The next Mephistos
Plus great chrome & paper furniture, breakfast-candle epiphanies & more unbeatable recon
Mach 3+ city intel for traveling the entire planet is here. We just got some fresh tips for Paris. The Rome thread is crackling. We need intel for Taipei!
Our Home Goods Index is here.
We just published two sletters about Summer Suits — Erin’s is here, Jonah’s is here.
Our new guide to How To Pack for a Trip Swaggily is here.
Blackbird Spyplane, back again.
First up —
Our Party in Paris with Neighbour and Lady White Co. is next Wednesday, June 25.
If you’ll be in Paris, come enjoy wines from Novice, nonalcoholic spritzes from iessi, music selected by Yu Su, and immaculate vibes.
June 25, 6pm-9pm, at 51 Rue Volta in the Marais.
Now on to today’s Plane —
Sometime between 1999 and 2001, an eye-catching European walking sneaker became briefly but intensely ubiquitous among a certain stripe of Cool Clothes Rocker. The shoes were comfortable… cut from leather, and set on plump & nubbly rubber soles… they thrummed with the exact sort of homely-handsome energy you want from a purpose-built European walker.
I’m not talking about Mephistos, though I could be. Mephisto Matches, Rainbows and Dribblers (especially flambéed secondhand pairs) had a moment during that same turn-of-the-century period. In the years since, however, Mephistos have returned repeatedly to poppingness, with increasing frequency. They got cool again around ~2012, then again in ~2021 (we wrote about them that summer, here), and this year Mephistos are as popular as they’ve ever been.
Whereas the homely-handsome European-made walking sneaker I’m talking about is different. Its Coolness Parabola has been different, too, to the degree that it has not been popping for approximately ~25 years — but now it’s ready for a comeback: