shop rat's emilia petrarca on nyfw's most exciting designers and our founder's guide to ny film festival
monthly recs #42
Each month, we ask a writer to share what’s on their minds and in their open tabs for our monthly recommendations. This September’s guest editor, , is a fashion and culture writer and the founder of (which just celebrated its one-year anniversary!). She was previously a senior fashion writer at The Cut and has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and more.
August felt like one very long “Sunday scary” to me because September is one big Monday. It’s back to school. It’s fashion week. It’s the opening of this and that. It’s a new start, which can be both exciting and daunting. I think I’m ready for it, though. I got lots of rest this summer and feel good about hitting the gas again. Watching Industry Season 3, which premiered last month, eased me into it. No matter what happens, at least I can say: Thank god I’m not a day trader. (I think that’s what they do?).
At the beginning of September, I’m celebrating the one-year anniversary of my newsletter, Shop Rat! I can’t believe it’s only been a year, but when I look back, I’ve written so much. Some hits. Some misses. But overall, I’m really proud of what I put out there, which is not something I’ve said about my work in a long time. I’ll also be attending some shows during New York Fashion Week. I’m excited to see Kallmeyer’s first runway show, Sandy Liang, Eckhaus Latta, and Rachel Comey. Some other new-ish names on the calendar to look out for are Zankov, Diotima, Melitta Baumeister, and Meruert Tolegen.
The second the temperature falls below 75 degrees, I’m overwhelmed by the urge to shop, but I’m really trying to hold back this year and wear what I already have. I say that every year, though, so we’ll see… Here’s to new beginnings!
’s
1. I’m excited to eat my friend Maxime’s cooking at Zimmi’s, a new restaurant opening in the West Village this month.
2. Muji is an obvious back-to-school visit for pens and notebooks, but I always end up buying clothes there as well. I managed to snag this jumper in beige before it sold out.
3. I’m trying to get more into the color brown this fall. To go with my new Muji jumper, I splurged on a pair of sexy librarian Dries Van Noten heels.
4. I’m going to two weddings this month, and I still need an outfit for the second one. I’d love to wear something by Super YAYA. I also bought a fleece skirt suit from Colleen Allen, so I can maybe wear that if it’s cold enough.
5. If I lived anywhere near Oklahoma City I’d go check out this exhibit about the costume designer Edith Head. I bought this book about her instead.
paid subscribers can scroll down for more recs from Emilia, including the TV show she can’t wait to watch and the upcoming concerts she’s going to.
more from us
6. Radical Fashion Exercises, a book of prompts aimed at thinking through “how we can practice fashion otherwise,” has made our fashion month reading list, along with some experimental and critical fashion publishing project discoveries such as Mode & Mode, Viscose Journal, and Vestoj.
7. It’s a particularly good time to watch Haskell Wexler’s classic 1969 documentary Medium Cool, as The Baffler reminded us, given the documentary’s focus on a Democratic National Convention marked by anti-war protests and its still-pressing questions about how activists can get a major party to listen. In thinking through those questions now, we’re turning to the Uncommitted Movement and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (a good place to start is with their action toolkit).
8. Field Meridian’s newsletter is an always-thoughtful reflection on community gardening in Brooklyn during the time of climate change — each issue is in tune with the microseasons of Brooklyn gardens and features a poem and a garden report. If it inspires you to join a community garden yourself, you can find one in your area (if you’re US-based) here.
9. After wearing a series of uncomfortable sandals all summer, our founder had a revelation while in Italy — there are, in fact, stylish orthopedic and comfort-first shoes out there (she had a hunch, thanks to passerby Ana Kraš, who raved to us about the orthopedic shoes she bought in Milan). We’ve been hunting on eBay and, just in time for perfect strolling weather, we have a brief guide to our favorite brands: Valleverde, SanaGens, Arcopedico, Melluso, Cinzia Soft, Stonefly, Astore, Thierry Rabotin, and Mephisto.
10. The 62nd New York Film Festival starts on September 27th and we’re so excited to be partnering with Film at Lincoln Center again for this year’s festival! If you’re a passerby club member, stay tuned for free tickets and discounts on select screenings later this month. Last year’s festival included some of our favorite films of 2023, including Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves and Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall. Scroll down for our founder’s most anticipated films for this year’s festival.
paid subscribers receive access to our Discord — a community of like-minded readers ready to recommend a hotel in Marseille and a restaurant in Buenos Aires, help you pick a wedding dress, debate the new Shelia Heti, or find an apartment. join our private discord server through our passerby club membership here.
#books “If you’re open to memoirs, Anne Glenconnor’s Lady in Waiting is pretty spicy - and if you’re into audiobooks, she reads hers, and it’s great.”
#ask-a-passerby “A bunch of my friends love Spirit Rock for meditation retreats in Northern California.”
Classifieds are paid ads that support the passerby team and contributors and are seen by our 41,000+ subscribers each month. Promote your job opening, brand, or service to the passerby community through classified advertising. Interested? Purchase a classified ad here.
It’s almost New York Film Festival season — the time of year when I fall back in love with the city, get my fall coat moment on, and stack endless hours of film-watching at my favorite cinema in New York City, sometimes with a martini break in between films at Cafe Luxembourg or at Via Quadronno, getting a panini if it’s lunchtime. Here’s my comprehensive watchlist for this year’s NYFF, where you’ll find me between September 27th and October 14th.