Kendall Flavin’s Most Worn Ballet Flat & the Fruit She Orders in Bulk

HAWT SEAT #5 feat. the queen of the dressing room

Welcome to HAWT SEAT, a guest feature in the likeness of monthly repeats. Today’s celeb columnist: Kendall Flavin.

Kendall writes the equally raucous and elegant newsletter The Dressing Room where she blesses our feeds with meticulously styled outfits, commentary on the worst dressed city in America, and dazzling vintage round-ups like “Birkins for us broke bitches.” Kendall, what’s been on repeat for you lately?

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You find me at a very primary colored time in my life

I’ve had the La Veste Pippi pants on my wishlist for years. I’ve lurked their Instagram and website for the same amount of time. But, for some reason, I never took the bull by the striped horns and hit checkout.

Well, the universe heard me. La Veste did a Soho pop up, and I took my little tuchus downtown with levels of enthusiasm and urgency that could rival the hypebeast scalper line for the AP x Swatch watch drop. After their sequin pants sold out, I wasn’t leaving anything up to chance. I found the blue stripe of wishlists past and mood boards future, and I haven’t taken them off since.

As someone who has worked her way up to a colorful wardrobe, these pants feel like the pinnacle of all that work. And “work” might sound dramatic in terms of building a closet that feels like me, but I’d say it requires more work today than ever to resist being pulled in by the algorithm.

And yes, you might say these are very algorithmic looks — but they’re algorithmic to my own taste. I always have a vintage accessory (or two), a button-down or collared jacket, and some sort of net/cage sandal. Plus, they just bring me joy. Well worth the price tag.

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“Dazed and Confused” but make it Doen

Plus, this Doen pair. Call me an outfit repeater. Say what you must. I am an outfit repeater, and I am proud.

Summer is the hardest season for me to dress for. I’m not a shorts girl, so when I find a pant I like, I wear it. A lot. And I just so happen to love this Doen pair. I snagged them on The RealReal (I can’t find them anywhere else except one Poshmark listing so I cannot tell you what they are called), and they’ve been making weekly appearances since.

The Pippi pant serves a very colorful purpose, while these feel like the same vibe, just more cemented in the denim world. Ergo, slightly more casual? Maybe I’m just trying to justify my shopping habit.

They arrived at the same time as my NPR tee, and the two pieces became fast friends (I’m wearing both as I write this. Proof below.)

Who was I to keep them apart when they were obviously meant to be together? I love the ‘70s vibe of the ringer tee and striped pant, but for a slightly more elevated moment, I opted for, of course, a button-down. This blue is currently my hyperfixation. Klein, cobalt, royal. Whatever you want to call it, I call it perfection.

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I yearn for a salty mist, so I do four pumps of this

Gone are the days of mid-afternoon mid-week summer boat trips. Which means gone are the days of salty ocean curls. But I want ocean curls. Enter: Crown Affair’s texturing air dry mousse. I have reached the dregs of my current bottle, so it seems a restock is on the horizon.

I grew up thinking my hair was straight. Then, I gave myself a wolf cut during the initial stages of the Covid lockdown. (This was before the later stages during which I cut bangs. I stand by that decision, they’re just not blown out in these photos.) But anyway, turns out a little bit of layering is all you need to bring out a wave pattern. And after many years of trying salt sprays and mousses and oils and leave in conditioners, I can say definitively that this is the best product I’ve used for a little bit of extra volume and wave. It’s not crunchy, it doesn’t feel heavy, and a little goes a long way.

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“Before Sunrise”

The summer season is upon us which can only mean one thing: The “Before Sunrise” trilogy has been queued up on the projector. It has become a yearly tradition.

I am not a big re-watcher in terms of tv and movies. I rarely, if ever, rewatch anything. I say things are my favorites and I simply never return. But Before Sunrise really got under my skin. So, I return to it yearly like a summer pilgrimage into Linklater’s brain. And the time has come.

Could you imagine a movie like this, filmed over a single night, focused solely on the dialogue between two characters being made today? I think not. Not to mention Ethan Hawke is my neighbor (not literally, but we live in the same neighborhood) so I’m really just supporting my community.

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The Peach Truck

My dad has a habit of sending me bulk shipments of food. All through college I received 40 pound dry-ice filled boxes of Atlantic salmon. Occasionally I’d get scallops and shrimp too. Then, it was frozen meats — elk, ox, kangaroo, you name it. Honestly, this probably saved me from starving when I first moved to New York. (I had $3 and a dream.) But we are trying something new this year - my first shipment from The Peach Truck!

I noted last Thursday as a WFH day on the work calendar, took a quick break at 1:30 pm to journey to Barclays Center, and I picked up my 12 pounds of good ol’ Georgia peaches. On the agenda tomorrow: see if my local pizza place will sell me dough. I have big plans to make a peach/sopressata/basil flatbread.

After that: I plan to poach the peaches and eat them with vanilla ice cream. After that, I found some pastry recipes. Really, the world is my oyster. But in the meantime, I’ve been eating them straight from the box. And they have the good drippy juice.

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Mansur Gavriel ballet flats

Have you ever wanted to dip your feet in liquid leather, pull them out, and have shoes molded to your feet? That’s how these shoes feel to me. After I finally got over the mental hurdle that was preventing me from embracing ballet flats (middle school, ya know?), I got to hunting. I wanted a square toe. I wanted a high profile cut on the foot. And Mansur delivered.

These are like buttah. I got stuck in the first Great Monsoon of NYC’s summer season in these shoes, and they held their own against mother nature. 10/10. Would recommend. Admittedly, I do have flat feet. But I’ve walked thousands of steps around the city in these without any issue.

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Genre is: Whimsical guys singing weird songs

Now I don’t know what side of the internet everyone else is on, but I get fed a lot of up-and-coming musicians. Partly because I like to say “I knew them before they blew up,” and partly because occasionally we will interview acts for the magazine I sporadically contribute to. But either way, I get a lot of music in my feeds. And I am currently obsessed with the Bangladesh song.

If you know the song, that descriptor should be all you need to know what I’m referring to. If not, it’s a man online who has written a song he calls Bangladesh. It’s on Spotify now. But it’s spawned an entire section of the internet in what I can only describe as a sort of digital call and response. The format is built so that anyone can continue the loop with their own lyrics, and it’s the most fun I’ve had online in a while. It’s like collecting Pokemon. I think. I was never on that train.

And then, because I can’t stop at just one weird musical act, I also have a deep love for and fascination with Victor Jones. Only a man named Victor Jones could sing the lyrics “I’m in the garden and I’m eating all the dirt, I get hurt,” with the power and bravado of your dad’s favorite rock band and the synth of your mom’s 80s favorites. (Hair not included.)

And now, on a more serious note, Gill Scott Heron has returned to the playlist. I’m New Here is an all time forever favorite. Musicians used to tell stories and weave narratives, and his combination of instrumental and beat and spoken-word cadence can never be recreated. Not that anyone is trying.

I wish I could recommend a funny podcast or a good audio book, but I hate both. I inevitably tune them out and they become the soundtrack to the scene that is me answering emails at work. Maybe one day.

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‘90s runway shows

Fashion shows still exist, but I don’t think they’ll ever be able to match the magic and artistry of the ‘90s. They’ve been reduced to networking events with a side of Instagram and a healthy dose of sponsored “street style.” (Can it really be called that at this point? Everything is loaned and gifted, everyone looks the same.)

I think Copenhagen might be the last bastion of authentic attendee style. The final frontier before fashion falls. But I digress, that’s not the point. The point is, before LVMH killed creativity and private equity got their grubby little hands into scenes previously reserved for actual curators and artists and designers, fashion was a spectacle. And I have been bewitched, body and soul. (Yes, I did just watch The Other Bennet Sister. Which means I also just rewatched Pride and Prejudice. So I lied, I rewatched that movie too. Sue me. That doesn’t even count, at this point it is a cultural institution and I was just making my yearly pilgrimage.)

Men may talk about their Roman Empires — mine is fashion when creative directors could still direct, creatively.

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Marni 1998: What goes around comes around

While I have you, let’s take a look at the other side of the ‘90s. Think the era of Jennifer Aniston cargo pant and ribbed tank pap shots. Think flip flops galore and slip dresses over tees. Enter: Marni S/S 1998. If you told me this was the Substack Starter Pack collection, I wouldn’t bat an eye.

I keep coming back to this, eyeing the foldover fisherman pants and perfectly cut V of the tees. I’m eyeing these Free People pants to fill this gaping hole in my pant-loving heart, but they’ll never be 90s Marni. But as we approach 100º weather, these looks are front and center on my mood board. Now I truly understand my mom’s constant exclamations of, “I had that!” It really does all come back around.

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Summer in a hangover-free bottle

I am a sucker for a THC bevvy. I am an even bigger sucker for an Aperol spritz. So, imagine my utter elation when Cann dropped their Aperol THC Spritz and offered to send me one to try. Wow. If any two worlds were to collide, this would be my top pick.

So, I took my Cann spritz, texted my friend who has a rooftop, bought some shrimp, and got that barbecue fired up. We created quite the pleasing spread for the inaugural Cann spritz taste test, and I can confirm, it lives up to the hype.

I’ve been drinking these after work quite often, but I feel justified because you can mix with anything bubbly. And I’ve been mixing mine with kombucha. So, ergo, it must have health benefits. I did just finish my first bottle, but placed an order for two more. It truly is my drink of the summer. Do you think I can ask my bartender for the spritz, hold the Aperol, I brought my own?

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The Evening Ride

What started as the occasional bike ride with my roommate a few years ago became something of a summer evening ritual. With a Citi Bike dock mere blocks from my apartment and a pier within riding distance, I can delude myself into being in full summer mode.

After many, many years, my childhood bike has finally made the pilgrimage to Brooklyn (thanks mom). Sadly, it is in desperate need of an overhaul — no brakes, no air, no love. But, in the meantime, Citi Bike will suffice.

I know they say fresh air and exercise is good for you — they may be onto something there. A sunset bike ride towards Brooklyn Bridge Park really does get me out of my head. Admittedly, it’s hard to be stressed when Lady Liberty herself is drenched in the golden glow of the sunset on the East River. Bonus points for this route, too — the train deposits its journeyers at the perfectly located Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

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P.S. …

My current favorite pastime is collecting every video on God’s green internet of Scotland’s Tartan Army taking over the United States for the World Cup. The vibes are high, the beer barrels are dry, and I hope we never have to say goodbye. (Boston and Glasgow just signed an agreement to officially become sister cities. The future is bright.)

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