I’m baaaack! Hopefully it felt like I never left, but for me ten days away felt like an eternity (in a good way, though!) I’ll consider it a positive that I was missing life back home a bit.
I have lots to tell you, but first, thank you to everyone who entered my little giveaway while I was gone. I’ve contacted the winner and their gift (five of my forever-favorite books, each individually wrapped and tied with vintage ribbon, of course) is on its way!
I wrote a few weeks ago about the exercise I do when I travel. Pre-pandemic I was on the go a lot more often, and I would sometimes come home from a trip feeling inspired but I’d immediately lose that feeling as soon as work and life swept me away. I started to practice this method of thematic thinking in order to more intentionally connect with my surroundings and to remember what it was that I was drawn to in a particular place. I found that it has allowed me to continue to draw from that inspiration long after I return: it’s been four years since I went to Paris, but I think of it every time I see a line drawing of a face out in the world.
A quick recap of the exercise: when I get to where I’m traveling to I start taking pictures of anything and everything that catches my eye. Someone’s outfit, a book cover, a candy wrapper…as long as it piques my interest, it counts. At some point on the trip I’ll notice a theme in my camera roll and will start to look for that theme in my surroundings. Sometimes, I buy a souvenir that represents the theme to take home and remember it by.
Anyway, I intended to do this for each leg of my trip (Zürich, Interlaken, Lake Como, and Milan), but since we didn’t spend a ton of time in each place I decided to look at the entire trip as one experience and find themes throughout all four places. There are no rules, you can do this however you want!
So, in the spirit of this newsletter, I thought I’d do a little trip recap via visual themes. There were three that, by the end of the trip, I was seeing everywhere I turned.
Theme #1: Plaid
It’ll shock no one that this theme jumped out at me pretty early on because I loveee a good plaid. Also, most days I wore a plaid coat, which made for some really good #patternpaletting moments. Plaid showed up by way of carpet, ceramics, cushions and more, but my favorite plaid moment was via a man smoking a cigarette in Milan: he happened to pop out of the doorway to call after someone just as I turned the corner and got the shot.
Theme #2: Lace, ribbons, and trims
It wasn’t a surprise to see so much of this everywhere we looked—these are old, old cities and ribbon and lace motifs are pretty peak Euro. But I had fun looking out for these things, especially since they’re such a trend right now (Sandy Liang, “coquette aesthetic”, the food/ribbon trend, etc.) This was the only theme I have a memento attached to: in Zürich I bought a couple of silk hair ribbons from En Soie.
Theme #3: Pistachio green
Pistachio green was *everywhere*, especially in Milan. Is this the official color of Italy or something? I have about 100 more photos in my camera roll that feature various shades of light green. Second place most-seen colors were butter yellow and French blue. Not pictured: two separate scoops of pistachio gelato.
The point of all of this is to help me connect to and remember what it is that I’m drawn to, and what’s cool about it is that you might walk through these cities and see things completely differently! Sometimes what shows up in my camera roll surprises me, but most often I am reminded of the things that already make up my own inner world. For me, feeling uninspired (or unmotivated, or like I have no good ideas) is a symptom of being disconnected from my personal style, so using these little tricks to connect the dots again can be really helpful.
For anyone looking for a more useful recap, I’ll list the highlights of the trip below. You can save Substack newsletters in the app to refer to later, so keep this one handy if you’re planning a trip to Switzerland or Italy.
En Soie (and the En Soie cafe) in Zürich
Kronenhalle and Kronenhalle Bar in Zürich
Le Corbusier Pavilion in Zürich
Harder Kulm in Interlaken
Spa Necens in Interlaken
Dispensa63 in Bellagio, Lake Como
Grand Hotel et de Milan in Milan
Villa Necchi in Milan
Bice in Milan
Fondazione Prada in Milan
Next week’s Side Order kicks off the holiday season with a gift guide for the early bird shoppers, so tune in if you are, like me, making the Halloween-Christmas transition this week.
x
Ali
In case you missed it:
October’s mood board theme was a closet staple: the button-up shirt.
Paid subscribers received the second-ever monthly Specials, which includes 15 thoughts, things, and more that I’ve collected throughout the month.
My friend Alysia Alex, the director of career and professional development at ArtCenter, dropped in to talk about creative community, why it’s so important, and how to find your own. I heard from a lot of you that you found the resources she included really helpful!
lovelovelove pistachio green
What a great idea! I’ve been doing a similar but yes memorable thing where I take in a view and just sit there, breathe deeply and commit it to memory so that I can pull it out and later comfort myself with it. Also the pistachio green is stunning.