unnoticed otherwise. Thanks to soccer superstar and sauced-out Spyfriend Héctor Bellerín, we’ve long known that happiness is knowing what time the sun sets — but get a load of knowing when it rises!
There’s something primordial to starting the day by staring into fire, and don’t get me started on the soft hiss of the burning wicks in the total quiet, which sound like the brushed drums in the smoothest Chet Baker song. Even 30 minutes in the company of candles on a dark morning can create a calm that lasts long into the day.
Try getting up early so you can fit in some breakfast candles before work. If weekdays are too hectic, try it on the weekend. Who doesn’t like the idea of a Saturday a.m. candlelit pancake? But for me, performing this ritual daily, so that it becomes a routine, is a big part of the appeal.
Speaking of enjoying the passage of time —
We’ve written about a lot of sick unisex watches over the years, many of which you can cop for the low, like this Y2K banger. I’ve personally tackled the subject of watches a few times, among them the first-ever “Personal Concorde.”
Just the other day, I discovered a cache of fantastic secondhand watches for the ladies & the fellas alike, released in the early 2000s under the umbrella of a single legendary designer, in collaboration with some of the world’s top industrial designers. Somehow, despite the talents involved, these remain slept-on…