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Re-watch

Wattstax


On August 20, 1972, Memphis soul pioneer Stax Records held a benefit concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Watts riots. A stage was built in the middle of the night, after the Los Angeles Rams played the Oakland Raiders in the stadium. All of the label’s biggest artists—such as Isaac Hayes—performed in the show, which lasted nearly six hours for a crowd of 112,000. Unexpectedly directed by the white Mel Stuart (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory), the resulting concert documentary, Wattstax (1973), is an exhilarating and poignant time capsule. Interspersed throughout the incredible musical footage are valuable interviews with locals, and a typically sharp conversation with Richard Pryor at a bar after the show. (I’d be remiss not to mention the unbelievable 70s fashions in the film, which, to quote my brother Ash, “make Saturday Night Fever look conservative.”) Currently streaming on the Criterion Channel, Wattstax is a must-watch for those looking to dig deeper into that era’s music scene after enjoying Questlove’s recent Oscar-winning Summer of Soul. (criterionchannel.com) —Spike Carter

Lily Baldwin from the video “Through You” poses for a portrait in the WireImage Portrait Studio presented by DIRECTV during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2017 in Park City, Utah.
Listen

Stories of the Stalked


In the true-crime genre, intimate stories of murder and abuse are often told—and controlled—by charismatic hosts instead of the real-life protagonists. That isn’t the case in Stories of the Stalked, a new six-part podcast from Audible. British dancer and filmmaker Lily Baldwin shepherds listeners through her experience of being stalked by a stranger who believes they are soul mates. With unflinching honesty and candor, she explains how her life unraveled as she received endless e-mails, calls, and messages from a person she calls X. Even though Baldwin changed her name and took legal action, X is still out there stalking her. (audible.com) —Bridget Arsenault

Wear

La Vie Style House


Fanciful caftans are a lifestyle. If you are wearing guipure lace and tulle to the beach, we salute you, and would like an invitation to your next luncheon or cocktail party. In preparation—and solidarity—we’ll be procuring an appropriate look from La Vie Style House, a Texas label founded by designers Lindsey Mcclain and Jamie Coulter. The duo has infused a fun-loving, vintage sensibility to their coats, dresses, accessories, wraps, and shirts. Now it’s no longer necessary to visit one of their boutiques, in Houston and Dallas, to acquire their statement pieces, because Matches offers their collection online. This tulle cover-up dress, festooned with floral embroidery and appliqués, will instantly turn an Eres maillot into a pool-party look. We can also imagine it layered over some underpinnings and a slip from Skims (don’t judge us), and taken out and about to, say, Le Bilboquet. ($801, matchesfashion.com) —Ashley Baker

Sleep

P. Le Moult


It’s been nearly a year since we last visited Chez Dédé, a boutique in Rome that surely has one of the best selections of piped pajamas in Europe. (And we know our piped pajamas.) Many of them are courtesy of P. Le Moult, a Vienna-based house that replicates the stylish clothes of Eugène Le Moult, the French entomologist and naturalist who, at one time, had the largest butterfly collection in the world. He died in 1967, but his legacy lives on through his great-grandchildren, who oversee the label. Behold his original Longshirt, which Le Moult designed to wear during a 28-day journey on the Amazon. Made of 100 percent pure South Indian cotton, from sustainably grown fields, it is woven in a “Herringbone-light”pattern, adding a bit of texture to this nautical sartorial statement. ($197, shop.p-lemoult.com) —Ashley Baker

Read

The New Era


The look of The New Era, a quarterly magazine dedicated to Scandinavian design, is as clean and minimalistic as the homes and interiors it features. Launched in November 2020 by Hanna Nova Beatrice, a writer and curator from Stockholm, the magazine has an archive three issues deep. It includes interviews with architects, designers, and artists—both Scandinavian ones and those simply influenced by the region—along with sprawling photo shoots of Danish, Nordic, and Swedish homes. The second issue offers a beautiful spread on a cottage built by Christian and Ruxandra Halleröd, the duo behind Sweden’s top design firm. (They created the interiors for Acne Studios’ stores.) Their home—full of mixed woods, massive windows, and furniture in a strictly neutral palette—is in a forest on a remote Swedish island. It’s pretty enough to distract from a brutal Scandanvian winter. (theneweramagazine.com) —Jensen Davis

Cook

McCall’s Meat & Fish Co.


For just over a decade, McCall’s Meat & Fish Co. has been the go-to East Los Angeles butcher for high-quality and harder-to-find products—gold-grade rib eyes, goat, Chesapeake Bay soft-shell crabs. Their beef and poultry come from farmers who avoid antibiotics and growth hormones, while their fish is largely wild-caught. Produce, all organic, comes from farmers markets. Even their bag of mixed greens is incredible, as is the price tag ($10). Recently they’ve opened a West Side outpost—on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. It’s across the street from a Whole Foods. Your decision is very easy. (mccallsmeatandfish.com) —Jensen Davis

Issue No. 145
April 23, 2022
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Issue No. 145
April 23, 2022