No. 051 — Size Up for the Cool Down: Pink Moon Yuppie
My New Year’s resolution to wear more shoulder pads is aligning well with the dictates of 2025. Honoring the commitment to a new me, I’ve been sewing shoulder pad inserts into as many button-downs in my closet as possible. It seems cultural headwinds were already shifting toward moneyed nostalgia and boardroom cosplay. Post-modern decadence is expressing itself on runways and red carpets all over the world via unironic power suits, in spite of a global economy teetering amid Trump tariffs.
What goes up must come down. Perhaps as our shoulders rise, our bank accounts dip - that looks to be the forecast for the months ahead. Amid a sobering financial outlook, New Orleans blooms into festival season, Tulane Book Fest, French Quarter Fest, JazzFest, and the rest are bringing swarms of giddy visitors excited to get drunk and eat well. Our tourist economy is particularly vulnerable to economic downturns, so far, the influx of visitors post Super Bowl LIX looks strong. I’ve placed the crown over my head as the Queen Mother of Garden District Pub on Magazine Street — spurring conversation with tourists while presiding dutifully over the jukebox. Swamp city ambiance is serious business.
Venus in Retrograde: The Astrology of Shoulder Pads (April 12th)
Lots of fanfare is given to Mercury Retrograde and its computer exploding mischief, but the more interesting and opportune retrograde is that of Venus. April 12th will be a Full Moon in Libra (aka the Pink Moon) and represents the culmination of shifting dynamics in the realm of personal finance and relationships. The next few days are hyper-charged, they offer a unique opportunity to reframe one’s relationship with financial security and savings, prioritizing investments over distractions. With that said, clothing and vacations can be investments, provided the clothes enhance your confidence and the vacations facilitate detachment.
I’ve gotten some of my best work done while “on vacation”, time spent in a novel environment can spawn fantasies about what’s possible and enable zoomed-out problem solving. While on a vacation in Portugal years ago, I realized how much I enjoy writing longhand, perhaps more so than anything else. Pen to paper has since become my preferred mode for first, middle, and final drafts. The manual labor is worth having something tangible to show for time spent, versus on a computer where Clicking “Save” is the closest you come to a climax.
As far as interpersonal relationships go, this month we are reminded that that often loving someone demands we cut them loose. Goodbyes are painful but create fertile soil for poetry and self-reliance. Allow whoever needs to float out of your life to recede into the horizon so that you can sail steady forward.
Black Dandyism: Self-Fashioned Aristocrats
I’ve yet to see more striking street style than in Louisiana. Clothing norms in the Black community around Church attire and ‘Sunday finest’ were the guiding force in André Leon Talley’s aesthetic formation, which in turn helped mold the fashion dictates across Vogue and Women’s Wear Daily. With Pharrell Williams at the creative helm of Louis Vuitton’s menswear and Tyler the Creator’s stamp on the culture with a preppy-wear Rennaissance, the future is clearly pointing toward yuppie redemption. This is good news is the yuppie cut is sharp and generous, a perfect anecdote for body image pains. The yuppie apex in the 1980’s celebrated an outsized silhouette, one in which you look like you’re wearing your parent’s clothes. It’s mature clothes for young people and the effect is exhilaratingly. An oversized yuppified wardrobe is a cheeky way to satirize elitism.
Entering my fourth year living in New Orleans, my perspective is shifting. As I becoming increasingly more immersed into the fabric of this town, the more driven I am toward success. A city so defined by celebration as this one, demands balance through personal achievement. Nerds earn their cocktails, and collared shirts are the new thongs.
With love,
Nathalia(e)
♥