I’ve publicly kvetched about this more than a few times, but since everybody has been finding a second or two to say what they think about Fran Lebowitz thanks to the release of Pretend It’s a City, I’ll go ahead and put it here in the hopes that the SEO gods will bump it up close to the top of Google or Yahoo or whatever search engine people use (RIP Ask Jeeves) in case a writer is looking to write about Fran. Whether it’s praise, whatever this is, or satire. It’s about Fran’s wardrobe. Guys, she not rocking Brooks Brothers. Two out of those three posts that I liked to (the “praise, whatever this is, or satire” part) mention her wearing Brooks Brothers blazers and shirts, and I’ve got to put it here for all to see: that’s wrong.
First, the blazer. It doesn’t take much to find this one out, but she wears Anderson & Shepard blazers. In an essay published by the Financial Times last year: “I’m very materialistic. Unfortunately, I am also very uninterested in money, so it’s a horrible combination. I have more Anderson & Sheppard suits and jackets than I should. More than I could really afford.” In 2016, there was a slideshow at W on how to get Fran’s look. Guess where the blazer was from? Yup. Anderson & Shepard.
The whole thing with the shirts is even more hilarious to me. Just a quick Google search of “Fran Lebowitz Brooks Brothers” and you’ll find that Fran, just like any menswear nerd that quotes Throwing Fits or who had a stint working for Ralph Lauren in some capacity and make that experience the center of their life story, Fran knows that Brooks Brothers shirts started to suck a long time ago. Here she is in 2015 talking to Elle:
I used to buy all my shirts atBrooks [Brothers], but that was completely ruined about 20 years ago. They discontinued the shirt I liked. If I had only known this—I mean, if you're going to discontinue an item that thousands and thousands of people buy, announce it. Say, 'We will no longer be making our excellent Brooks Brothers cotton shirts that we made for 5,000 years. We're going to change them in some awful way. We're alerting you so you can buy a lifetime supply.' Shirts don't go bad, they're not peaches.
I like to imagine Fran sitting up at night on eBay like the rest of us, typing in “vintage OCBD” and hoping she finds some shirts from 30 or 40 years ago that are the right size. I mean, Brooks Brothers tried to correct the massive screwup, but as far as I know, Fran has long since moved on to Hilditch & Key for her shirts. Because, at least from the waist up, Fran might be the last living embodiment of “Think Yiddish, dress British.”
Writers and Booze
A nice little bridge from Fran’s sartorial choices is mention of this very good roundup of writers and books on booze over at Drake’s editorial section, which I think does some great stuff to keep me on the site when I’m considering making my one big Drake’s purchase every year. Yes, there’s talk of Kingley Amis and Christopher Hitchen, but it’s by David Coggins and Natty Adams (respectfully) and they give it more of a personal touch than the simple “Here are 10 writers that drank a lot” or “Five books you should read about drinking” drek that gets peddled out very year by some site looking to boost its literary content. The whole thing is really well done and worth a read. Now, would it make me want to invite Kingsley or Hitch to my imaginary dinner party? Hell no. Absolutely not. But I still read and enjoyed the entire article.
Bubble Tea
I haven’t had bubble tea in over a year. I haven’t done a lot of things in the last 365, but Jiayang Fan’s article at The New Yorker made me think I should take a quick trip to Chinatown made me think I could rectify that. It was probably my favorite thing I read this week.
And finally…
Remember when I said I was going to do this twice a week? Ugh. Sorry. And sorry this week’s Melt is a bit on the shorter side. I’ve been busy with work stuff, but also, Emily and I are getting set to leave Brooklyn for a month. We put in our 10 or 11 months (I lost count) and really need a change of scenery. I was never one of those people that took issue with folks getting out of cities at the start of the pandemic if they were careful about it, but given the place we’re at right now, where things could get better or they could get much worse (hello, return of indoor dining) and the fact that we’re probably pretty low on the vaccine priority list, there’s no time like the present to get out of town for a minute. So who knows what the next few weeks of The Melt will look like since this entire project has been done entirely in Brooklyn during covid. Maybe I’ll unlock some new special side of my newsletter writing brain that I didn’t know existed.
Stay tuned to find out.