Hello friends!
I recently listened to Ezra Klein’s interview with Kyle Chayka (available to read or listen via this free link) and then came across this article written by him in The Guardian. It resonated with something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently:
When we first moved to Madrid eight years ago I often felt a little disappointed at the decor of the restaurants and bars in the center of the city. Many of these locations were very plain–ugly, in fact–filled with old clunky tables and chairs and without much consideration given to the decor at all. I’m very visual, and my surroundings are important to me. After living in NYC and spending time in cities like Paris, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Berlin, and Vienna, these restaurants felt so unattractive to me. I wanted more creativity and light and general stylishness!
Over the last few years I’ve started to notice more attention is being paid to decor, both in new bars and restaurants as well as older renovations. But the design of these locations is not the homogenization that’s happened in so much of the world. I was commenting to a friend the other day how much I love that these places have stayed authentic to their Spanish-ness. So while they are updating their look and paying more attention to their decor, it makes me happy that they also staying authentically Spanish.
And part of it is me, too: I’ve learned to appreciate some the older decor that has been there all along and that didn’t resonate with me at first. I think was looking for the more homogeneous decor I knew from my previous life and had come to expect from a typical elegant or chic restaurant. But during my time here I’ve grown to enjoy the difference between French and Italian and Spanish style and to not want what I might find in Venice instead of Madrid. It’s not just my surroundings that are changing; I’m changing, too.
And that’s part of what Mr. Chayka was saying, too. While we can easily be influenced by what’s around us, by what we see on Instagram and what the algorithm is feeding us, it’s important to listen to your own personality and tastes too, to find what you love, what makes you who you are.
So what’s your style? What are you wanting to sew and wear this year? I hope I can help you find it or refine it if you’re looking for it. I think it’s something we can always be developing, playing with, and I’d love to go through that process with you a bit. Shall we?