From the very first humans huddled around a fire watching the same flames flicker, we have been fundamentally, cosmically unable to resist turning to the person next to us and going, “Are you seeing this s**t right now!?” Every mosh pit, every courtside seat, every funeral, every New Year's Eve countdown is that same ancient impulse to share something powerful, in current clothes. Blue and orange clothes, if you're anywhere near NYC this week! After this week in New York, I gather the thing we actually can't live without isn't food or shelter or whatever; it's witnesses — other people who can confirm that yes, this is really happening, and yes, it’s absolutely incredible.
As you may have heard, the New York Knicks are the GOAT. The city, as I walked through it yesterday, was a sea of giddy bodies in blue and orange. As a person who doesn’t follow the sport, I would like to say to Basketball: I am more than impressed. I am blown away by you! The way your sport has brought humans together is nothing short of epic. Being a witness to this moment with all of you basketball fans has been a total high.
I was in the city for a shoot, and walking around Central Park yesterday before the game, you could smell it, hear it, and, of course, see it. One out of every three people was dressed in head-to-toe blue and orange, and the Silvercup Studios sign (and every other lit sign) was colored blue and orange.
I briefly took this video on the 59th Street bridge on my way out of town Saturday night! Here’s more amazing art:
And! The art stemming from this joy is brimming with feeling. When people are so moved by something that they freely, joyfully create, it is the most fun to consume. Which brings us to a mini list below of some of the most beautiful and deeply felt artwork I found from Knicks Week.
My friend Nikki Ascher’s Zeeland Brand made this tee shirt that was worn and photographed in Vogue this week!
The Gasp Test
You don’t need to analyze it. You don’t need to justify it. You just need to notice when your body does the thing — the little internal ooh — and go, yes, this rules. Saving it.
That’s the gasp test. It works every time.
I spend so much time waiting for permission to care about something — waiting until I’ve researched enough, understood enough, have a good enough reason, or (cringe) asked enough other people for their opinion, unconsciously averaging out their responses to calibrate my own.
But intuition doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t explain itself. It just shows up as a small interior flicker. The gasp test is just the practice of catching that flicker before your brain talks you out of it.
Look for it! This is what I’m doing when I’m saving inspiration.
What Actually Makes Me Gasp: A Few Examples
Since we’re here, let me tell you the specific things that get me every time!
Color drenching in interiors. You know when a room is painted one single color — walls, molding, ceiling, all of it — and then everything in it follows suit? The bed frame, the bedding, the furniture, every surface just fully committing to the bit? I will never plan to do this in my actual life, and YES, I know that now they’re 99% AI and I simply do not care. I love them. It’s obsession-level.
And then there are painters’ palettes. Not the finished work — the palette after. My friend Inslee Fariss does this sometimes, and it is genuinely one of my favorite things on the internet. The combinations are wild and unpredictable in a way no mood board tool could ever generate for you. It’s a remnant — of a specific human, in a specific moment, making a specific thing. There’s no recreating it, and there’s no planning for it, and that’s exactly what makes it so gooddddd.
And that reminds me of something I would absolutely add to any inspo board, a Katherine Wolkoff photo I became aware of when I worked in art and fashion in my twenties: Deer Beeds. Like, what’s leftover when they get up and are gone.
In both cases, there’s something beautiful and meaningful not in the thing, but in the remnant of the thing having happened. Super into that idea!
Pinterest, Instagram? Camera roll! Right?
Of course, we should talk about platforms and best practices for the actual saving of gasp-worthy stuff — maybe you’re still on Pinterest, maybe you use saved boards on IG, or maybe you’d let me talk you into screenshotting your saved IG board, printing it out, cutting it into squares, and gluing it onto an IRL inspo board. (WHAT. Yes, I’ve done this. It’s so fun.)
But you’re not limited to those. For something fresh, try this leveled-up version of Pinterest called Cosmos (here’s my board, below) and an amazing color palette generator called Coolers that I’ve been obsessed with for years (via the inimitable Maria Piessis!)
Coolers is free, stupidly fun, and majorly addictive. It’s a color palette generator, and the whole experience is basically: hit the spacebar, watch a new five-color palette appear, decide in half a second if it’s the one. Here’s one I made just now, which feels very good to my eyeballs in this minute:
Once you’ve landed on your palette, something kind of wild happens: you start seeing those colors everywhere. In your coffee. On a stranger’s jacket. In the light at 4 pm. It’s not magic; it’s just focus — your brain has been handed a filter, and now it’s applying it to everything. And suddenly your inspiration isn’t random anymore. It’s a picture of your current vibe.
I use all of these devices above. I save to an album on my phone if it’s for a specific open project (my next week’s Substack, my son’s Kindergarten show), I save to IG Saved boards for open-ended things like “Japandi interiors I like”, “Renovation tips” and “The Next Time I’m In Tokyo”, and memes. And I play with Pinterest, Cosmos, and the rest of the internet when I just need to be inspired and zone out on a scroll of beautiful things.
But the most interesting thing about deciding what to save — and what to do with it later — is that it hones the skill of figuring out what you actually love. So, my one and only tip is this: First, save with wild abandon, without worrying about what it signifies or means. Save a lot. Then, look later at everything you’ve saved and see what the emerging patterns are. Because when you smoosh it all together on an inspo board, something clicks: you can suddenly see the thread that ties it all together. It’s a genius reveal you’re giving yourself.
My six pics for this week: an inspo board (made from last week’s content!) with two of the saves in motion! Made with the Esti iPhone editing app. Try it and report back!
I’ll do a part 2 if you like! I realize I didn’t really explain my “…and do something with it” process, and now the post is too long! Drop a comment here if this sparked you, and I’ll continue the conversation.
I have a post in drafts about trends — specifically, why they're best observed with a kind of Buddhist detachment, hold the hatred. Women of a certain age (aka my age) love to complain about them, and I have a heartfelt reframe. That post isn't ready yet, but in my research I found a 'stack I can't wait to share. This New Slang post is an easy, clever, well-researched POV on the design history and cultural appeal of dressing monochromatically — which is basically my interiors color-drenching obsession, but make it an outfit. (eee!)
Though I literally live here, it is hard even for me to keep track of all the businesses in the Hamptons that changed hands this year. Here’s a great round-up of what to do out East this summer, boasting bits even I didn’t know about!
My friend and longtime client Jen Galante Han’s love letter to Substack, and why it’s the better destination for fashion, vs. Instagram. I always feel like she writes directly to my personal brain, and I love that feeling.
Jean Godfrey June (another beauty I met when I photographed her 11 years ago!) on WHY she chooses clean beauty. Such a great piece.
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Thanks for reading, and GO KNICKS!
hugs!!
Ana
I really like number 4!
“Feels good to my eyeballs in this minute” - best way to describe the rush!