Notes of: A Collector

A mood board inspired by the things we search for

This newsletter is sponsored by West Elm in celebration of their collaboration with Pierce & Ward.

Welcome to Notes Of! Each month I make a mood board as a little creative exercise in thematic thinking. This month’s mood board is inspired by collecting, collectors, collectables… The art of searching for just the right thing, no matter how long it takes.

If I could only use one word to describe my personal style, I think I’d choose “collected.” I play the long game when it comes to my home, my closet, and the things I fill them with—for me, it’s the never-ending quest to discover the perfect thing that makes the process of designing a house or curating a wardrobe (or doing anything creative) fun.

When Pierce & Ward’s collection with West Elm was announced, I practically tripped over myself to peek at what they had made together. I’m such a fan of Louisa Pierce and Emily Ward’s work—I’ve written about it here and here, and about their retail shop in LA here—so no one will be surprised to know that I instantly connected with the concept they described in their launch video. “I think our goal in a home is, in the end, for it to not feel like it’s just been done,” says Ward. “It’s so important to us that things feel collected and undesigned.”

So I decided to make a mood board inspired by that very idea.

There is the idea of collecting, as in the action of seeking or finding something and bringing it back somewhere, but then there’s a collection, like a bunch of things that are grouped because they somehow go together. And collections can be made up of a bunch of the same thing (an egg cup collection, for instance) or items with a common through-line (like an art collection). And then there’s a collection in the fashion label sense of the word: things that, when assorted together, tell a complete story. I’d even argue that mood boarding is a type of collecting—a collecting of images, ideas, or concepts.

I asked the people of the internet what they collect in an attempt to get inspired and I got tons of answers back. Dice! Shells! Tiny spoons! Vintage brass waterfowl! Old cookbooks! Books by and about Sylvia Plath! The list went on and on. I ended up having dozens of conversations with collectors about how they got started, why they keep going, and how deep in the trenches they are with their collections. It was actually really heartwarming, and I learned a lot about the sentimentality of some dear friends and total strangers.

I don’t know that I am dedicated to collecting any one thing, but I definitely consider myself a collector. Someday, when the contents of my home are up for auction à la Joan Didion (I’m assuming I’ll be revered to the point of auctionability when my time comes), I think the sum of all of those objects will paint a picture of who I am, just like Joan’s did. I’ve got some mini collections, for sure—vintage French ribbon, lace tablecloths, restaurant pens—but it’s not like you’ll walk into my spare bedroom to find shelves of Barbies or something else I’d secretly been amassing for years. Instead, you’ll find vintage furniture I couldn’t part with, art I didn’t have wall space for, and objects I picked up along my travels over the years.

I think this is the version of collecting Pierce & Ward do so well. Their shop in LA is a little treasure den of special items—antique oil paintings, fabric tissue box covers, painted candlesticks, a set of 1970s French Brutalist dining chairs, a sofa upholstered in custom fabric, hand blown glassware… It’s clear they didn’t take a stroll down aisle 1 of a trade show to fill their shop with goods. Instead, they slowly and deliberately seek out things that inspire them and then, lucky for us, go on to sell them in a beautiful retail space.

Their collection for West Elm is just the same. You could place a giant order for everything you’d need for your living room (sofa, club chairs, credenza, side tables, and textiles included), and you’d end up with a space that feels like it’s filled with vintage objects you painstakingly searched for over many weekends at the flea market. It’s all beautifully designed, from the table linens to the variety in the wood tones, and it’s such a reflection of their commitment to a home’s personality and individuality. Most of us, I think, might only buy one or two pieces from the assortment, but those one or two pieces will feel right at home amongst our thrifted armchairs, vintage rugs, and handmade bookshelves filled with objects we’ve collected.

So for this mood board I led with the idea of things slowly being brought together over time. From Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s art collection to the mixed fabrics and textures in a single Dries Van Noten look, everything has been collected in one way or another.

A few notes on the theme:

• Speaking of Joan Didion, the Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne archives opened at the New York Public Library last month, and apparently hoards of fans have been flocking to the Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room for Rare Books and Manuscripts to take a peek. It’s not an exhibition where things are on display, but the archive is open to anyone with a NYPL card, so if you’re a Curious Carol and want to dig through boxes of the couple’s photos, postcards, letters, and more, make your way to the third floor. (via Gothamist).

• Another thing Pierce & Ward does really well: shelf styling. Inspirational.

  

• Do you know the story of Sara Berman’s closet? According to The Met, which hosted the exhibition in 2017:

  The meticulously organized, modest closet in which Sara Berman (1920–2004)—an immigrant who traveled from Belarus to Palestine to New York—kept her all-white apparel and accessories both contained her life and revealed it. Inspired by the beauty and meaning of Berman's closet, the artists Maira and Alex Kalman (who are also Berman's daughter and grandson) have recreated the closet and its contents as an art installation.

  This exhibition represents Berman's life from 1982 to 2004, when she lived by herself in a small apartment in Greenwich Village. In her closet Berman lovingly organized her shoes, clothes, linens, beauty products, luggage, and other necessities. Although the clothing is of various tints—including cream, ivory, and ecru—it gives the impression of being all white.

  Watch The New Yorker’s video about the history behind the installation here.

• I would pay money to know what Emily Ward’s and Louisa Pierce’s favorite Etsy search terms are. Loeffler Randall founder

  Jessie Randall
  wrote a piece about her own favorites last week and asked me for a few of mine. You can read that here but only if you promise not to swoop up all the good Swedish pine!

• When I asked the Substack community about the things they collect, À La Carte reader and fellow ephemera enthusiast

  Annie Wilson
  responded, telling me she collected postcards. “It started in college,” she told me. “I went to UC Davis and took Wayne Thiebaud’s painting class. Since it was the ‘90s and we didn’t have image searches the way we do now, he imparted the importance of keeping a notebook/sketchbook and collecting art postcards from museums because they were the best-produced reproductions available. So I started with those and then found stalls of ancient postcards in the Paris flea market and local flea markets, and I just love their quirkiness as well as the history… I have all kinds of them and I used to have more, but [I] gave them away as party favors at an event I did about 20 years ago. My friend is a poet, and she used an old typewriter to write short, individual poems on each of them.” So much to love about this answer!

  

• I’ve recommended Michael Diaz-Griffith’s book The New Antiquarians probably 100 times in this newsletter, but if you’re new here and love collecting antiques, you’re going to want a copy for yourself. Inside you’ll find profiles and home tours of several young collectors including Alex Tieghi-Walker, Camille Okhio, Emily Adams Bode Aujla and Aaron Singh Aujla, and more.

• Oh, you want to know my favorite pieces from the West Elm x Pierce & Ward collection? The bed, for one—mine will be here in about a week. I wish I had a spot for this bench, too. And how cute is this step stool? I snagged one for my kitchen so I can finally reach the upper shelves of my cabinets.

  

Lastly, a question for you: What do you collect???

x

Ali

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Sources: Pierce & Ward x West Elm, 2025; Rome, Steve McCury, 1984; works of Simon Pettet in Dennis Severs’ House, London; bulletin board at the Bode store, Los Angeles; textile collection at Bunny Williams’ design studio, New York; Elsa Perreti’s jewelry collection, Duane Michals for Vogue, 1974; Gauntlets, Hopie Hill, 2024; page from La broderie blanch, Cousine Claire, 1890s; tortoiseshell box from the collection of Robert Adam, early 18th century; Pierce & Ward x West Elm, 2025; Centá for Bisque Bistro, 2024; La Casita del Segoviano, Spain, @totheendsoftheearth via The Shopkeepers; inside Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s studio, André Grossman; German portfolio of embossed monograms from the collection of Jan Tholenaar, via Letterform Archive; detail from Dries Van Noten AW03, Kurt De Wit; Baigné de lumière, Yukiko Noritake, 2025

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