November 02, 2024

Photo-Illustration: The Strategist; Photos: Retailers

Here’s something fun for you this weekend — a new (semi-regular) newsletter-only interview series in which we ask stylish people about what’s in their shopping carts. For the first installment, I talked to TV writer and Buffalo Fluffalo author Bess Kalb about the last best thing she bought, some things she’s still hunting for, and the stuff she has hasn’t quite yet added to her cart.

Also on the site: Fashion designer Harris Reed told us everything he can’t live without including this glow cream he uses in place of serum and eye cream and the copper-gold gloss he uses to maintain his orange-dyed hair; if you’re looking to update your wardrobe for fall, Ambar Pardilla talked to stylish people about their favorite cords; and I’m delighted by these good-looking lazy Susans.

SALE

THE LAST THING I BOUGHT

A semi-regular interview series in which we ask people whose taste we trust about what’s in their shopping carts. Today, we’re talking to TV writer and Buffalo Fluffalo author Bess Kalb, who also writes the Grudge Report Substack. 

What’s the Last Best Thing That You Bought?

I am back on the road for the Buffalo Fluffalo book tour and I recently bought a few soft packing cubes from Baggu at the urging of my cousin Zoe, who is never wrong. The cubes have transformed my life. They’re basically “outfit in a bag” — a sartorial dump cake. One cube I designate as “the reading/event,” one is “dinner,” one is “PJs etc.,” and one is “travel back.” It feels like I’m traveling with a stylist, except the stylist is me, and most of what she “pulled” were button-downs from J.Crew from 2019. 

What Are Three Things You’re on the Hunt For?

1. An under eye-cream that works. I would like one that undoes the generational curse resulting in constant dark circles no matter what. Also it cannot cost a lot of money because if I leave it open and it oxidizes I will spiral and that will make all the eye problems worse. (“Dark circles are hard,” says senior editor Crystal Martin. “But if it’s something she’s always had her best bet is an eye cream with a retinol.” To that, beauty writer Tembe Denton-Hurst suggests this one from ROC.)

2. Sturdy notebooks with pages I can TEAR OUT without ripping the binding seams so I don’t have to live with the idiocy of my own bad writing.

3. A pretty embroidered tissue-box cover from Susan Alexandra, but I can’t decide which one and fear they will live in my online shopping cart until the day I die.

Can You Share a Screenshot of Something You're Thinking of Buying?

Black leather Celine heels. Photo: Bess Kalb/The Real Real

I keep saving these Black leather Celine heels from The Real Real and they keep getting bought and I keep cursing G-d. I have a lot of trouble pulling the trigger on purchases that aren't urgently useful. I think "Every woman should have a pair of closed-toe black pumps" and then I think "Where the hell do I think I'm going in these?" I'm not Melanie Griffith in Working Girl. I'm pushing a stroller five blocks to preschool at 60 miles an hour. These shoes are the life I will never live and one day I will accept that. Until then, they remain "Saved to Favorites."

What's the Last Gift You Gave? 

I’m into getting Doordash gift cards to friends who are GOING THROUGH IT because they can order dinner on me and eat it in private. I also give Buffalo Fluffalo to my friends’ kids on their birthdays, which is perhaps tacky, but I have cartons of it. My oldest kid gave a copy to his new kindergarten friend and sighed and explained, “My mom wrote it,” almost by way of apology. I have maybe a year left before I have to drop him off around the corner.