WHAT ARE WE LIVING AND LOVING FOR AT THE MOMENT? THE JONES & CO GIRLS SHARE THEIR INSIDE TIPS ON WHAT’S HOT AND NOT!
What was our creative director Jennifer Sampson loving last month?
What I'm eating:
Ice cream and gelato from Mapo Gelato and Cow and the Moon in Newtown, Sydney. Goes down a treat whatever the temperature, better still after a decadent lunch or dinner at Bella Brutta or Café Paci nearby to Mapo Gelato or walk it off with a stroll up Enmore Road to Cow and the Moon. My all-time favourite flavour at C&TM is Malto Bliss but Caramelized Popcorn with a side of Balsamic Strawberry is also out of this world good. At Mapo it has to be the salted caramel collab with Pepe Saya butter – absolute freaking bliss. While you are in the area, the new café on the Newtown scene is Soulmate, it’s on the Enmore side, set back from King Street it has a chill vibe with super tasty breakfast and lunch offerings I highly recommend the egg and bacon roll with chutney!
What I'm reading:
I think everyone is collectively feeling a little of the 2021 “meh’s” at the moment, it’s hard to find things to focus on in down time and enjoy that don’t require too much mental energy. I’m thoroughly enjoying Julia Baird Phosphorescence as a tonic to everything happening in the larger sense. It’s great to unplug and lose yourself in the magnificence of the universe and also as a sense check to the bigger picture. Julia says of the book -
“I wrote this book in the hope that it might be a salve for the weary, as well as a reminder of the mental rafts we can build to keep ourselves afloat, the scraps of beauty that should comfort us, the practices that might sustain us, especially in times of grief, illness, pain, and darkness.”
What I'm buying:
I’m obsessed with this super squishy, delicious chair I bought. It’s just the right mix of undone and informal but not sloppy as I’m a Virgo with a healthy dose of Monica Geller mixed in and I like things neat! You can pile it up with cushions and throws in winter or keep it simple and it looks handsome either way. You can buy new slip covers too if you want to mix it up down the track. We moved house recently and there is zero pantry space, but there is a landing away from kitchen on the way to the garage that I have turned into what my husband calls “the corner store”. I bought this classic bookcase and have filled it with all of our pantry stores decanted into these containers and baskets in neat rows. It’s literally the most satisfying thing you will ever do! I stuck these labels on the side also so you can tell your cous cous from your polenta and your basmati from your jasmine :)
What I'm watching:
I just devoured Halston with Ewan McGregor, it’s a little hammy and heavy handed (it is a Ryan Murphy production of Glee, Pose, Ratchet fame) but if you love a fashion bio or doco like me you’ll adore it. Roy Halston’s contribution to fashion is truly unquestionable and its worth a watch for the seventies and eighties fashion and interiors alone (The burgundy office! The Montauk house!), also for the soon to be iconic line “Get it Sassy!” when he is sending his beleaguered assistant out on an “errand”. Elsa Peretti played by Rebecca Dayan is the highlight, luminous and the definition of chic, she is liquid silk with cropped hair and long limbs. Seeing her magic accessories peppered through and her stumbling upon a bottle in a market that became a global Tiffany & Co phenom is pure joy. Keep your eye out for a young, director Joel Schumacher (The Lost Boys, St Elmo’s Fire, Batman Forever) as a NYC window dresser turned Halston alumni hand-picked and then hen picked by Halston.
What I'm listening to:
Nick Murphy Music for Silence, this came out a year ago, but I’ve only just picked it up – it’s so comforting and velvet like in its meditative warmth. Fantastic late-night listening. For earlier in the evening (happy hour) I’ve been playing Fred Again Actual Life a lot, it’s sample heavy electronic pop but the samples he uses are humble recordings from people in his life, some joyous, some heartbreaking. The tracks on the record are all named for the people whose samples are woven into the recording, it feels intimate and anthemic but imbued with a sense of community wrapped in his slick production.
